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If you practice mindfulness meditation, you probably know that it can lower your stress level, reduce anxiety, and improve low moods. You might also be aware of its health-improving properties. According to the National Institutes of Health, mindfulness meditation may be able to reduce your blood pressure, help you cope with chronic pain, and even make it easier to fall asleep at night. But did you also know that by meditating, you’re also developing cognitive skills that can enhance the benefits of psychotherapy?

When you meditate — and by “meditate” I’m referring to mindfulness meditation, with no disrespect intended toward other forms of meditation — you probably focus on an ongoing, present stimulus such as your breathing. You might choose some other consistent sound in your environment, like street noise, wind through tree branches, or even the hum of an air conditioner. hat these stimuli have in common is that their presence continues from the immediate past into the present moment, and can help you draw your attention to the now. No matter what has distracted you, when you’re meditating and you catch your attention drifting away, you can always return to that ongoing, current stimulus because it’s always there to come back to.

And when you redirect your attention this way, you’ve probably learned to do it nonjudgmentally, with no particular frustration or sense of burden. No matter how many times you get distracted — no matter how often you need to bring your attention back to the present — you’ll need to do it without punishing yourself. This is part of the job of meditation: choosing not to be frustrated with minor diversions, but just catching your thoughts if they’ve wandered, and bringing them back to your focal point once again.

Learning to do this can take patience. It also requires the ability to stand back from your own thoughts and feelings, lest they overcome your intentions and sweep you away from your meditative focus. Perhaps the best analogy might be sitting on the bank of a river as boats and other objects float by. You’re not in the river; you’re watching it flow, just as you can watch your thoughts and feelings drift into, and then out of, your awareness. You know, even as you notice these items coming into view, that the river will soon carry them away again, and that you don’t need to take action at this moment. This sense of distance from your thoughts and feelings, no matter how strong they are, can help you avoid being swept up in the current of emotion caused by a passion or a frustration, or distracted by the thought of a pressing problem. When you notice that your meditative state has been disrupted by one of these ostensibly urgent thoughts or feelings, you simply recognize it and let it float away, down the river.

These skills and abilities — the ability to stay present, to gain distance on your thoughts and feelings, and to correct yourself non-judgmentally — can also accelerate the benefits of psychotherapy. For example, in therapy you may be confronted with difficult memories, turbulent feelings, or perspectives that challenge your outlook. You may be told you’re struggling with chronic, intrusive thoughts or critical self-judgments — possibly the introjected relics of a significant relationship in your past. You might even come to realize that you are contributing more to your own problems than you’ve previously understood. Challenging moments like this can be hard to accept, and difficult to comfortably sit through. But if you’ve developed your ability to stay present, and to tolerate the stimuli that intrude upon the present moment, you may be better at hearing your therapist’s interpretations without rejecting them. This meditation-therapy connection was identified in a 2007 study by Daniel Siegel, who found that the self-observation developed in meditation could change the brain, loosening the connections established by prior learning and allowing new input — that of the present moment — to be integrated in a new way. In other words, as Siegel sees it, being present gives you new tools to understand yourself and helps you to unlearn your prior, potentially mistaken assumptions.

Similarly, meditation skills can help you cope with the intrusive comments or interruptions posed in therapy by a person other than your therapist: yourself. People who habitually criticize themselves can have trouble hearing alternative interpretations, or thinking about themselves in ways other than the harsh ones they’ve learned. Now consider how much easier it might be to cope with this kind of regular self-criticism if you’ve developed the ability to gain distance on your own thoughts, as you do when you meditate. You’ll have learned to view these habitual, critical “voices” as something separate from yourself, and you’d be better able to protect your own self-esteem by recognizing the intruding thoughts as alien and unwanted, and responding to them in an appropriate, nonjudgmental way. In a 2012 article, Davis & Hayes referred to this process as “metacognitive awareness,” and linked it to improvements in emotion regulation and reductions in perseveration cognition. These changes, Davis & Hayes concluded, can help you build better emotion regulation skills.

I’ve often heard it said that there are three main goals of psychotherapy: to develop insights into yourself, to accept what you learn, and to regulate the emotions that you feel in response. If that’s true, then the skill-building inherent in regular mindfulness meditation practice can help your therapy succeed in all three ways.

To find a therapist, visit the Psychology Today Therapy Directory.

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This article first appeared in The House of Wellness magazine.

Just in time for spring, Jase Te Patu is going through a period of renewal.

The 49-year-old wellbeing advocate just taught his last class at Awhi Yoga, the Wellington studio he co-founded in 2014 and recently sold, and is now ready to pour all of his energy into the mindfulness programme he developed five years ago. Recently rebranded from M3 to Hauora Aotearoa, it teaches students wellbeing tools, using the power of movement and Māori pūrākau (legends) and whakataukī (proverbs). Originally just for students, the workshops have evolved to include kaiako (teachers) and the wider whānau.

