Some thoughts on all this stuff we’ve been doing

Well, I had a good run there, writing about science and mindfulness, digging the gems out of the mudslide of thousands of published studies. But these days I’m a bit distracted, thinking about what Devon and I are doing, and what it all means.

To sum up, in the last couple weeks we’ve been sending social media blasts about the upcoming workshops in Iceland and Ashland, planning a (for us) giant fundraising campaign to launch an online platform that will deliver mindfulness classes to anyone anywhere, finally officially incorporating as a non-profit, and, to top it all off, filming with a videographer we really love.

(Oh, and Simple Habit just put out my new meditation series, When the Shit Hits the Fan. So that’s fun.)

It’s been busy. Overwhelming at times. But not only that, it’s been interrupting the meditation retreat we were supposed to be on from April 1st to May 10th.

So I’ve been asking myself: What the hell are we actually doing here?

There are lots of answers to this question. For one thing, we have a mission statement: “Bringing mindfulness to life.” In other words, making mindfulness lively, vivid, fun – and bringing it into every aspect of family, community, work, etc. (For our full mission statement, click  here.)

And that’s pretty good. We want to do that for people – with people.

I think we’re also motivated to offer a ballast in a time when the mindfulness movement itself seems to have gone a bit nuts. So many big claims! So many people teaching! So much money flying around! I think we want to provide a voice of reason, to be the adults in the room who can say, “Well, this is how it’s been practiced for 2,500 years. And this is the current empirical evidence. And, yes, this our personal experience. Now see for yourself.”

Finally, and this is a bit sappy, we just want to spread love.

Okay, I said it. And I will now force myself to leave it there. Because that’s the fundamental intention. There is something in these practices that connects. When we bring awareness to whatever – the breath, the body, another person – love seems to build. We get strong in love.

And that’s all we really want – to get out there and meet people and build connections and build real communities that have real conversations. We want to be part of those conversations. All over the world.

So, okay. I guess that’s what we’re doing. When I remember that, and stand in it, then I can happily sit at the bank for three hours setting up our non-profit business account. And I’m thrilled to twiddle the knobs on the next MailChimp blast. And, sure, why not record another meditation series?

It’s all love, anyway. So I guess we’ll just remember that, and set our course, and hope for the best.

Signing off,
Craig

For more on the Iceland workshop, click here.
For info on other upcoming workshops, click here.