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Reflect, Relax, Renew at WPL

By Julia Beauregard
Hometown Weekly Editor

The Westwood Public Library (WPL) has embraced the theme of wellness during the winter time in the month of January. Recently, they hosted a Wellness Practice and Seminar entitled, “Reflect, Relax, and Renew 2025.”

The program was led by Jane Singh, a certified health coach and meditation guide. According to Singh, this workshop was all about “minding your mind,” by noticing your inner world so you are able to create space and calm. Singh shared the importance of examining the thoughts in our own minds, as a lot of the time we create our own turmoil. She shared that humans have between 60k and 80k thoughts per day and “most of them are the same thoughts we had yesterday.” Calling into question: how to we clear the clutter?

The presenter taught three tools for workshop attendees to take home with them to help them “mind their minds” and clear out the mental clutter. The first took was the importance of breathing, as it is a tool we have used our entire lives. “A breathe is one of the best things you can use to reset” Singh shared. She went onto share the importance of deep breathing exercises, as they help slow down the mind and create space needed to deal with anxiety and overwhelm. “If you practice it, even a couple of times a day, when you’re really in need of it, you’ll call on it… our mind craves what we’re constantly feeding it.” She urged the crowd to practice deep breathing in transitional moments to help create the habit of using this practice so it will be more readily available during difficult moments.

The next tool attendees learned was the "S.O.S." technique. Singh explained that S.O.S. is a method for saving ourselves in difficult moments by: S - stopping and pausing, O - observing, and S - shifting our thoughts. This approach encourages us to pause and create space, observe the situation, and then decide whether to stay with the challenging thought or shift our focus to something else. This is a key in removing the mental clutter that causes turmoil.

The final tool was to create awareness of our own thoughts through connecting with our physical bodies through tapping. She guided the crowd through an experiment to see how everyone feels saying negative things about themselves versus how they feel stating positive things about themselves to display how much our thoughts and words matter. She suggests observing our thoughts to see how we are feeling about ourselves and using positive affirmations so you can become “your own biggest cheerleader,” because “you can’t wait for someone else to bring you up.” When stating these affirmations, she suggested tapping your fingers together or making eye contact in the mirror to connect these words with our physical bodies; this is a means of grounding ones self.

These tools create an important framework for helping people harness control of their thoughts and the power they hold. For more information on programs such as these, please visit: www.westwoodlibrary.org

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