“There’s such a wellbeing crisis,” says Jase, who is Ngāti Apa, Ngāti Ruanui and Ngāti Tūwharetoa. “Our teachers are really suffering. If they’re not good, then the students are going to be a reflection of that.”

In the last five weeks of the 15-week programme, the rangatahi pass the skills they have learned onto children at primary schools, kindergartens and kōhanga reo. “Our whole kaupapa is about creating generational change,” Jase says.

Hauora, the Māori concept of health and wellbeing, was developed by professor and leading Māori health advocate Tā (Sir) Mason Durie, and Jase has been given his blessing to use the name and framework Sir Mason devised. The framework, te whare tapa whā, envisions health and wellbeing as a wharenui with four walls, each representing a facet of wellness: wairua (spiritual), hinengaro (mental and emotional), tinana (physical) and whānau (family and social).

This evolution away from the physical practice of yoga is the latest step in Jase’s dynamic career. Formerly a Les Mills trainer, a dancer and a performer in musicals such as The Lion King, Jase discovered yoga after an injury left him unable to dance. He’s also a well-regarded speaker, who has shared his mental health journey with the likes of director James Cameron, the All Blacks and the Silver Ferns.

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Each morning, Jase journals in te reo, as part of his commitment to his ongoing education at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa.

Now, after a couple of episodes of burnout, he’s making sure to put his own wellbeing first. He’s learning to say no – “if the kaupapa doesn’t align with my values, then it’s a hard no for me” – and prioritising rest and his morning routine of karakia, journalling, gratitude and meditation.”If I can have my cup full – and not just full but overflowing – then the mahi that I do will come from that place and it will be authentic and it’ll be real.”

Each morning, Jase journals in te reo, as part of his commitment to his ongoing education at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa. He’s also passionate about bringing Māori language into his speaking engagements and his work at Hauora Aotearoa, and he was one of the faces of Mental Health Awareness Week in September.

“Like anyone who lived not close to their marae – urban Māori – I didn’t have te reo growing up, so I’ve spent my whole adulthood reclaiming it,” he explains.

He credits reclaiming his heritage with helping his recovery – he’s been sober for six and a half years – and with rediscovering himself. “A lot of my life was about living up to people’s expectations and not really being comfortable in my skin, because I didn’t know where I was from or to whom I belonged. But through my journey of te reo, I’m more comfortable in my skin, more settled in who I am, proud of my culture.”

Jase has recently navigated the grief of losing his parents. “I know that they’re always with me in wairua. I feel them with me when I have big things.” Having also lost his younger brother in 2018, he’s even more passionate now about prioritising mental and physical health. “I want to be a walking, talking example of wellness for people.”

In August, he married his partner, chef Ali Bahmad, in Honolulu. “He’s my wellbeing,” Jase says. “He’s the person who grounds me. He’s the person who keeps me accountable.” In the next five years, the couple hope to move from their Wellington city-fringe property to a lifestyle block, where their chickens and cats can be joined by sheep and cows, and Bahmad’s gardening skills can be put to greater use.

For now, Jase is focusing on the little things: weekly dates with his new husband, regular walks up Wellington’s Mt Kaukau, and chasing the sun – and his cats – around the house.

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“Nature gives us connection back to ourselves. It gives you an instant rush of dopamine, that feel-good hormone. It recalibrates you, it centres you, it literally grounds you,” says Jase.

Jase’s top-three free mindset refreshers

The sun

I feel an instant recharge when I stand or lie or sit in the sun; it’s like I’m being filled with immediate energy.

Te taiao

Nature gives us connection back to ourselves. It gives you an instant rush of dopamine, that feel-good hormone. It recalibrates you, it centres you, it literally grounds you.

Breaks

If I’m sitting in front of a screen all day, I get up, close my eyes and take three breaths, and then breathe all the way out until all of that air expels. I do that three times. I close my eyes, I feel my feet on the ground. That renews me.

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The Prince and Princes of Wales welcomed Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, to Windsor Castle yesterday to discuss ‘the environment, mental health, and other issues’.

Cook, who took over as the boss of the tech giant in 2011 when its founder Steve Jobs stepped down, posted two photographs from the meeting to X, formerly Twitter, today. 

The businessman, 62, proudly stood beside Prince William and Kate, both 41, in one of the images, with the Princess looking smart in a navy pinstriped £549 Holland Cooper blazer and a cream turtleneck jumper. 

‘It was a true honor to meet with the Prince and Princess of Wales. We had a wonderful and wide-ranging discussion about the environment, mental health, and other issues that mean a great deal to all of us,’ Cook wrote in his post.

William, dressed in a navy suit with a light blue shirt, appeared to be deep in conversation with the CEO in another photo from their meeting. Two bags that appeared to have the Apple logo printed on them were also spotted in the snap.

The Prince and Princes of Wales welcomed Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, to Windsor Castle this week, to discuss mental health initiatives

Cook has long been an advocate for mental health.   

