“Focus � The Hidden Driver of Excellence� by Dr Daniel Goleman (Author of the Bestselling Books on Emotional Intelligence/Psychologist)
“The big shock:“Focus � The Hidden Driver of Excellence� by Dr Daniel Goleman (Author of the Bestselling Books on Emotional Intelligence/Psychologist)
“The big shock: statistical analysis found that a child’s level of self-control is every bit as powerful a predictor of her adult financial success and health (and criminal record, for that matter) as are social class, wealth of family of origin, or IQ. Willpower emerged as a completely independent force in life success � in fact, for financial success, self-control in childhood proved a stronger predictor than either IQ or social class of the family of origin�
In “Focus � The Hidden Driver of Excellence�, the author Dr Daniel Goleman (Author of the Bestselling Books on Emotional Intelligence/Psychologist) was able to develop a long overdue and much-needed interest in the reader on the notion of focus/attention and how it applies to the success of any individual whether his/her role is a leader, learner/student, educator or parent etc., even though there is an apparent heightened importance for those in leadership positions. He identifies and presents three areas of focus (triple focus) an individual should ideally be aware of � inner, other and outer � leading to excellence.
The inner focus, in essence, is self-awareness as it is more commonly known and should be the starting point that leads other areas of focus. Self-awareness is a metacognitive/meta-awareness/reflective ability that helps us to identify the nature of our own thoughts, emotions/feelings, passions, values, intuitions/gut-feelings and insights etc. It is usually an automatic, bottom-up quick response (as opposed to more time-consuming top-down responses utilising brains cortical areas) that combines all learnings of an individual’s life that far in a magical way, albeit in an unconscious/semi-conscious manner, especially when in situations of making complex life decisions. In fact, the significance of self-awareness for an individual’s development/growth is highlighted by referring to it in the text as the “inner rudder� that drives all of his/her actions/plans in life towards success/excellence (or otherwise due to lack of it). One of the most important aspects of self-awareness is the ability of cognitive control/self-control/willpower that is proven to be a better predictor of success than even measures of IQ, social class or family of origin.
“A darker side of cognitive empathy emerges when someone uses it to spot weakness in others and so takes advantage of them. This strategy typifies sociopaths, who use their cognitive empathy to manipulate. They feel no anxiety, and so the threat of a punishment does not deter them.�
As Dr Goleman puts forth, the development/growth of the brain areas associated with self-awareness is also influential in enhancing “other� focus- the second area of focus highlighted. Essentially it is the notion of empathy, as commonly known � the ability to cognitively as well as emotionally see/understand/feel other individuals we interact regularly or even sparingly. The reciprocal connection between self-awareness and empathy helps us to have what is known as �360 degree� evaluation and also to avoid situations of “groupthink/shared blind spot� Another area that comes under this particular focus area is the social-intelligence/social-sensitivity/context awareness in which we usually have to be proficient in picking non-verbal social clues.
“…people attribute what happens to them to events close in time and space, when in reality it’s the result of the dynamics of the larger system within which they are embedded…The problem gets compounded by what’s called the “illusion of explanatory depth,� where we feel confident in our understanding of a complex system, but in reality have just superficial knowledge. �
In the third area of focus, we extend our attention beyond our selves, others in the communities we interact to outer societies/worlds or the whole planet. Put differently, it is about systems thinking, a focus area that is getting an increasing interest among scholars. With a focus on systems thinking, we start to appreciate the notions of our interconnectedness to and interdependence of/life cycle analysis (LCA) of many other systems/living beings/societies/groups, directly or indirectly even in more distant ways in space and time. The author, Dr Goleman duly highlights the fact that there is no specific brain area or radar that is sensitive to this system’s viewpoint resulting a situation referred to as “system blindness� that need to be addressed by paying diligent attention to the aspect.
