Get Your Zen On:

A Conversation with Sarah Dunning

by Kate Devlin

When Sarah Dunning first arrived in Athens, she planned on staying for a year. In the 15 since, Dunning has played the parts of PhD student, gourmet chef, and yoga instructor. Now a tried-and-true townie, Dunning shares her newest love with the local community: mindfulness training.

Ampersand talked to Dunning about physics, hot chocolate, her upcoming workshops and how we can all calm the heck down.

&: You have two workshops planned for February: “Get your zen on” and “Create a life you love.” Talk to me a little bit about what the purpose is behind each of those workshops and how they’re different.

SD: “Get your zen on” is really a series of show up and do some yoga with me. I find that sometimes for some people the best way to calm down is to just have a physical practice. Our exercise programs can take a bit of a dive when it’s 20 Fahrenheit outside. The idea with that is just consistency, showing up and doing whatever amount you can.

The other one is really different. “Create a life you love” is a four week series of workshops and each week there’s a different focus. It’s mindfulness but there’s no yoga, explicitly. So if you are the person who says, you know I don’t want to put my foot behind my head — which I can’t do anyways — but you just want to get a little clarity.

We have four different themes, one per week. I have a background as a chef, so I make a different sipping chocolate each week to greet you with. We use that as a mindfulness practice to begin. All you do is hold a warm cup of rich chocolate and quietly sip on it to come back into your body and come back into the present moment.

Two different ways to get to the same place — finding contentment and being at peace with yourself.

&: So why did you want to incorporate the recipes and the hot chocolate? Where did that come from?

SD: It’s winter time and it’s cold and I actually think a little bit of nurturing and pampering is a nice way to settle in with yourself. That’s actually a long tradition in meditation — monks will often sip green tea to help them stay awake and keep the body warm and hydrated. I figured hot chocolate might be a nice way to go. Maybe a little hedonism with your zen.

&: Ultimately, what is it that you would like your students to leave the workshop with? What is it that you would like someone to achieve?

SD: It’s really nice to just check in with yourself. It’s not about about necessarily changing anything, it’s about taking stock noticing what your tendencies are. I think you need to give yourself permission to start looking, and a lot of insights can come from that.

There’s no expectation of what you should get. At the very least, just come have some hot chocolate. Learn how to ask the questions that you may not be ready to answer yet. But it might plant the seed of an idea, and when you are ready, you’ll know and you’ll take that next step.

&: Mindfulness has kind of sort of become a buzzword recently. What is your personal definition of mindfulness?

SD: Paying attention. Really noticing what comes up. For me, it’s noticing the dialogue I have constantly going on in my head. We have a strong tendency to compare ourselves to other people. We’re very social characters, so it’s very natural. Sometimes those internal dialogues are so automatic we don’t realize we’re beating ourselves up.

To me, mindfulness is beginning to notice what that little compilation is and not taking it so seriously, not reacting to it.

&: I have attempted to practice mindfulness training, so I understand how difficult it can be just to be still. What would be your best advice for beginners?

SD: I love the analogy of mindfulness being a muscle that you’ve got to exercise. When you think about how we weight train — we take a piece of iron and lift it up and lower it down. If we do that repeatedly, that muscle grows. The first time you try to lift dumbbells you go, oh, that’s heavy.

I think mindfulness is like that. You’re asking your mind to do one thing. It’s actually very good for your brain to ask it to do one thing. It’s incredibly good for your focus and concentration. It’s good for your ability to calm your nervous system. It’s great for your relationships. It’s good for your sleep patterns. We know it’s really good for us.

My advice is to just start literally watching your breath. Just do five minutes. Count your breath and when you lose count, catch yourself and go back to it. It’s a skill that you find on some days will be easier and some days will be harder. It’s the act of doing that that is so good for you.

&: You might be one of the few yoga teachers I’ve ever heard of that has a PhD in physics.

SD: The truth comes out. I’m very qualified.

&: How do you find these two things intersect?

SD: Sometimes you do something because you just need it. I found doing physics wonderful and challenging, but it was also quite stressful and feelings of inadequacies would come up. Mindfulness practice really helped me not get carried away with that chatter we talked about, connect with the task at hand and focus. So I love that it actually was useful for me as I was wrapping up my PhD.

&: You’re originally from New Zealand. How did you end up in Athens and what keeps you coming back?

SD: I ended up in Athens about 15 years ago. I came here on a scholarship. I was only meant to be here one year, but I stayed. I’ve got two degrees from UGA and I’ve lived here longer that most people. I feel like I’ve been here long enough to reminisce about what store used to be in which corner of downtown.

It’s a great place. There’s a real freedom there to find you who you want to be. Being in a college town, there’s a lot of people finding themselves at any age. I find that really encouraging. There’s always something new going on in your life or something new to be found that you didn’t see in yourself, and the Athens community it really supportive of that.

&: You wrote that mindfulness begins with “calming the heck down.” What does that mean to you?

SD: It’s really just finding the relaxation response. I think we have a lot of self-dialogue about being good enough. There’s a lot of images around us in society that just encourage us to strive for more or buy this thing to be happy. Beginning to know that you can just sit down and follow your breath and just be there is a really good tool. If we don’t calm the heck down, it’s really hard to be receptive to the next step. &

[This interview transcription has been edited for length and clarity.]