In an interview with Bustle the Apple CEO recognised that ‘mental health is a crisis’ that spares no one: ‘I know that I’m privileged in so many ways, but none of us are as privileged to the point that mental health is not a key factor in life.’

He also told the publication about why the company supported Shine, an inclusive mental health app. 

‘I think mental health is a crisis. And it’s one that has been stigmatized so much. It was for so long that people suffered in silence and in isolation. 

‘[Shine] have done this incredible job, bringing together community and stitching together a number of different things that will make [change] systemic in nature instead of a slogan. So I’m super impressed by what they’re doing and how they got started.’

Cook’s activism regarding mental health began in 2014, after he came out as gay, making him the first openly homosexual CEO on the Fortune 500 list.

Though Tim is ‘very proud’ of his sexual orientation and believes it to be ‘God’s greatest gift’ to him, he came out in light of bullying and abuse, according to CNN.

While the Apple CEO was not at the receiving end of the abuse, he received emails and letters from children who were being ostracized, bullied, and abused for being gay.

Cook (pictured with Prince William), who took over as the boss of the tech giant in 2011 when its founder Steve Jobs stepped down, posted two photographs from the meeting to X, formerly Twitter, today

‘It was a true honor to meet with the Prince and Princess of Wales . We had a wonderful and wide-ranging discussion about the environment, mental health, and other issues that mean a great deal to all of us,’ Cook wrote in his post

Despite considering himself a private person, he decided that by not publicly declaring his sexual identity, he was being ‘selfish’. ‘I needed to do something for them,’ Cook said.

He also wanted to prove to the world that gay individuals can still take on some of the most-respected jobs.

Since 2014, Cook has continued his pledge to help those struggling with mental health problems, and under Cook’s leadership Apple has increased its donations to LGBTQ+ charities around the United States.

Meanwhile, William previously teamed up with Apple Fitness+ to record an episode of Time to Walk in December 2021.

Palace aides said it was William’s idea to take part in the series after hearing previous episodes. Other guests have included country singer Dolly Parton, model Naomi Campbell and boxer Anthony Joshua.

For the episode, Apple made a six-figure donation to three charities chosen by William: Shout in the UK, Crisis Text Line in the US and Lifeline in Australia. 

All offer confidential mental health support helplines. The British charity runs a free text service on 85258.

The series was designed to encourage users of Apple Watches to get outside and walk while listening. At William’s request, his episode was made available for free online to everyone without the need for a subscription.

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This practice can enhance the relationship between parents and their kids.

Sep 29, 2023

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(fizkes / Shutterstock.com)

Parenting has been described as the most fulfilling role a person can have. At the same time, raising kids is not easy. That’s why there is an almost unlimited supply of resources to guide moms and dads along their parenting journey. One of the newer methods that has become quite popular and has received praise from therapists and experts worldwide is called Mindful Parenting.

What is Mindful Parenting

Tantrums happen. They are part of a child’s development, and for parents, they can be one of the most dreaded necessary evils. Surprisingly, moms and dads that have started practicing mindful parenting might actually find that a tantrum can feel like an opportunity and not a threat. This may sound like a fairytale and too good to be true, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be.

Mindful Parenting allows moms and dads to separate their own feelings from what is actually happening. It helps a person to take a step back and focus on the issue at hand instead of being hijacked by their emotions, explains The Gottman Institute, an organization with a research-based approach to relationships. With this novel approach, it is easier to respond consciously and leave the automatic, knee-jerk emotional reactions in the past.

(fizkes / Shutterstock.com)

Why people are choosing to parent mindfully

It’s easy for parents to put their needs aside to keep their kids content, says Yahoo News.  This attitude of self-sacrifice in parenting is even promoted in some circles, but can be quite harmful and lead to resentment. Instead of ignoring our needs and denying the emotions, Mindful Parenting encourages parents to take care of themselves while listening to their inner voice. Parents then become empowered and know the unique value they bring to their relationship with their child. Tuning into one’s emotions is not only encouraged but necessary.
For example, if a child colors on the wall, instead of yelling at them and causing the children to experience shame and anxiety, a parent can calmly remind their child that coloring is for paper and they can clean the mess up together. This way the child’s brain is able to absorb the experience and learn from it, instead of having to use their energy to protect themselves from a parent’s negative response.

(Roman Kosolapov / Shutterstock.com)

Hearing your inner voice

In the example above, a parent is able to be aware of what is coming up for them when they see the child coloring on the wall. Perhaps they feel some anger about their nice wall getting dirty and resentful about having to clean it up. They might also feel some anxiety about not knowing why the child did it to begin with. When a parent allows themselves to be aware of those feelings, they don’t automatically lose their cool as they can now focus on the matter at hand and be more in tune with reality, in other words, be more present.

Interestingly, after going through that process, a parent can then see their child and notice their needs, thoughts and feelings. For example, perhaps the child’s daycare did a wall painting activity that day, and they thought it’s now ok to color on the wall. Or maybe the child wanted to create a piece of art, just like the beautiful framed pieces on their dining room wall. Perhaps they felt lonely and wanted to do something for some extra attention. Whatever the case may be, the child is going through their own life and experiences, just like the parent is. And this realization is the core breakthrough a parent can experience while using this method.