“…data science requires more than math skills: it also takes people who have a wide-ranging curiosity, and whose innovation is guided by their own experience � not just data. After all, the best intuition takes huge amounts of data, harvesting our entire life experience, and filters it through the human brain.�
“The need to focus on a less complicated order (whether in organising our closets, developing a business strategy, or analysing LCA data) reflects a fundamental truth. We live within extremely complex systems, but engage them lacking the cognitive capacity to understand or manage them completely. Our brain has solved this problem by finding means to sort through what’s complicated via simple decision rules.�
We have now seen the significance of the three areas of focus highlighted in the text by Dr Goleman. The next big question now is, how can we develop these focusing skills in leaders/learners etc. or measures can be taken more broadly for the benefit of masses? Fortunately, there are some simple techniques and methodologies identified to be useful in an evidence-based manner � breathing-based focused attention training and mindfulness/open attention practices. These practices were proven to be working from primary school students to top-level leaders such as CEOs.
“Setting aside some regular reflective time in the daily or weekly schedule might help us get beyond the firefight-of-the-day mentality, to take stock and look ahead. Very diverse thinkers…are calling for mindfulness as a way to help leaders see the big picture. They propose we need not just mindful leaders, but mindful society, one where we bring a triple focus: to our own well-being, that of others, and the operations of the broader systems that shape our lives.�
Finally, if research shows undeniably that these three areas of focus were instrumental for excellence, as an educator, I wondered the ways, if at all, we address and develop them in learners through our education systems. One important observation we make is that the above triple focus areas are independent of the domain or discipline of study, and as a result, they become a broader set of generalised skills that can be developed in any learner irrespective of the discipline of study. Despite this commonality, it is important for educational policy-makers to understand the limitation that in a typical educational/learning environment or education system, we do not address directly in improving the abilities of self-awareness, empathy or systems thinking per se. For example, how could we make use of this evidence-based knowledge to avoid sociopathic minds (those bullying minds) being developed misusing cognitive empathy and devoid of emotional empathy at the grassroots? What happens in most of the typical educational/learning systems pay emphasis on specific contents related to the discipline of study without giving learners generic study skills, strategies and methodologies that are useful in their lifelong learning endeavours and in developing growth mindsets. By giving undue emphasis on specific contents narrowly, we tend to give a wrong message to our learners that such a narrow knowledge-base would guarantee them overall success/well-being in the highly uncertain/changing future that we all are struggling to predict, despite many significant advances in many areas including technology. In fact, the reality is exactly the opposite � no such guarantees - in a rapidly changing world through the notions of artificial intelligence/automation, climate change, geopolitical uncertainties, big data etc....more
“Altered Traits � Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body� by Daniel Goleman (Author of the Bestselling Books on Emotional I“Altered Traits � Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body� by Daniel Goleman (Author of the Bestselling Books on Emotional Intelligence/Psychologist) & Richard Davidson (Research Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry/Director and Founder of Centre for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison)
“Science operates within a web of culture-bound assumptions that limit our view of what is possible, most powerfully for the behavioural sciences. Modern psychology had known that Eastern systems offer means to transform a person’s very being. When we looked through that alternate Eastern lens, we saw fresh possibilities.�
In “Altered Traits � Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body�, the authors Daniel Goleman (Author of the Bestselling Books on Emotional Intelligence/Psychologist) & Richard Davidson (Research Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry/Director and Founder of Centre for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison) present hundreds of highly controlled and designed research studies carried out around the world to highlight that various meditation practices can be used to change neural connections in the brain to have positive functional and behavioural impacts on the meditator. They reiterate in the text the need to have long hours of quality practice in the order of thousands especially to have a lasting/trait effect. One of the main aims of the authors is to identify the means of using variants of “deep� meditative practices carried out by long-term, full-time practitioners for the benefits of “wider� masses in developing healthy minds/behaviours and overall well-being.
