In its popular presentations, mindfulness looks like an individualistic, self-help undertaking. Yet there is so much more going on, because we learn it together, in groups. Only now, after nearly 50 years of teaching and research, is its potential for building community becoming clear.
Mindfulness groups today can be seen as sites of resistance to the isolation and pathologizing experienced by people diagnosed with mental and physical disorders — and by everyone embedded in our “culture of deficit.” The atmosphere created as these groups learn to practice together can be seen as a powerful catalyst for creating just and caring ways of being together.
Join us as we explore the emerging evidence, the theoretical possibilities, and some in-the-moment inter-personal practices for mindfulness in community.
Don McCown is Director of the WCU Center for Contemplative Studies and coordinator for the Graduate Certificate in Applied Mindfulness. His research and teaching are focused on the effects and possibilities of contemplative practices in group settings.
