Constable: After meditation, COD homework project becomes tool for living

The instructor used to write for TV. His College of DuPage class has all the makings of a sitcom. Five students — three women, two men, ages 19 to 23, covering key ethnic demographics — walk into their mass communications class as strangers. Assistant professor Sandy Fries randomly assigns them to a team, gives them the project of selling the world on the idea of meditation, and hilarity ensues.

“At first, we're like, ‘Are you kidding? How do you sell meditation?'” says Caroline Smith, 21, of Lisle.

These students are busy. And savvy. And the weather is finally decent. They probably know how to phone it in, meet the class requirements and maybe even bluff their way to a B.

“Meditation? Oh, OK, Hippies and blah, blah, blah,” says Camilla Svensson, 23, of Aurora, who learned perfect American sarcasm while growing up in Sweden.

And then a funny thing happened on the way to sitcom gold.

“It's really about your inner peace. You calm down and let everything go,” Svensson says.

“I did a seven-day detox,” says Brandon Barnes, 19, from Bolingbrook, who gave up Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and all his social media addictions. While that's a nice plot device, he actually learned something.

“I didn't know what to do to replace social media, but meditation helped,” Barnes says.

What started with the potential to be nothing more than #Homework, with students required to create a TV commercial, an online presence, print ads and a public-relations campaign, turned into a #LifeHack.

“The students weren't only selling meditation. They were practicing it, and they loved it,” says Fries, who, before he became a professor, wrote advertising copy for products such as Gallo wines and Armour Hot Dogs, wrote scripts for a variety of TV shows, and was a staff writer for Star Trek's “Next Generation” and video games such as “Starfleet Academy.”

The student group researched studies from Harvard University and elsewhere showing that meditation can ease depression and stress while raising compassion, self-image and memory.

“Afterward, it really stuck,” says Edgar Guzman, 21, of Bartlett, who adds his meditation experience has made him more organized and a better sleeper. “For me, it's huge.”

The world dishes out plane crashes, shootings, racial strife, riots and even turmoil and scandal at the College of DuPage, but these team members say meditation remains part of their lives and helps them cope.

“I've done yoga,” says Paola Cossyleon, 20, of Glendale Heights.

“Now I can incorporate meditation into my yoga.”

Their Instagram.com/YourWorldPeace page, featuring photographs of themselves, old folks, Homer Simpson and others meditating, often in untraditional ways and interesting places, has picked up more than 1,200 followers in three weeks.

“We've been following a lot of yoga pages,” Smith says, adding that they plan to offer a $100 prize for the best meditation photo submitted to their Instagram site.

Before YourWorldPeace, their original meditation slogan was, “Don't self-medicate, meditate,” Cossyleon says, explaining how they meant that meditation could bring comfort to people who might otherwise turn to alcohol, drugs, junk food, time-wasting social media or some other emotional crutch. But some people misunderstood that message, “and it was too long for a hashtag,” Cossyleon says.

They all talk about meditation helping them “filter out all the distractions.” They'll meditate before breakfast or the last minutes before bed, before homework or while stuck in suburban traffic.

“I find it to be a big stress reliever,” Barnes says.

Their generation is known for keeping eyes on a screen while their thumbs text and wires hang from buds in their ears.

Cossyleon says she had come to feel “we need music or the beeping of our phones,” but meditation led her to a discovery.

“Oh, silence is pretty nice,” she says.

Instead of falling into the stereotyped sitcom character dimensions with a bossy leader, wiseacre, eye candy, sweet one and comic-relief slacker, the five worked together as a true team.

“I love that about us,” Guzman says.

Perhaps, meditation deserves some of that credit.

“I have more energy to be kinder, to give more of myself to others,” Smith says, who notes the students want to break the stereotype about meditation.

“Mine isn't really sitting cross-legged saying the same word over and over. Meditation can be kayaking or canoeing in nature,” Smith says serenely before catching herself. “I feel like such a hippie right now.”

Not that there is anything wrong with that. Whether it earns them an A in one class, or becomes a tool they use throughout their lives, meditation has proved transcendental for these former strangers.

“I think meditation is very powerful,” Barnes says, “because it brought five students together.”