Two of the common attention related meditative practices are referred to as focused-attention meditation and open-presence/attention/awareness (mindfulness) meditation. In the former, the meditator focuses on a single object such as the breadth while in the latter, he/she attempts to focus on whatever that comes to his/her mind such as an emotion or a thought. In these attention-related practices, the meditator constantly keeps track of his/her attention, and if he/she finds attention wandering, he/she uses that meta-awareness to bring the attention back onto the object of focus. The ability to control our attention and develop meta-awareness is crucial for any learning we do � in fact, the main task of any learning is to get our attention on the object of learning voluntarily. The research listed by the authors have shown that we develop our capacities of cognitive control to select an object and focus (selective attention) in a sustained manner ((by reducing mind wandering). Such sustained attention is shown to enhance our working memories that in turn help in creating lasting/long-term memories. Moreover, the authors highlight a phenomenon known as attentional blink, a measure that helps one to develop sharper attention by identifying differences in a series of objects presented (by reducing attentional blink). Long-term meditators also showed the capacities to focus deeply and fully on the present moments, minimising features such as rumination on the past or future with an inverted V level of attention. Another feature they demonstrated was the effortlessness in the capacities to pay attention to a selected item indicating the use of less brain/cortical resources (or efficient use) for doing it
Another useful and common type of meditation is loving-kindness/compassion meditation. These practices are shown to enhance meditator’s capacities to empathise with others when they are in difficult situations. Also, long-term meditators demonstrated a trait of a higher level of preparedness to help those in need or for engaging in the greater good than the meditators with less number of hours. A higher level of activity was shown in the brain’s radar organ of the amygdala for such preparedness in the long-term meditators (with focused- attention meditation, the amygdala activity was reduced helping to minimise mind wandering). Some empathy-related neural firing was also shown to resonate with other body parts such as the heart validating our longstanding belief of having a “good heart� when we are compassionate. Further, psychological conditions such as kindness, empathy and compassion are shown to minimise the impacts of negative ones such as anger, depression and stress thus enhancing the meditators immune system and overall well-being by minimising proneness to inflammation and unhealthy attachments such as cravings (for examples for some food, alcohol and drugs etc.). Usually, the negative psychological conditions are associated with involvement of the so-called default network/mode/self-system of the brain that becomes activated when one is idling or not focusing on any specific object/function, and this default mode is more prone to focus on negative thoughts/emotions one may possess.
One interesting and surprising observation authors made in their research with long-term meditators was the generation of higher frequency (than normal) gamma waves in the brain during their open presence and compassion meditation activities. The main feature of gamma waves is the ability to synchronise many regions of the brain for highly efficient information processing such as generating insights. Non or novel meditators are also capable of generating gamma waves, but they last only for a fraction of a second while for long-term meditators could have them for minutes. Even more, the long-term meditators showed to have gamma waves generated during their sleep indicating a possible state of “awakening� round the clock. Another observation the authors made in their research was the abilities of long-term meditators have open-presence/attention to whatever that comes to their mind, accomplished possibly by the non-judgemental (without rumination on the past and future) way of paying attention. The authors also highlighted the notions of neuroplasticity and epigenetics they validated from their research. The two phenomena relate the brain’s capacity to change (or develop new neural networks while removing unused ones) based on the experience the individual undergoes. That is, we do not want to keep debating on whether a person’s capabilities are a matter of nature or nurture. The notion of epigenetics relates gene expression made possible by appropriate experiences while suppressing some others when relevant experiences are not present. Further, the text brings to our attention that, open-attention/mindfulness and loving-kindness/compassion meditative practices were successfully used in an evidence-based manner for overcoming/healing depressive disorders and post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) respectively.
