8.3: Weeks 3 and 4 Narrative

Weeks Three and Four Narrative

Weeks Three and Four continue the students’ introduction to different kinds of mindfulness practices through the in-class practice. This is, of course, in addition to the variety of practices they will be experiencing as a result of their homework and at-home practice. This supports the course goal of exposing students to a wide range of different types of mindfulness practices so that they may start to determine what practices work best for them. In addition, these weeks deepen exposure to the brain science behind the efficacy of mindfulness meditation. To do this, I have chosen to have students view the 2020 documentary My Year of Living Mindfully. This documentary is not open source, but many institutions of higher education have purchased it so it is likely to be widely available through the university library. Also, the documentary film maker Shannon Harvey has a TED Talk that could be substituted and which is freely available online. I will say more about the value of showing this movie after the summary of these weeks. In this period, the class has its first guest speaker, who will discuss the physical benefits of meditation practice

 

 

These two weeks also feature a TED Talk by Dan Harris, entitled “the benefits of not being a jerk to yourself.” In the mindfulness field, journalist Harris is known for being a “fidgety skeptic” about mindfulness who turned to it only after a personal and professional crisis. He has written several books on the topic and created the Happier (formally 10% happier) app and podcast. His skepticism may be a valuable connector to skeptical students.

 

 

These two weeks end with the first small group discussions among students. Although this is a seminar class with capped enrollment, I will, three times over the semester, break students into groups of three-four to share how their class experience has been so far and how their home practice is going. It may be useful to consider grouping students to achieve a mix of neophytes to mindfulness with those who have had some kind of practice or exposure. In this session, I will also do a formal check-in with students on the meditation practice and log-keeping. This is an important part of the class, it would be good to have an early opportunity for correction.

 

 

My Year of Living Mindfully.  This movie can be deployed in a number of ways. Its downside is its length, in addition to not being an open resource. At 138 minutes, it is likely too long to be shown in one class setting, especially because the class has a built-in mindfulness practice that will take, at a minimum, 20 minutes.

 

 

Possible solutions include showing the documentary over two classes, assigning it as homework, or a hybrid of the two. I have chosen the latter; I ask students to watch the first 60 minutes before class as a homework assignment and we watch the remainder in class. I choose this because the movie lends itself well to pausing at certain points for discussion. These discussions will deepen student engagement with the material. For the portion that students are watching at home, I ask them to identify and bring to class two points for discussion.

 

 

The documentary focuses on a journalist who wants to investigate the global well-being crisis while considering mindfulness meditation as one possible antidote. She thus embarks on a year of daily mindful meditation, with scientists examining her brain at the beginning, midpoint, and end of her year. Through this, she is testing the published data that mindfulness meditation changes the brains of experienced meditators.

 

 

Throughout the year, she lets the viewer into her experiment notes, her doubts on the validity of the project, and her discussions/interviews with her evaluators and others in the field.  This makes for good viewing that should hold student attention and interest.

 

 

Most significantly for my purposes, I use this documentary as a way to expose students to the scientific study of the efficacy of mindfulness. There are lots of things that students could read on this, but this documentary contains good content delivered fairly effectively and efficiently. It also continues students’ exposure to key names in the field, some of whom they already were introduced to in the Mindfulness Movement film that they watched in week one. Here, they see brief interviews with Kristin Neff and Dan Harris, whose materials they will explore during these two weeks. I hope that, by seeing these individuals interviewed, the students will connect more with their materials.

 

 

Students see interviews with several key scientists who study mindfulness meditation and who are part of university centers –both in the United States and abroad—where these studies are conducted. Much else from the documentary could be highlighted here; suffice it to say that I find this to be a nice overview of the science in non-scientific parlance.

 

 

The filmmaker, as part of her real time filming in the midst of her “year of living mindfully,” speaks candidly about her moments of doubt. She also highlights studies that speak to the mindfulness “hype” and interviews authors of one such study. It is important for students to get this view so that they understand that there has been mindfulness puffery. The film ends with the filmmaker’s refusal to hype the results. She concludes that more research is necessary and also notes her subjectively improved experience as a result of her year of living mindfully.