She’s an advocate for daily ‘mental hygiene’
“Unless kids feel safe and loved, they’re not going to perform to the best of their abilities academically. That’s true for adults as well. We’re not going to perform professionally unless we all feel loved and secure. My personal way of delivering that in the world is by helping people quiet their minds through meditation and finding stress management through breathing techniques.
“A workshop at Lee College called the Happiness Program is where I learned these really powerful yoga breathing techniques. It’s a practice. In the same way that athletes have to condition their body through a regular practice, we condition our mind to be calm and quiet.
“A lot of people think meditation is concentration. But it’s absolutely the opposite. It’s actually relaxation. A byproduct of meditation is that you have more concentration. That’s because your mind is more at peace and you are more still.
“I do my practice every day. We have physical hygiene that we follow daily, like taking a bath, brushing our teeth, combing our hair, wearing clean clothes. In the same way, we should also have mental hygiene. But somewhere along the way, we’ve left that behind.
“Doing my own breathing meditation practice helps get me through the day. It doesn’t mean that my day isn’t difficult or that stresses don’t come to me. But when it does happen, I’m able to handle it from a different space. If I would have been upset for a longer amount of time, that feeling just comes and goes more quickly.
“It’s a practice, and it takes commitment. I spend about 20 minutes a day on it. We dedicate so much of our time to work, driving, relationships, watching Netflix, and this and that. But you can’t pour from an empty cup. Those 20 minutes a day allow me to be full and to be able to pour back to others.”
— Marisol Mendez
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