“The faculty of bringing back a wandering attention over and over again is the very root of judgement, character and will…an education which should improve this faculty would be the education par excellence.� William James � Father of modern psychology
As an educator, I see some great insights emerging from this text. One of the fundamental capabilities we need to develop in learners is to get them to pay attention/focus (for content by reading/seeing, presentations by listening etc.) despite there is a tendency for mind wandering, especially for the contents perceived to be difficult. In other words, we need to encourage learners to persevere in engagement in the content/learning until a clearer understanding is achieved. Learners can also be directed to practice paying attention by asking them to focus on their breathing. Also, learners can be encouraged to practice open presence/attention by being open to whatever that comes to one’s mind through reading/seeing experiencing/hearing in a non-judgemental way with an intrinsic motivation to learn or developing an understanding that such practices help one in lifelong learning, developing a growth mindset, resilience to adverse social/personal situations and overall well-being. Here we highlight the fact that most of our learning is implicit (not explicit/formal as in a classroom or within an institute) and we benefit simply by paying attention/being mindful to our experiences/environments indiscriminately. Reading and journaling can be two prominent areas one can apply open presence/attention at one’s own pace. Loving-kindness/compassion meditation practices are some useful means to develop an understanding or positive feeling of empathy and equanimity. These positive emotions would enable learners to maintain a balanced mental state at an appropriate arousal level in the journey of lifelong learning with a growth mindset.
Finally, we need to commend the authors Daniel Goleman and Richard Davidson for giving the public a gem of an evidence-based resource that can be used in many applications whether as learners, employees or leaders....more
“This is the path of insight, of wisdom, and of healing. It is the path of acceptance and peace. It is the path of the mind-body looking deeply in “This is the path of insight, of wisdom, and of healing. It is the path of acceptance and peace. It is the path of the mind-body looking deeply into itself and knowing itself. It is the art of conscious living, of knowing your inner resources and your outer resources and knowing also that, fundamentally, there is neither inner nor outer. It is profoundly ethical�
“Full Catastrophe Living � Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness� by Jon Kabat-Zinn (Emeritus Professor of Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School) reveals the reader the constituents and theories/scientific-basis of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program that was run for nearly 40 years at the University of Massachusetts Medical Centre. The eight-week MBSR program that was founded by Professor Kabat-Zinn has become a very popular complementary/integrative medicine approach followed by many hospitals/medical centres around the world since its inception. Plethora of research on neuroscience emerging in the last 2-3 decades has given much-needed scientific basis/explanations on the traditional contemplative practice of mindfulness, the core of the MBSR program, thus enhancing an ever-increasing confidence on the program in patients/individuals who undergo it as well as wider professional communities working in the domains of medicine and healthcare.
“MBSR was meant from the beginning to be an experiment to see whether mainstream America and American medicine and healthcare would be receptive to this transformative and liberative dharma perspective, if framed in a universal vocabulary and within an easily accessible and commonsensical format and idiom.�
The author, Professor Kabat-Zinn, deserves a special commendation and gratitude for producing such an epic resource giving vivid and elaborate descriptions of some of his real-world practices in the MBSR program. Millions of readers around the world, who are desperately looking for some form of healing in facing catastrophic situations, would benefit in their life-changing transformative processes from the mindfulness practices presented. The beauty of these complementary/integrative medicine practices with significant proven benefits in individuals� health and wellbeing is that one only requires a trust/faith and commitment in them to benefit as they incur only a minimal cost, if at all. In a world where there are ever-increasing medical costs around the world giving individuals and governments a huge financial burden, the cost-effective practices suggested in the MBSR program as personal transformative measures are giving humankind a ray of hope into the future in a world of “poignant enormity� (in the words of Professor Kabat-Zinn). Even more, to introduce the essence of the MBSR program to the individuals seeking healing/benefits, it only requires 8-weeks of attendance/commitment at the MBSR clinic, after which they are expected to carry out the practices on their own to benefit in an ongoing manner.