(Zoteva / Shutterstock.com)

The benefits of mindful parenting

Therapists, parenting experts and even pediatricians are raving about this practice, as they have seen firsthand what the benefits of this method to the parent-child relationship can be.
Some benefits of Mindful Parenting include children learning to regulate their emotions by seeing their parents and modeling their behavior. When parents are less reactive and take a pause before responding, children learn to do this as well. Parents also find they become less critical of themselves and of their children and are able to get to know their children better. Ultimately Mindful Parenting helps improve the bond between a parent and their child, explains Healthline, allowing them to form and enjoy a healthy and meaningful relationship.

(Drop of Light / Shutterstock.com)

Is mindful parenting for you?

Parents that are tired of the negative emotional and behavioral patterns that we can sometimes fall into might want to try this approach. Incorporating the Mindful Parenting techniques of emotional regulation will probably take some practice and getting used to, but according to the moms and dads using this method, this might very well be the better way some parents are searching for. 

(airdone / Shutterstock.com)

DEENA HABER,
CONTRIBUTOR

Deena’s diverse hobbies include boxing, writing, social media, and coffee drinking. She is passionate about wellness, mental health and making the world a better place. When she’s not working on her latest project, she’s spending quality time playing with her kids.

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Corrigal is the guiding teacher for the Saskatoon Insight Meditation Community, welcoming experienced meditators and beginners to the practice.

Published Sep 28, 2023  •  Last updated 6 hours ago  •  4 minute read

Jeanne Corrigal is a guiding teacher with Saskatoon’s Insight Meditation community. Photo by Michelle Berg /Saskatoon StarPhoenix

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While the practice of meditation originated far away in places like Thailand, Sri Lanka and Burma, Jeanne Corrigal’s teachings have been planting roots in Saskatoon and beyond for many years.

Corrigal is the guiding teacher for the Saskatoon Insight Meditation Community, a group that welcomes experienced meditators and beginners to the practice and Early Buddhist teachings.

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“Mindfulness and kindness are the two wings of insight meditation, so that we can bring a warm, friendly mindfulness to our experience, and that is transformative,” Corrigal says.

Jeanne Corrigal, a guiding teacher with the Saskatoon Insight Meditation community, in her back yard in Saskatoon, Sask. on Sept. 11, 2023. Photo by Michelle Berg /Saskatoon StarPhoenix

It all started for her in 1999, when she attended a weekend meditation retreat in Saskatoon. Later, she did more than 10 years of formal study in the United States to begin teaching meditation.

“I always wanted to teach back here in Saskatoon so that people here in my home could benefit,” Corrigal says.

The insight meditation community has regular sittings on Wednesday evenings, a hybrid class that Corrigal teaches. Everyone is welcome, whether it’s their first time meditating or they’re looking for a “deeper dive.”

The classes are by donation, which allows people who have more means to offer more, and those with fewer means to participate fully.

Carol Kavanagh giggles when she recalls meeting Corrigal nearly 20 years ago, at a meditation retreat in the early 2000s. Their early chats would later turn into a wonderful friendship centred by meditation.

When Jeanne told her she wanted to start teaching meditation, she replied, “Well absolutely you should — why wouldn’t you?” Kavanagh recalls.

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She and her husband Bob have attended Corrigal’s sittings ever since.

Jeanne Corrigal did more than 10 years of formal study in the United States to begin teaching meditation. Photo taken in Saskatoon on Sept. 11, 2023. Photo by Michelle Berg /Saskatoon StarPhoenix

“This is a hidden nugget in our Saskatchewan community; the teachings that Jeanne presents are sensible and effective (at) getting most of us through the difficult times we live in,” Bob Kavanagh says.

Corrigal is Métis and applies an Indigenous lens to her teachings as well.

“Having grown up with my parents, and with Jim Settees’s teachings on connection to the land, connection to nature, our interconnection as all people, and being relatives with all beings, when I met the Buddhist teachings, I felt there was a lot of interconnection. Now, I teach from that sense of interconnection of those two traditions,” Corrigal says.

Settee, an Elder, was the subject of Corrigal’s film, Jim Settee: The Way Home, for the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN).

“A desperate rescue team calls Jim Settee after an unsuccessful 3 day search for a lost boy,” the film’s synopsis reads. “Fifty years later, the filmmaker’s own search for what happened on that day leads her into our universal quest for home, and her own personal homecoming. This is the story of Jim’s remarkable life, a story of transformation for those he touched, and a map for all people on our journeys ‘home.’ ”

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Corrigal toured the film in more than 350 schools across Saskatchewan and Manitoba with the Sask Arts Board.

“(I got to) talk with over 35,000 students about this heart teaching of kindness and presence in the world, and how that can be a way of being,” Corrigal says.

