Two new modules added to Demystifying Mindfulness MOOC

While there is a tendency today to view mindfulness as somehow sealed off from the rest of society, like a kind of ‘clean space’ or refuge in which we might sit to shelter from the social, political, economic, and cultural turmoil around us, mindfulness is actually just as entangled in these forces as anything else. Over the last few years, an increasing body of research has started to explore some of the ways in which these social forces and personal histories impact on the experience of mindfulness practice. Such research shows that the field of mindfulness cannot assume that everyone sits onto the same cushion in the same room. And some people just might not have a cushion at all. Hence, this module explores the intersections between mindfulness and trauma, as well as mindfulness, privilege, prejudice, and oppression. Here we see that mindfulness is not free of concerns about racism, sexism, ableism or other forms of systemic discrimination. Nonetheless, perhaps mindfulness contains some seeds to help us confront these social ills?

We are fortunate to be able to include in this module a trauma-sensitive guided meditation by Elizabeth Stanley.

One feature of contemporary mindfulness is that it is increasingly practiced in urban environments, in small rooms in big cities. This tendency has contributed to a form of romanticization of mindfulness in nature, as though practicing in a beautiful natural setting is somehow better or more ‘pure.’ We will see that this romantic view is not new at all, and also that it hides a much more complicated and subtle form of relationship between mindfulness and the natural world. In this module, we’ll explore some of the pros and cons of practicing in nature, as well as some of the myths about it. We’ll even learn a new meditation that is specifically designed to help us feel our place in nature. At the same time, as soon as we accept that the practice of mindfulness takes place in real locations (on particular territories or pieces of the earth), then we’ll see that we also have to accept that mindfulness is not free of questions of land politics and colonialism. What does it mean to practice mindfulness in a way that respects the land?