Interestingly, the author, Professor Kabat-Zinn has analysed and categorised what is commonly termed as “stress� into some insightful constituents such as “work stress�, “time stress�, “people stress�, “sleep stress� and “world stress�, to name some. At work, many of us would become stressful for reasons such as high workload, meeting deadlines, engaging in routine/tedious chores and maintaining relationships etc. Time stress results in when we attempt/struggle to meet deadlines in either professional or personal lives thereby getting trapped in situations where we are being driven and controlled unconsciously by time without ever realising even what we are doing by paying full attention. When we find ourselves in situations of conflicts with who we interact either in professional and personal lives, it can produce a varying degree of stress depending on the specific circumstance. Medical professionals recognise and recommend an adequate amount of daily sleep as an essential measure of recuperation from varying degrees of daily stress for all human beings. However, sometimes these daily stressful encounters themselves force individuals to ruminate on them and thereby creating difficulties in sleeping. Professor Kabat-Zinn has coined-in the term “world-stress� to highlight negative situations, either as natural disasters or otherwise, we get exposed to routinely through digital/technological means of the Internet, TV or radio. When there are so many sources that we can become stressed, what would be the cost-effective and harmless (without any side-effects) means of relieving these stresses? Can we anaesthetise us to become numb or simply become non-receptive to avoid these hard realities? Would they be viable solutions for us to calm our craniums? Can we expect us to depend on a magic pill that can do them all for us? As proved by the MBSR program, various mindfulness practices (which are conceptually very simple albeit difficult in real usage) have come to our own rescue in this regard, meeting the above requirements. Becoming mindful/aware/accepting of the various sources of stress, in many occasions in a courageous and bold manner, would be the starting point for us to look for appropriate measures of stress relief.
“There is still far too little of this in our education. As a rule, our schools do not emphasise being, or the training of attention, although this situation is changing rapidly. When mindfulness is not taught in school, we are left to sort out the domain of being for ourselves. It is doing that is still the dominant currency of the modern education. Sadly, though, it is often a fragmented and denatured doing, divorced as it is from any emphasis on who is doing the doing, and why. Awareness itself is not highly valued, nor are we taught the richness of it and how to nurture, use, and inhabit it � how it can round out the limitations and sometimes the tyranny of thinking, and provide a counterbalance to our thinking and our emotions, serving as the independent dimension of intelligence that it actually is.�
Finally, as an educator, I become increasingly convinced that there is so much mindful learning from the part of individual learners and mindful pedagogical practices from the part of educational practitioners that can contribute to learner development/self-actualisation/self-authorship to higher levels. The decision-makers of the educational forefront are being exposed to increasingly compelling evidence-based resources to initiate and develop transformative learning and development processes as a matter of urgency to enable fairer, just, ethical and sustainable societies....more
“Mindlessness is the application of yesterday’s business solutions to today’s problems�
“Mindfulness is attunement to today’s demands to avoid tomorrow“Mindlessness is the application of yesterday’s business solutions to today’s problems�
“Mindfulness is attunement to today’s demands to avoid tomorrow’s difficulties�
In the book “Mindfulness�, the author Ellen Langer (a Professor of Psychology at Harvard University and also the author of “The Power of Mindful Learning�) brilliantly highlights the notion of mindfulness as a day-to-day life practice in a very compelling manner. The book recently celebrated the 25th year anniversary, and it is interesting to see the author’s initial wisdom and research outcomes are being reaffirmed by many similar works in more recent times. She starts the book by giving examples of how widespread mindless behaviours and operations present in our societies bring about distorted/narrow self-images, unintended cruelty, stunned potential, loss of control and negative health and wellbeing issues to name a few of the negativities. With mindlessness, stereotyping or sticking to rigid/inflexible/unconditional categorisation/generalisation is clearly visible. Even in many learning environments, knowledge is presented as unconditional hard facts, and all that is expected from learners is to memorise them and use them identically in any future situations. Such learning environments inadvertently produce or promote producing mindless experts or persons with single dimension/perspective views.
