I started my first psychology graduate program in 1994, and I never would have guessed then that “mindfulness” would be on the cover of Time Magazine twenty years into the future. Of course, I also would have never guessed that very few people would actually read magazines (including Time) in the year 2014. That first graduate program was focused on East/West Psychology, and I had a devil of a time explaining what that meant to just about everyone outside the California Institute of Integral Studies . Today, I just tell people “We studied mindfulness meditation and stuff like that” and most people seem to get it. Heck, these days people actually approve of the fact that I spent money on such a degree! I have to admit though, it’s pretty weird to see how crazy-big this whole mindfulness thing has gotten in the past ten years or so. There’s a small part of me that misses feeling like I was in some select group of “pioneers” who were into mindfulness before it was cool, as if this ancient practice were some obscure indie rock band that only played small clubs back in the 90’s.
Today I test drove a new app called Stop, Breathe & Think that promises to “guide people of all ages and backgrounds through meditations for mindfulness and compassion.” I was looking for tools that might be useful in explaining mindfulness to the elementary school students that I’m working with as part of my present-day graduate practicum. I was looking for something that makes mindfulness seem cool, a fact that can easily be lost on kids raised in this age where shiny rectangles lord over our attention spans 24/7. I’m impressed with the app so far. It’s a good introduction to mindfulness, which is really all you can offer in the context of an elementary school guidance program.
Mindful Schools is another interesting program that both my supervisor (the licensed counselor at the school) and I are impressed with as a way to introduce mindful practices into the school setting. Here’s an introductory video:
I’ve noticed that there’s a bit of a backlash lately against the mainstreaming of mindfulness, and I’m not totally unsympathetic to the fact that “McMindfulness” versions of deep and complex teachings can have their drawbacks. Still, McMindfulness is a problem that strikes me as both inevitable and quite manageable. However basic a particular meditation technique might be, I can’t help but be thrilled that, twenty years after being introduced to the practice myself, I can walk into an elementary school and watch a licensed counselor teach kids how to meditate, and nobody thinks he’s out of his mind!