Daily Reflection and Peace.
We face an important challenge with mindful practice. The article linked above addresses this challenge with questions. Questions are fundamental to being challenged. When I am challenged, I ask questions. I question what is happening and what is making me feel a particular way.
When I read many articles about mindfulness, I find the articles miss the key underlying aspect of mindfulness, being present in the world in ways that improve one’s life and in that improvement the world is continuously becoming a better place. It is not about a corporate bottom line in the way we understand a corporate bottom line. I guess the bottom line is harder to measure. I cann0t apply a number to it, report it to shareholders, and make a banker satisfied. What I can do is ask, “Did I make the world a better place in some way by becoming a better person?”
Can you imagine if 7 billion plus people worked on making the world a better place through their living? That might be a number that is unmeasurable, but that is OK. It would be so big it would not need to be reported. Its quality would speak for itself.
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About ivonprefontaine
In keeping with bell hooks and Noam Chomsky, I consider myself a public and dissident intellectual. Part of my work is to move beyond (transcend) institutional dogmas that bind me to defend freedom, raising my voice to be heard on behalf of those who seek equity and justice in all their forms.
I completed my PhD in Philosophy of Leadership Studies at Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA. My dissertation and research was how teachers experience becoming teachers and their role as leaders.
I focus on leading, communicating, and innovating in organizations. This includes mindfuful servant-leadership, World Cafe events, Appreciative Inquiry, and expressing one's self through creativity. I offer retreats, workshops, and presentations that can be tailored to your organzations specific needs.
I published peer reviewed articles about schools as learning organizations, currere as an ethical pursuit, and hope as an essential element of adult eductaion. I published three poems and am currently preparing my poetry to publish as an anthology of poetry.
I present on mindful leadership, servant leadership, schools as learning organizations, how teachers experience becoming teachers, assessement, and critical thinking. I facilitate mindfulness, hospitality retreats. and World Cafe Events using Appreciative Inquiry.
I am writing and researching about various forms of leadership, how teachers inform and form their identity as a particular teacher, schools as learning organizations, hope and its anticipatory relationship with the future, and hope as an essential element in learning.
ivonprefontaine
Teacher as Transformer 
Tseng Tzu’s quote is summed up in one word, to me, “integrity.” Sometimes I am startled by how many in the world actually attempt to sabotage this. Still, it’s a worthwhile practice. For sure.
It always is worth while. David Jardine, a professor at the University of Calgary, splits the word worthwhile to describe whiling over things, events, and beings of worth. In this way we are joined with them, creating a unity and integrity. It is slow, patient work that many choose to avoid perhaps.
Right mindfulness, brings necessary attention to what is going on inside and outside.
It is right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, and right concentration that complete the wisdom prescription. Interesting to think that non-judgmental, present moment awareness has inherent or implied virtues, imho 🙂
It is. It seems paradoxical. Parker Palmer suggested that paradox and accepting it is somewhat counter cultural and counter intuitive.
Amen! I pray that one day the whole human race would live to make it a better world. Blessings, Natalie 🙂
We can hope and pray. It is a matter of faith. Take care Natalie.
How can we do it? We have been having the discussion on my blog. Men who have been to war don’t know how to stop the fanatics that are slaughtering people in the Middle East and throughout the world. How can anyone talk to those religious fanatics that kill people (babies) because they don’t believe in their god? No one has answers. If Peace is logical, sane and healthy, WAR is the exact opposite. What can we do? Not one person has any idea/s on how we can stop the slaughter. How can we spread mindfulness to people who are insane? We need answers. Workable answers. If you have any ideas, please tell let us know.
Perhaps, it is in the questions that answers speak?
hitandrun1964, I admire your passion and your questioning. I see so much of myself in it, but, and maybe this is a cop out, I have come to a place where I no longer ask “how” I simply try and “be” in the world that I touch and which touches me daily. I try and express my rather poor attempt at being mindful in that world, and when it comes to the end of the day, I do two things, first, I try and see and feel gratitude for what I’ve received from others and the events of the day, and second, I look to see how I have contributed to life around me and that’s it. Sounds rather simplistic, but it’s what keeps me sane. Strength to you friend. 🙂
Simple is good in living and being in the moment. Complicated tries to jump out of the moment we live in and bypass it. When we keep it simple, we find the right questions.
Take care and be well.
To live to make the world a better place, one needs to make it better for everyone not just for the one trying to make it better. Such a fine line. If one opts to make it better for everyone it ultimately become better for the one. So often this is forgotten. It is not what is good for me is good for you – it is what is good for you is good for me. Great post.
A big question: How does one person take this task and reach out to the millions around them to change this world? A big task and one worth doing if we could just get it started.
Sometimes it is about the small things i.e. a smile, an act of kindness, a word of encouragement, etc. Hopefully, when that happens, our kindness and thoughtfulness is paid forward.
Your question is an important one and one we should carry with us exploring it daily.
I think there are millions of people working on making a better world, but it can take a few evils and some bad apple to change that…
The millions have to keep working. Our little bit every makes a difference. We were in a restaurant today and they were busy plus short-staffed. It was easy to grumble and some people did. One group about 15 minutes ahead of us to catch a ferry. The waitress had been abrupt with them and they were openly critical of the “poor service.” We left and caught the same ferry the other group did. Before we did, we thanked the young lady and she smiled. We can only do our small parts and hope it helps someone get through their day making it a good one for others.
I could not agree with you more, Dear Ivon! It’s so easy to get overwhelmed, thinking that our little efforts won’t make much of a dent in the problems of the world. Yet, as you said, if we focus on bringing respect and kindness into every interaction — from the postal clerk to the flight attendant ( 😜 ) — the difference is cumulative. Not only does it feel good to possess integrity, but now the person you’ve touched with such positivity is more likely to move forward with a newfound spring in their step and zip in their attitude. And so on. and so on…
Thank you for sharing your wonderful insight!!
You are welcome and thank you for an inspiring comment. We each have many opportunities to pay kindness forward.
One of the toughest things for me is living mindfully.
It is. One of the nice things about mindfulness is we are always practicing it, so it does not mean we have to be perfect.
Thought provoking post and comments. Thanks Ivon for starting the conversation.
You are welcome Elizabeth. Thank you for continuing it.