It is indeed enlightening to come to know what decades of Professor Langer’s research has revealed in an evidence-based manner (though unsurprising in a way):
“Mindlessness is pervasive. In fact I believe virtually all of our problems � personal, interpersonal, professional, and societal � either directly or indirectly stem from mindlessness.�
In contrast, when mindfulness is used and practiced, individuals develop the abilities to see many perspectives of the same problem/matter, receive and approach knowledge in a conditional and/or contextual manner that is subject to change over time or seen from a different context as opposed to receiving them as hard facts irrespective of the underlying contexts. In a learning environment, learners will be benefited in their human development process to be more creative, productive and resilient beings when additional time is used to introduce learners to many contexts and perspectives of a single concept or piece of knowledge (possibly without restricting to a single domain/disciplinary area) in a conditional manner. In other words, learners are presented with high-level/generalised concepts/knowledge (contextually and conditionally) that can be readily re-categorised and re-contextualised in future situations/problem-solving efforts. Further, in learning and development, what matters is the mindful process that the learner undergoes rather than any outcome, a notion that is at odds with many contemporary educational systems that purely focus on the outcomes (in many instances outcomes do not necessarily reflect the process undertaken) irrespective of how (positive or negative ways) they are achieved.
In mindless learning, individuals attempt to use past learning done in a rigid/hard-facts/unconditional manner inappropriately to current situations/problem-solving exercises while in mindful learning, they become open, alert in an ongoing manner and are flexible when receiving/grasping knowledge in a conditional/contextual manner as well as re-contextualise/modify them in a manner that is appropriate to current, future or new situations. Consequently, a mindful person becomes open to new information/knowledge and ideas and can see a problem/matter from multiple perspectives. This is essentially a creative approach to life and day-to-day matters. In other words, the abilities/skills in mindfulness lead to the development of better psychological health and resilience (as defined relation to the notion of emotional intelligence) in facing challenging situations in life. For instance, in the psychological/counselling practice of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), individual get exposed to multiple perspectives of depressing/negative life circumstances or presented with a reinterpretation of the same. Such notions are implicitly embedded as part of practices of mindfulness. In essence, mindfulness promotes the overall well-being of individuals especially in the areas of ageing where, in general, there is a negative perception of the notion. Many research assignments conducted by Professor Langer have produced positive results on healthy ageing and enhanced immunity systems enhancements for those who are engaging in activities mindfully. Further, as Professor Langer points out, due to the highly receptive to information/knowledge nature of mindful individuals, they tend to be highly intuitive (possessing gut feelings on mattes) as well (possibly as a result of implicit learning that takes place in an unconscious manner through openness/non-judgemental to information received).
As pinpointed by Professor Langer, many have questioned her about real practical possibilities/difficulties of becoming mindful in a constant/ongoing manner. They even raised the issue of developing a situation of indecision or tarnishing the skill/ability to make quick and firm decisions when one becomes highly mindful. In fact, the strength of mindfulness lies in the ability to make optimal decisions by considering as many perspectives/dimensions as possible. It contrasts with producing less optimal/substandard decisions/results rapidly by neglecting some important perspectives/contexts. Consequently, we see that if the leaders of our societies possess the skills/abilities of mindfulness, our world will thrive towards sustainability. Further, mindfulness is not a tool in possession by everyone all the time so that an individual can make use of it when he/she desires. Instead, it is skill/ability that needs to be learned and practised over time (possibly from very young age) to get to a level that makes it part of an individual’s everyday life.
It is wonderful to see an engineer working for a tech giant, Chade-Meng Tan, leading the way for world peace through an initiative of the development It is wonderful to see an engineer working for a tech giant, Chade-Meng Tan, leading the way for world peace through an initiative of the development of emotional intelligence/personal growth/human development. He rightly emphasises on the simple truth of individual development at grassroots is the key to world peace. It is uncustomary for someone working in the technology space to raise awareness on the need to develop emotional intelligence/human development of fellow workers as the path to higher productivity of individuals as well any organisation. Meng succeeds on this endeavours in no uncertain terms, relying on a wealth of research in the areas of neuroscience, mindfulness practices, empathy and compassion. His aim, or more accurately life purpose, is to spread the message he has developed and proven at GOOGLE to rest of the world � what a compassionate attitude!