The film will be available online soon, along with stories she shared in schools. It will also be featured in the Gabriel Dumont Institute’s virtual museum.

This was Corrigal’s second film. Her first, Near to Nature’s Heart: Women of Waskesiu, explored the lives of eight First Nations, Métis and Euro-Canadian women who made their homes in Prince Albert National Park.

Corrigal says she grew up in a mostly white community of people who did not have an understanding of the history of women, First Nations, or Métis people who had lived at Waskesiu for thousands of years.

“That was the beginning of really wanting to change that, and it also allowed me a way of expressing this deep teaching that we’re different, and yet can cooperate and share this earth together,” she adds.

This togetherness is implemented in Corrigal’s welcoming meditations.

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“When we talk about ‘open to everyone,’ we really want to welcome all communities — LGBTQ+ communities, Métis and First Nation communities, people of colour — we want to welcome everyone,” she says.

This inclusivity is a core foundational part of the teachings, says Carol Johner, who has been attending the Wednesday night meditations for more than a decade.

“The teachings of connection, respect, openness, inclusivity, deep listening and care — those are not just Jeanne, that is the heart and foundation of our practice,” Johner says.

Through the courses offered, and speaking of difficult topics during meditation, Corrigal makes connections to current affairs, Carol Kavanagh says.

“She doesn’t skirt around issues — she deals with them head-on. Last night at meditation, she spoke about the smoke (of the wildfires) … Of course it brings up all kinds of fear, in addition to the physical discomfort. But she just dealt with that last night like we do.”

The spaces and teachings Corrigal offers in Saskatoon make a difference in the lives of those who participate.

“It has helped me embrace a way of living and loving in that world that brings me such peace and joy that had been elusive for all my 66 years,” Johner says.

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This year, Harvard University inaugurated the Thich Nhat Hanh Center for Mindfulness in Public Health with a $25 million budget and a mission to pursue, among other objectives, “evidence-based approaches to improve health and well-being through mindfulness.”

The announcement was a milestone. A generation ago, it would have been virtually impossible to imagine one of the world’s leading universities launching a scientific institute with a major endowment focused on a set of contemplative practices for “paying conscious nonjudgmental attention to the present moment.”

Yet times have changed. Over recent decades, thousands of peer-reviewed studies have demonstrated the potential of mindfulness meditation to address diverse elements of mental, physical, and social health—from chronic pain to immune system function to anxiety to memory. Mindfulness has made a remarkable journey from monasteries and the countercultural vanguard to corporate boardrooms, the ivory tower, and other centers of power.

This is good news. Mindfulness is now increasingly accessible to people across demographic groups, including through its integration into healthcare, schools, prisons, and other institutions.

Yet the ascent of “evidence-based approaches” to mindfulness comes with tradeoffs.

The success of academic research on mindfulness can contribute to a perception that mindfulness meditation is an individual mental health intervention or a personal wellness tool that can be practiced independently of other people.

Mindfulness is more than that. For thousands of years, it’s been a pathway to shared belonging. As the pioneering American meditation teacher Jack Kornfield has put it, mindfulness is “a practice that enhances our sense of connection to ourselves and others.”

The late Thich Nhat Hanh—the namesake of the new Harvard center—was a legendary Vietnamese Zen master, a prolific author, and a peace activist who held the esteem of luminaries, including Martin Luther King Jr. While he spent much of his life in meditation—studying patterns of thought and centering his attention in the present—he rejected the idea of mindfulness as a purely solitary pursuit. It was, for him, about connection and even social action.

Thich Nhat Hanh named the Zen community that he founded “The Order of Interbeing.” He described this term, “interbeing,” as the insight that a human being can exist only in relationship to other people and nature. Our survival depends on others.

Meaning depends on connection. As he emphasized in his interpretations of ancient teachings, the goal of mindfulness isn’t just to reduce stress or improve our health outcomes, but to glimpse this reality of our interdependence—and then to act on it.

Thich Nhat Hanh emphasized the importance of “socially engaged” mindfulness: joining with other people to practice meditation, build strong ethical communities, and address social and ecological injustices. He described how the practice of mindfulness—of slowing down, of connecting to the breath, of noticing our thoughts and emotions—can dismantle the habitual patterns of thought that keep us locked in a sense of separation.

The idea of interbeing isn’t exclusive to Buddhist philosophy. The Nguni Bantu traditions of Southern Africa have a word—ubuntu—that the Liberian peace activist and Nobel laureate Leymah Gbowee translates as: “I am what I am because of who we all are.”

The late theologian and anti-apartheid leader Archbishop Desmond Tutu defined the full phrase in Zulu, umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu, as meaning: “A person is a person through other people.”

These ideas of interbeing and ubuntu get to the essence of what I’ve come to call belonging. As I describe in my recent book, belonging means connectedness not only to other people in the community but also to nature as well as to a sense of agency and shared meaning. Belonging—like interbeing or ubuntu—is a state of profound well-being that arises from our participation in the greater whole.

