Latest Issue of the MindBrainEd Think Tank + (ISSN 2434-1002) 6 MindBrained Bulletin Think Tank V4i6 Mindfulness | Page 7

Think Tank:
Mindfulness
Marc Helgesen
Mindfulness in 3 New Yorker Cartoons
You’ve probably heard about the health and education benefits of mindfulness; those
listed on the first page plus others like greater resilience, less stress, greater focus
(Goleman & Davidson, 2017). But how do we share it?
When Curtis Kelly and I were talking about how to introduce this topic, Curtis
suggested this video, one that deals with utilizing mindfulness in school. I liked it a
lot. In fact, a few weeks later he chose it for the “Deep” lead-in video for this issue.
I also suggested another video by Richard Davidson (Founder of the Center for
Healthy Minds at the U. or Wisconsin–Madison. It was in his lab that Tibetan
Buddhist monks were plugged into fMRI’s to study their brains while meditating.)
and Daniel Goleman (author of Emotional Intelligence).
I sent the link to Curtis. He wrote back that he watched the first few minutes and
thought, “So what? Why should I pay attention to all the present details, taste,
breath, color when I can be thinking about other things more important to me.”
And he has a point. I’ve been meditating daily for over 40 years. I get why it is
important and useful. But why should you?
ABC News anchor Dan Harris (2014) writes, “Meditation suffers from a towering PR
problem, largely because its most prominent proponents talk as if they have
perpetual pan flute accompaniment.” OK, I get that, too. It sounds like you have to go
to a temple in Thailand or at least a retreat center near San Francisco.
mindfulness is
experiential – you
have to feel it, not just
read about it
One challenge is that mindfulness is experiential
– you have to feel it, not just read about it. This is
sort of the mental equivalent of why years of
learning “about English” (i.e., “school English”)
rather than experiencing using English don’t lead
to fluent English speakers.
That need for experiential learning, coupled with the desire to avoid something too
weird is why Jon Kabat-Zinn starts MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction)
sessions off with an eating meditation – they eat a raisin and really notice it. I do the
same thing with my students, but with blueberries (A lot of them don’t like raisins).