If there is anything I learned this quarter about contemplative exercises, it is that mindfulness is a state of mind itself and once you think about it, you break the concentration. I determined that being led in a practice in a group setting brought me more individual focus, rather than hearing a practice online on my own. For me, mindfulness is most beneficial when I have something ‘to do’ to put me in this state of contemplation, rather than leave my mind to ramble without discipline. In order to explore this further, I analyzed my own experience with my action project group’s engagement in mindfulness as well as my final project.
My group for the action project had productive days and not so productive days, and it seems that when we felt a resounding response to the contemplative exercises those days lead to increased productivity. The day that we watched “How to Let Go of the World and Love All the Things Climate Can’t Change” lead us to the idea of using our favorite line as a mantra. I was frankly surprised at how serious everyone took this opportunity to not just come together as a group and participate, but also invoke a state of group mind. This is when we began to make big alterations to the project, and let our previous ideas go for newer and more effective ones.
Engaging in this practice with my group prefaced my ability to lead my own contemplative community art project as a part of my final. Individuals who had not previously engaged in mindfulness were pleasantly surprised, and it couldn’t have at a better time than during finals. In fact, one of my comrades had a bold new idea for her own final paper and left the painting table first to begin rewriting her novel concept. While mindfulness is about the journey and not the end result, it ultimately can lead to tangible insights. I have included the PowerPoint rapping up this final experience, which I encourage readers to take a look at. Anthropocene2