This is an essential message for the times in which we’re living. The U.S. Surgeon General just declared an “epidemic of loneliness and isolation.” Feelings of alienation from the earth, as well as political and economic decision-making, are driving crises from climate change to biodiversity loss to violent extremism on a global basis.

Mindfulness Essential Reads

So, how can we practice mindfulness as a path to belonging? Here are some simple ideas for overcoming modern isolation:

1. Meditate in Community: Just the word meditation evokes images of sitting alone on distant mountaintops, immersed in the currents of one’s mind. Yet people have been meditating together since time immemorial. In an age when participation in religious rituals has declined—and human interaction is increasingly mediated by online algorithms—practicing mindfulness meditation in person with friends, loved ones, or in groups is a valuable way to cultivate meaning with other people. The practice of mindfulness meditation—which can help practitioners become aware of their biases, improve communication, and make more conscious decisions—can be a path to building more harmonious and equitable communities.

2. Lovingkindness: The practice of Metta (a Sanskrit word often translated as “lovingkindness”) centers on cultivating feelings of goodwill toward all people—including those to whom you typically feel warmth, neutrality, or even aversion. In these times, we need to employ as many strategies as possible to overcome the dynamics of othering. A growing body of research shows that this practice can rewire the nervous system to heighten both compassion and positive emotions.

3. Feel the Earth: Mindfulness isn’t only about stillness. Thich Nhat Hanh taught the practice of meditating by walking consciously on the earth, feeling each footstep, and practicing gratitude for nature and place. He taught his students to “walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.”

4. Contemplate Interbeing: Thich Nhat Hanh taught how to bring mindfulness into everyday life by going more deeply into ordinary experiences. For example, drinking a cup of tea in the morning can be a practice. You might take a few minutes to sit and taste the flavor of the tea with as much presence as possible.

Imagine the tea leaves growing, and think of all the sunlight, rain, and soil that made their growth happen. Imagine all the labor that went into harvesting and packaging the tea. This is a simple way to contemplate our interdependence and cultivate gratitude for the web of life.

The idea of mindfulness meditation as a path toward shared belonging can be counterintuitive. Yet, these mindfulness practices demonstrate how we can train ourselves for greater connection.

In the 1960s, in another era of unrest and upheaval, Thich Nhat Hanh formed a close friendship with the writer and Trappist monk Thomas Merton, with whom he shared a vision for how contemplative practice could heal crises both personal and global.

The two participated in a longstanding dialogue on Buddhism and Christianity as well as a partnership in opposing the Vietnam War. During this period, Merton described a paradox that’s increasingly relevant to questions of introspection and community life today: “We cannot find ourselves within ourselves, but only in others,” he wrote. “Yet, at the same time, before we can go out to others, we must first find ourselves.”

Merton’s reflection underscores why it’s so valuable that mindfulness has reached the mainstream. As “evidence-based approaches” to mindfulness demonstrate real and tangible benefits, more people are engaging in contemplative practices that can help us “find ourselves.” Still, it’s important to keep sight of the fact that the ultimate purpose of practice isn’t just about health, relaxation, or personal betterment.

It’s about finding ourselves “in others.” It’s about belonging to something bigger.

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In 2014, when my daughter was entering her freshman year of college, I watched a segment of the TV news program “60 Minutes” that changed my life.

In the segment, presenter Anderson Cooper reported on a mindfulness retreat he attended led by Jon Kabat-Zinn, often considered the grandfather of mindfulness. Kabat-Zinn, who has a doctorate in molecular biology and is a professor of medicine emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, founded its world-renowned Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Clinic in 1979 and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society in 1995.

To him, mindfulness is less a practice than a way of being. It’s choosing to be present for each moment of each day to help minimize our mind wandering to fears of the future or dwelling on the past. This habit reminds us that we have only this moment, and in this moment we are alive — which, in the world of cystic fibrosis (CF), is an important goal. I find it similar to the popular “one day at a time” advice, but mindfulness also includes appreciation of that moment.

When you’re in the shower, for instance, mindfulness asks you to simply “be” in the shower, paying attention and enjoying that experience. When you eat, just eat. Don’t think of the stressful work meeting you have later today because you’re not there yet. In the segment, Kabat-Zinn explains that the more you’re mindful, the easier it is to accomplish. He encourages meditation as well.

Recommended Reading

Mindfulness with cystic fibrosis

This episode spoke to me like nothing before. I realized immediately that mindfulness could help my daughter and me in dealing with the uncertainty of my CF diagnosis. As an adult with the disease, I’d already been surpassing every adjusted life expectancy announced by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, but a certain level of fear and anxiety is inevitable.

As the mother of a child without CF, I’ve spent much of her life balancing age-appropriate talks with her about my disease to protect her from anxiety as best I could, but the internet and social media changed that quickly as she got older. Despite my best efforts, anxiety has crept into both of our lives.

