Fifteen Minutes: Mental

Think of it as mental pre-season. The "Mind/Body Training to Maximize Your Potential" seminar (Mind/Body Medical Institute, 75 Mt. Auburn St.; 496-9005 or email mindbody@uhs.harvard.edu; intro sessions Oct. 5, 6, or 7, 7:30 to 8:30 p.m.; classes Tuesday Oct. 12 to Nov. 16 7:30 to 8:30 p.m.; Wednesday Oct.13-Nov. 17 8:30 to 9:30 p.m.; Thursday Oct. 14 to Nov. 18 7:30 to 8:30 p.m.) features strategies to increase resiliency to the toughest class and the smelliest blockmate. Even better, $25 dollars is plopped in your Crimson Cash as a reward.

If any kind of forum/class/seminar inhibits your ability to relax, cultural diversions are the solution. Students, their IDs, and five bucks meet chamber music and a flower-filled courtyard at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (The Fenway, Boston; 566-1401; T or No. 39 bus: Museum of Fine Arts; Thursday, Friday and Sunday afternoons and evenings; lectures, gallery and garden tours and jazz series are also offered; museum open Tuesday to Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.). Pretentious, yes, but these soundscapes will soothe the mind, especially since there is no final exam.

Focusing on me, me, me, meditation is mental health's answer to a personal trainer. Open Mind Meditation's (UHS, 75 Mt. Auburn St., 2E; 495-9629; Oct. 5 to 19; free) variety of visualization, concentration and relaxation techniques conquer spastic daily routines on the way to inner peace and fulfillment. Classes are suitable for beginners.

Mediation and levitation may not be for everyone. But if you still must stop the madness, the Bureau of Study Council's Stress Management workshop (5 Linden St.; 495-2581; beginning in November, six FREE weekly meetings; Friday 2:30p.m. to 4 p.m.) offers a practical review of personal reactions to stress, identification of lifestyle and behavior causing emotional turmoil. The catch: group therapy means a roomful of new best friends.

Also in a supportive group context, Speaking Up in Class (Bureau of Study Council, 5 Linden St.; 495-2581; Tuesday noon to 1:30 p.m., starts October 19) provides learning strategies for women who are sick of remaining silent in the midst of aggressive (male) classmates. Through discussion and exercises, the focus is on increasing self-confidence and managing anxiety in academic settings.

For the other half, the Men Talk forum (Bureau of Study Council, 5 Linden St.; 495-2581 or 495-2042; Friday 2:45-4:15 p.m., starts mid-October) features a man-to-woman interface. Women therapists offer perspectives while men can share feelings about love, work, power, sex and health.

Getting out of Harvard will drain the stress out of anyone. Day and night jaunts to Olmstead's stunning Arnold Arboretum, 265 acres of landscaped beauty with a sweeping view of Boston; a hike through the nine parks of the renowned Emerald Necklace; and a "Waterways Boston Tour" through Jamaica Pond, the Back Bay Fens and downtown secret garden. Perhaps the most notorious, the Freedom Trail leads through Boston's bastions of revolutionary fervor and architectural masterpieces-it's a history lesson in and of itself (Boston Park Rangers, 1010 Mass. Ave.; 635-7383; tours leave from various sites in the city and a schedule is available at the information center in the Boston Common; T: Park St.; from July through November, a free 90-minute tour of the Freedom Trail leaves from the Visitor Center on Saturday at 10:30 a.m.).

Walk your way out of the Bureau of Study Council, far away from Harvard, and educate yourself in architectural heritage-Boston by Foot (77 N. Washington St.; 367-3766; Monday to Saturday 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m.-2 p.m., tours run through October 31st rain or shine; $8; 90 minutes). Seven guided walks, covering the Freedom Trail, Back Bay Mansions, the Waterfront, Beacon Hill, the Italian North End, and "Boston Underground" (a tour of 19th-century crypts and engineering feats; read: The Big Dig).

Maybe mental self-improvement is exactly what it implies: academic success. Rather than spend an entire semester battling an uninspiring, impossible course, pick the brain of your genius peers and get them to help you out. To find a tutor in a particular subject, the Bureau of Study Council provides super-smart undergraduate students (495-2581; $4 per hour; term-billable).

On the opposite side of the spectrum, students repeatedly acing orgo and impressing their core TF's with astute comments and published papers, should impart some of that knowledge to their lesser-blessed friends. Orientation for "On-Call" Peer tutors begins in the fall including: "Program I Award Peer Tutors" with a commitment of 45 hrs. per year (usually chemistry, economics, math, and physics) and make $700 per year; "Program II On-Call Tutors" tutor in a wide variety of courses and amount of work they do depends upon availability, $12 per hour; "Program III ESL Tutors" work on language skills primarily with graduate students for whom English is their second language, commit to a minimum of 40 hours per year and profit $600 per year.

Tutor yourself in cultural understanding at the Boston Public Library (700 Boylston St.; T: Copley; 536-5400). Along with books, the library offers lectures, conferences, film and video programs, prose and poetry, concerts, dr a.m.a, art and architecture tours and forums. "Alfred Hitchcock: The a.m.erican Thrillers" Film Series, Mondays at 6 p.m. in the Rabb Lecture Hall (ext. 319).

Tutoring or not, mental improvement (or at least a happy outlook in life) can always be found with a laugh. Boston is full of cheesy comedy acts and sketchy nightclubs, but the most famous comedy club is in Faneuil Hall at the Comedy Connection (245 Quincy Market Bldg.; T: Gov't Center; 248-9700; Monday to Wednesday 8 p.m., Thursday 8:30 p.m., Friday to Saturday 8 p.m. and 10:15 p.m.; $10; 18+). National acts and Saturday Night Live characters abound at this touristy locale, but the raunchy R-rated Hypnotist (Thursday 8:30 p.m.) is the guy that keeps drawing in the crowd. If Harvard seems a little stressful, watching your female roommate be convinced she's grown a 17 inch penis while your boyfriend thinks he's lost his can always be mildly entertaining.