Nobody in Particular,
I recently
returned from the AP Reading in Cincinnati, Ohio, where I spent just over a
week networking with fellow AP teachers and college professors from all over
the nation. It was a worthwhile activity professionally speaking, but it was
difficult to leave my wife behind and to miss this year’s graduation ceremony.
And while I did learn a great deal about my AP course in particular and the
city of Cincinnati in general, I was glad to come home. In fact, I think just
about everyone feels this way, regardless of whether your time away is due to work
or vacation. And no matter how much we may enjoy these journeys—even the best
of vacations—we reach a point when we start to miss home and hear its siren
song beckoning us back. There is something magical in that moment we reach
home, too. As if anything that wasn’t right beforehand is suddenly corrected
the second we cross the threshold. In that moment we’re immediately flooded
with feelings of joyous relief and become grounded, like we’ve reached the
shore for which we’ve searched for so long. Quite simply, coming home after a
prolonged absence is one of the best feelings/moments in life.
During my
trip, I had the chance to read two excellent non-fiction books: Why Nations Fail and A Mindful Nation. And while I would love
to tell you about the former (just read it!), the latter of the two tomes is
the one that connects with today’s letter. A
Mindful Nation is written by Congressman Tim Ryan of Ohio’s 17th
district. He’s been a member of the House of Representatives for nearly a
decade and he’s one of the few politicians lately who’s had anything to say
worth listening to. About 4 years ago, Congressman Ryan was invited to attend a
retreat by Jon Kabat-Zinn, a doctor and professor at the UMASS Medical School;
JKZ is also the founding director of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center
for Mindfulness in Medicine, also at UMASS’ med school. People from all over
the country and from all walks of life were drawn to the retreat, which was
effectively a conference on developing a routine “mindfulness” practice.
Congressman Ryan left the retreat a week later a changed man and has been on a
mission ever since to try and bring mindfulness mainstream.
The three
areas in which Congressman Ryan illustrates mindfulness practices and
techniques would be most beneficial are education, health, and military. Before
he gets into these specific areas, however, Congressman Ryan shares his own
story and explains much of the vanguard research being done in the fields of
neurology, psychology, cognitive science and how effective mindfulness can be
to: reduce overall stress, improve /focus attention and working memory (science
is discovering how these two are interrelated), improve memory recall, control
emotional reactions, become more compassionate and happier over the long term,
and just better well-being in general. After these chapters, he delineates how
these practices could be used in education, healthcare, and for our military.
While they were all fascinating in their own right (and had a great deal of
potential crossover), I was most absorbed in the education chapter as this is
precisely what drew me into my own meditation practice about three years ago.
My final paper in a graduate class in the fall of 2009 was about how we could
use meditative techniques to help students who have trouble with concentration.
I shared this paper with my administration but it went no further; so, little
by little, I’ve been trying to teach some of these ideas to my students. At the
beginning of every class this past year, for instance, we’d begin by having
about 1 minute of silence during which we all breathed deeply (essentially the
same thing as “centering” at the beginning of a yoga class) and then the
students immediately got busy on the bellwork assignment on the board. At the
end of the year on my course evaluation, I’d say about 85% of the students said
one of their favorite things about my class was “breathing,” that one minute
when they could close their eyes, take a few deep breaths, and feel safe—several
even said it was the best part of their day.
So remember
all that business about coming home? It’s a wonderful feeling, right? Well,
NIP, what would you say if I told you that you could experience that feeling—or
at least the closest approximation—any given day, in as few as 20 minutes, no
less? This is what a “mindfulness” practice can do for each and every single
one of us. I know there are still people out there who shy away from “meditation”
because for them it conjures up visions of esoteric monks sitting in a cave in
silence. This could be why there has been such a shift away from the word meditation toward the word mindfulness. Whatever one chooses to
call it, the truth is the practice is much simpler than our misconceptions
imply. Just a week or so ago I read an article in which a Zen roshi was trying
to explain how to meditate. Zen is known to be gruff and no frills, and his
explain was spot on in this regard. He said it takes 3 steps: Sit down. Shut up. Pay attention. That’s
effectively all mindfulness is—paying attention. Whether you’re paying
attention to your breath, to the sensations in the body, to the food you’re
eating in that moment, to the steps you’re taking as you go for a walk…if you
bring your entire mind to focus on that one, single thing, you’re practicing
mindfulness. You don’t have to recite mantras, you don’t have to sit in
complicated positions (I often sit in a regular chair for seated, or lie down
on my yoga mat in savasana), you don’t really have to do anything other than just be. You might think, you might be
tempted to look around (assuming you don’t have your eyes closed), and that’s
okay. Just acknowledge your attention has gone adrift and simply guide it back
to your intended focal point.
I want to
start a mindfulness revolution, NIP. I want to help Congressman Ryan bring this
pragmatic, beneficial practice to the masses. Hopefully in the near future I’ll
be able to pitch my idea to school officials or write a grant to see if we can
start a pilot program in our district. I’m bursting with ideas and excitement,
but I need people like you too, NIP. If you don’t have a mindfulness practice,
please consider going to a class at your local Y, yoga studio, or any other
place that offers lessons. In truth, you don’t need any of those places,
though. You could simply read about it online or in some of my other letters
and try it. Most of the recent research suggests that within 8 weeks of
practicing for as little as 20 minutes per day people have noticeable
reductions in stress levels and increased focus and working memory capacities.
Our hectic, technological age is what’s doing this to us, mainly because we
weren’t meant to handle so much information at one time. Giving our brains a
break each day is not simply beneficial, but I believe will become critical
with the passing of time. I’ve been practicing for nearly 3 years, and only in
the last year or so have I bumped it up to twice a day (time permitting) and
the results have been amazing. I feel like a different person…and so will you.
Begin a mindfulness practice today, NIP!
- Ryan
P.S. – In the interest of saving you some time, I’ve typed
up a simple mindfulness practice based on breathing (for the most part, this is
what I do every time) that was included in the back of Congressman Ryan’s A Mindful Nation:
- Settle into a steady and comfortable sitting posture (in a
chair, on a cushion on the floor, etc). The back is relatively straight (not
rigid), allowing breathing to be open and easy. Hands can be place on the
thighs or resting loosely together on the lap. Head and neck are balanced. You
may either close your eyes or just lower them with a soft gaze.
- Bring your awareness to the sensation of your body
touching the chair or cushion, your feet touching the floor, the feeling of the
air in the room.
- Gently bring awareness to the breath as it moves in and
out.
- Notice where the breath is most vivid for you. This may be
at the nostrils or at the chest as it rises and falls, or maybe right at the
belly.
- You may become aware of the brief pause between the in-breath
and the out-breath.
- Notice the rhythm of your breathing, and be aware of the
sensations of the air coming into and filling your body, and then releasing
itself and leaving your body.
- Stay present with the experience of breathing. Just allow
yourself to breathe in a natural and comfortable way, riding the waves of the
in-breath and out-breath.
- If your attention has wandered off the breath (and it
will), gently escort it back to awareness of breathing. Allow thoughts or
emotions to arise without pushing them away or holding on to them. Simply
observe them with a very light and gentle curiosity. No need to get carried
away by them, or to judge or interpret them.
- That’s it!
