At CLS our entire philosophy of education is guided by our conviction that most organizations, including schools, tend to cut individuals off from one another and from their deepest selves. In our effort to play our organizational roles and meet organizational goals, authentic communication, meaningful relationships, and self-awareness often suffer. To build healthier, happier, and more effective schools and organizations, we believe people need to reconnect with each other, and ultimately with their own deepest aspirations, fears, and dreams.
For this reason we were delighted to see a commentary on the value of mindfulness practice featured in Education Week, the nation's premier education news publication. Kirsten Olson and Valerie Brown, consultants who provide leadership coaching for educators, described how simple awareness practices can reduce stress and enrich the lives and work of school leaders. (As a side note, Olson and Brown are heavily influenced by Parker Palmer, who is also an inspiration for our work at CLS).
Mindfulness practice includes a range of strategies for relaxation and promoting present moment awareness, including meditation. Regardless of the strategy, mindfulness practices promote concentration and awareness and acceptance of what is happening both outside and inside of ourselves right now. Olson and Brown describe it this way:
[M]indfulness goes deeper than simply generating feelings of relaxation and calm or developing a toolbox of techniques. It is an embodied practice that creates an inner balance that promotes emotional stability and clarity. It allows us to act and respond with enhanced understanding. Mindfulness trains us to accept the moment, without judging it. It allows us to let go of the constant running commentary or emotional reactivity to our current condition or state of mind. Mindfulness is not about removing all thoughts (which isn’t possible anyway) or striving for a feeling of bliss. It isn’t about mastery of mind over body or about getting rid of aspects of ourselves that we don’t like. Instead, it’s about training ourselves to observe what is happening within and around us, without judging our sensations or emotions. This practice builds tolerance and resilience under stress.
Olson and Brown's commentary reminded us of the Contemplative Practices that provide the foundation of CLS's Contemplative Leadership Academy, a series of workshops for school leaders designed to help principals and other administrators bring more of their humanity to their work (and, subsequently, their home lives).
We borrow the Contemplative Practices from the Cistercian order of monks and religious sisters, better known by the nickname "Trappists" (Thomas Merton, probably the most famous of all Trappists, is another major influence on our work). The Contemplative Practices include silence, solitude, simplicity, stability, and service. Each session of the Contemplative Leadership Academy focuses on one of these practices, and explores how school leaders can use the practice to improve their effectiveness both as persons and professionals.
Each of the Contemplative Practices is also a vehicle for mindfulness practices like those described in Olson and Brown's Education Week commentary, and is also deepened by the practice of mindfulness.
Silence and solitude, for example, are necessary components for mindfulness meditation. While it is possible to practice mindfulness in a busy airport, there is nevertheless a kind of stillness and quiet (even if purely inward) that is essentially to centering oneself in the present moment.
Likewise, mindfulness both requires and nurtures a sense of stability, which we define as the capacity and practice of "consistently being where you are," which includes deeply listening to one's own inner needs, intuition, and the needs of others.
Simplicity is the virtue of being straightforward and authentic, and avoiding making things unnecessarily complicated. Simplicity is one of the most important habits for today's reform-minded school leader, and one of the most challenging to cultivate. Mindfulness practice is the essence of simplicity, in that it requires deliberately pausing one's activities and thought processes to appreciate things as they are, and in turn mindfulness engenders a deeper capacity for simplicity and authenticity in one's communication and habits.
And finally mindfulness practices are both a service to oneself, and a vehicle for enhancing one's effectiveness, and thus one's service to others.
In all these ways, the kinds of strategies described by Olson and Brown work in perfect tandem with the Contemplative Practices at the heart of our work at CLS, and we're pleased that these deep dimensions of leadership are receiving such a wide audience via Education Week.
CLS hopes to launch a virtual Contemplative Leadership Academy later this year, open to practicing and aspiring school leaders, at no cost to participants. We'll be collecting the perspectives and experiences of participants for research purposes, and would welcome your involvement. Email us at [email protected] for more information, or visit our website for more details in coming weeks.
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