Now, though, my daughter and I have both embraced this mindful way of being. It’s an exercise of our minds to stay present, be grateful, and appreciate each day. We also share a strong faith and lean on that as well. When the days are hard, from CF or other factors, we try to stay in the moment and not let our fears run out of control. We can slow our minds down and breathe instead.

I’ve found I get much more enjoyment out of life from this perspective. Slowing my pace to be present in relationships and experiences is more rewarding than rushing through my day. My daughter and I remind ourselves that even when times are difficult, we’re still here and still together. Our years of mindfulness even helped us get through the scary time of my double-lung transplant in 2020.

All anyone has in this life is right now. My daughter and I choose to be grateful for that. We find the hope and beauty of the day and hold on to it tightly. In this way, I feel we’re both living beyond CF.

I’ve forwarded the “60 Minutes” segment to so many people in my life and have encouraged them to research mindfulness and Kabat-Zinn. I promise them they won’t regret it. I don’t.

Note: Cystic Fibrosis News Today is strictly a news and information website about the disease. It does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website. The opinions expressed in this column are not those of Cystic Fibrosis News Today or its parent company, BioNews, and are intended to spark discussion about issues pertaining to cystic fibrosis.

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We all get cognitively, emotionally, or behaviorally inflexible and stuck. We fixate on the same thoughts over and over again, feel trapped and overwhelmed by certain emotions, or constantly repeat the same behaviors. Change takes energy and effort and there is a strong sense of familiarity, and therefore comfort, that can come from repeated patterns, of doing things the same way, even if it’s unhelpful.

Yet stuckness is demoralizing. It sucks the sense of capability, confidence, and hope out of us. It makes us want to stay in bed with a blanket over our heads, literally or figuratively. Practicing mindfulness is one way to get unstuck, to create options and a greater sense of psychological flexibility.

When you are caught in your thoughts and feeling stuck, you are missing out on opportunities in the present moment to do things you find meaningful and important. Mindfulness skills help you connect with the present moment and notice and observe your thoughts and feelings without getting overly focused or fixated on them.

What Is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is the practice of bringing direct, intentional, and nonjudgmental awareness to the present moment and what you are doing while you are doing it. Mindfulness allows us to see more objectively what is happening in the moment vs. what our automatic thoughts or emotions may be telling us is happening.

The aim of practicing mindfulness exercises is not to change how we feel, nor to lessen stress, anxiety, depression, etc. The aim is to practice tuning into the present moment and our direct experience rather than solely thinking about our experience.

At the same time, it can be the case that we can change our experience by changing how we pay attention to it. Practicing mindfulness creates options for how we relate to our experiences, particularly unpleasant emotions and experiences. For example, if I am feeling physical pain or feeling anxious, I can practice noticing and observing this experience rather than automatically trying to avoid or decrease it.

Brief Mindfulness Exercises

1. Notice and Name

A few times per day, perhaps around meal times, pause and notice your thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations no matter what they are, pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. Then, practice naming your experience. You can do this by completing the following sentences:

• I am having the thought(s) that… [insert thoughts here]
• I am feeling… [insert feelings here]
• My body/specific body part, shoulders, stomach, back, etc., is feeling [insert physical sensation words here]

By pausing and tuning into what we are thinking and feeling, you create the option of using other useful coping skills and engaging in purposeful and helpful behaviors.

2. STOP Skill

• Stop and slow your breathing: Whatever you are doing, simply stop. Take a few slow breaths, and mindfully observe the breath flowing in and flowing out. Notice the physical sensations of your breath as it moves in and out of your body, your chest and/or belly rising and falling. This will help you to shift out of autopilot mode and connect with the present moment, here and now.

• Take note: While staying connected to your breathing, take note of your experience at this moment. Notice what you are thinking (perhaps saying “thinking” to yourself). Notice what you are feeling. (Take a moment to name the feelings that are here.) Notice any physical sensations in your body. See if you can practice acknowledging and noticing your experience, even if it is unwanted or unpleasant. Practice being curious about your experience rather than judgmental.

Mindfulness Essential Reads

• Open up: Practice opening to your experience, allowing it to be whatever it is in this moment. See your thoughts and feelings for what they are (things that come and go) and give them space. Breathe into any sensations of discomfort, tension, or resistance. Not to get rid of the sensations, but to practice relaxing into your experience, holding it in friendly awareness. Try saying to yourself, “It’s okay. Whatever it is, it’s okay. Let me feel it.”

• Proceed mindfully and pursue your values: Mindfully consider how you would like to move forward in this moment. If it feels helpful, ask yourself, “What is best for me, for others, and for the situation I’m in? How would I like to act, so that I can look back and think my response was helpful?” Going forward, see if you can allow what is most meaningful and important to guide you.

It is helpful to practice the STOP exercise when emotional intensity is increasing, when feeling overwhelmed, or when you recognize that it would be helpful to take a moment to ground yourself and be more fully present (vs. caught in your head).

