In the News

Author gets Hamden kids thinking about benefits of being quiet

March 3rd, 2013

 HAMDEN — Ramani Durvasula, author, television host and clinical psychologist, asked students Friday morning at Wintergreen Interdistrict Magnet School to do nothing for 60 seconds.The first attempt was aborted after a wave of giggles swept the room full of sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders.The second try was more successful, but a certain, subdued electricity could still be felt. Sitting silently, some with eyes closed, was not something these students did very often.
Which was Durvasula’s point.
“Did that feel like a really long time to be quiet?”
The kids said yes.
“That’s not OK,” Durvasula said. “I want to see you do that for five minutes a day.”
The kids erupted.
“No computer, no TV, no chatting, no noise,” Durvasula said.   “You know why you need to do that? Your brain literally needs that. It gets some rest while you sleep, but it also needs some rest when you’re awake.“Because when you do that, you give yourself a chance to slow down, to make connections.”
Durvasula is co-host of Oxygen Network’s “My Shopping Addiction.” She’s also a professor of psychology at California State University. And now, she’s the author of “You Are WHY You Eat,” a book about making good choices, particularly when it comes to healthful living. “I don’t care what people eat,” Durvasula said. “I care why people eat the way they do.”
Durvasula, who grew up in Cheshire, struggled making proper choices herself.
“It was difficult to grow up as an Indian kid in a largely white community. I often felt kind of like an odd man out,” Durvasula said.
“And I think I sometimes used food as a place to soothe myself when I felt lonely as a kid.” That comfort eating was something she lived with until a family crisis caused her to reassess her life. She said she was at a point where she couldn’t walk up a flight of stairs without getting winded. After losing 85 pounds, she was able to climb Mount Fuji alone and watch the sun rise.
The key according to Durvasula?
Write down a goal, and accomplish one thing, every day, toward the achievement of that objective.
She said this was how she managed to write her book — the culmination of 20 years of thinking, and one year of actual writing.Ingrid Ellinger-Doviak, head of the enrichment program at Wintergreen and a childhood friend of Durvasula, said Durvasula’s presentation tied in well with the school’s writing and health programs. The importance of Durvasula’s presentation cannot be overstated, Ellinger-Doviak said. “I think it’s absolutely the most important thing about education and about learning now, because it makes life real for them,” Ellinger-Doviak said. “Part of our mission statement at Wintergreen Magnet School is to promote lifelong learning.” “And when they see something happen like this, they can say, ‘You know what? Maybe I can be an author. Or maybe I can be on television. Or maybe I can send a message to kids some day.’“So I think those experiences are integral to the learning process. And I don’t think schools do it often enough.”