3. Mindful Breathing

Mindful breathing is the practice of fully tuning into the sensation of your breath as you breathe, of noticing the air moving in and out of your body.

To practice, pause and focus your awareness on wherever you notice your breath. It may be in your nose, your chest, your belly, etc. You may notice the sensations of slight stretching in your chest and/or belly as it rises with each inhale and gently collapses with each exhale.

Notice the sensations of your breath as the breath first enters your body on the inhale and follow the sensations all the way through as the breath leaves your body on the exhale. There is no need to try to control or change your breathing in any way—simply let the breath breathe itself and focus on the physical sensations of the breath moving in and out of the body.

By practicing mindfulness skills, you are helping yourself connect with the present moment over and over again. The more you are connected with the present moment, the more flexible you are in how you respond to your thoughts and emotions, and the helpful behaviors you practice vs. being stuck in unhelpful patterns.

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An inspiring mission to cultivate mindful living among underprivileged youth.

Sep 22, 2023

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Photo courtesy The Mindful Life Project

The transformational Mindful Life Project is having a profound impact on the lives of young people throughout California. This unique project is providing children the tools they need to succeed intellectually, emotionally, and socially by incorporating mindfulness and social emotional learning into school curricula.

Teaching mindfulness

The Mindful Life Project was founded by J.G. Larochette in 2011. The project seeks to provide mindfulness techniques in underprivileged areas where kids are often exposed to trauma, violence and poverty, by equipping students and educators with the knowledge and resources to incorporate mindfulness into their lives. MLP provides schools full time Mindfulness Coaches at underserved schools that lead services both in small groups to students with the highest behavioral health needs and serving every classroom once a week. The project has expanded dramatically under Larochette’s leadership, broadening its impact and improving the lives of thousands of young people, currently serving some 50,000 students in nearly 100 schools mostly in California.

“The programming empowers young people and provides them with the educational opportunities they deserve. I felt that I had to do something different in schools, to help young people feel safe, both mentally and emotionally as well as supporting the mental health of educators,” Larochette told Goodnet.

Larochette’s personal experience with mindfulness motivated him to teach these healing techniques to others, particularly to kids who needed them the most. “As an educator, I found that I was losing energy, I was burnt out. Often, the first thing that the school system cut was the budget for the arts, leaving young people with deep anxiety, depression and no strategies to navigate their way out. Through my own suffering I came across mindfulness, it saved my life, and was deeply transformative. I brought these techniques to my third graders after I learned it myself and I found that they found it to be as transformative as I had,” he explained.

At the heart of the Mindful Life Project is the conviction that mindfulness can give children the tools they need to deal with obstacles in life and can help improve their general wellbeing. The curriculum incorporates mindfulness practices, yoga, art, music to help students become more self-aware, emotionally stable, self compassionate and empathetic. By nurturing their inner resources, children learn to manage stress, improve focus, and cultivate compassion.

Photo courtesy The Mindful Life Project

Creating communities Based on Wellness

The Mindful Life Project goes beyond the individual level, focusing on promoting the development of a positive classroom and school community. The curriculum promotes a sense of connection, empathy, and respect among children and educators through cooperative activities and exercises. The project improves the overall learning experience by fostering a secure and welcoming environment, helping students to succeed both academically and personally.

Larochette told Goodnet about a young boy named Tayshun. He first met Tayshun, a fifth grader  grappling with intergenerational trauma, who found himself in a negative cycle in school and in the community, getting suspended frequently. After being exposed to mindfulness techniques in MLP’s first year of services, Tayshun began to show transformative improvements in his behavioral health.

“He learned to create space, how to respond vs. react. He learned to ask himself, where do I feel anger most? He identified that it was in his fists, when he was very angry his fists tightened. By incorporating mindfulness skills he developed body awareness, and when he felt angry he would say to himself – check your fists, pause,“ Larochette stated, adding “He is now 21 years old and he believes that without mindfulness he could have gone down the wrong path. Tayshun wants to start the Mindful Life Project in Indiana where he lives.”

Photo courtesy The Mindful Life Project

Vision for the future

“The project began locally from my 3rd graders in South Richmond and I created it, starting with one program in 3 schools in the community in 2012 to now serving close to 100. We believe that there is a need to provide practices for wellbeing from an early age across the country. Schools need staff to provide relationship based, in person mental and emotional health programs. Our goal is to continue to grow and scale across California and the US,” Larochette said.

The Mindful Life Project provides a transformative, often life changing experience in a world where stress, anxiety, and other distractions frequently obstruct learning and wellbeing. The project equips young people with the skills necessary to develop emotional intelligence, resilience, and mindfulness, enabling them to live happier and more fulfilled lives.

Photo courtesy The Mindful Life Project

DEBBIE BERMAN,
MANAGING EDITOR

Debbie draws on her rich experience as a Writer, Journalist and Marketing Professional to tell tales of inspiration and hope. In our postmodern digital world the written word holds great power. Debbie seeks to use that power in the service of good.

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