As an educator/education professional, I see great value in Meng's approach to learners of all levels on their paths to lifelong learning. The presented self-regulation/self-awareness approaches (attention regulation (AR), emotion regulation (ER) and cognition regulation (CR)), revolving mainly on mindfulness practices, are the essential generic skills, irrespective of the domain or discipline of study, for any learner to be in possession for achieving enhanced learning/wisdom/consciousness. Also, with such practices, learners become resilient to adverse situations, which are unavoidable in many social environments, building empathic and compassionate attitudes. Investing time to develop resiliency through well-proven mind-training practices, despite our busy schedules, is analogously paying an insurance premium to cover for the unexpected or to safeguard us when the reality bites, destroying stereotyped expectations in an uncertain, ever-changing world. Further, developed skills in AR, ER and CR lead to enhanced creativity, critical thinking, interpersonal relationships, intrapersonal intelligence, and as a result, enhanced productivity at the workplace and community engagements.
Meng has successfully communicated an empowering message � “what we think, we become� based on the all-important concept of neuroplasticity; our abilities to learn or the capacities to regulate or cognitive and emotional activities are not fixed by genetics, but can be changed by the environmental factors. We no longer should argue about the "Nature vs. Nurture" debate as deterministically validating research has emerged. As Meng highlighted, the skill of mindfulness can be practised and enhanced to a level that one becomes conscious or aware of every time unit lived in a non-judgemental (relaxed and calm) way. It is the time when individuals learn implicitly/incidentally, the most common form of human learning (make no mistake or doubt � it is not the classroom learning), to create lasting memories that are widely used in a generic sense and situations. Further, mindfulness practices enable learners to develop in a “whole person� manner, integrating many operations of the brain including cognitive and emotional ones along with other neural networks of knowledge. Mindful integration of knowledge networks (in a non-judgemental (open-minded), relaxed and calm manner) is likely to make individuals receptive to all types of information/knowledge received without getting psychologically constrained by domain boundaries (or learn in an interdisciplinary manner), enabling them to see the reality as it is in an integrated and deeper manner. Having such a higher level of consciousness is referred to as possessing a healthy mind or, in Abraham Maslow’s words, a self-actualised mind; Kazimierz Dabrowski referred to it as reaching the highest human development levels - level five.
Meng has shown us the path to inner peace in individuals at grassroots in an evidence-based manner, which in turn should radiate as world peace in due course. The starting point of this journey is developing a self-awareness by "Search Inside Yourself", to understand one's strengths/weaknesses, likes/dislikes, the purpose of life and the like. This commendable work gives much-needed guidance to education policy-makers and other professionals in the same industry to take right decisions in educational reforms for the benefit and sustainability of our future generations. Highly recommended and a must read for every adult! ...more
In “Mindsight: Transform Your Brain with the New Science of Kindness�, the author Daniel Siegel, a Harvard educated clinical Professor of Psychiatry, In “Mindsight: Transform Your Brain with the New Science of Kindness�, the author Daniel Siegel, a Harvard educated clinical Professor of Psychiatry, emphasises the need to integrate cognitive and emotional functions across various part of the brain along with memory types such as implicit and explicit in order to develop healthy minds with a MINDSIGHT or with higher levels of consciousness/wisdom/human development. Without such processes of integration that are well supported by the latest neuroscientific research, individuals tend to develop negative psychological conditions, become sick or would not develop to their full potential. The key neuroscientific concepts behind the above integrative processes are neuroplasticity and epigenetics that allow us to train our minds based on appropriate environmental stimuli. Professor Siegel has given some classic examples (using real counselling cases) of how mindfulness practices can be used to develop healthier minds through the processes of integration mentioned above. He has always used these therapeutic mindfulness practices as more lasting remedies ahead of alternative approaches such as prescribed drugs that usually suppress symptoms while on medication (along with any negative side-effects). The therapeutic practices he used were essentially based on developing critical characteristics of self-awareness and self-regulation. When these skills are practised and developed, individuals become more empathic and compassionate by extending integrative processes from individual to collective lives leading to harmonious and sustainable societies, following the concepts of interpersonal neurobiology.
As an educator, I am fascinated to realise the ways we can apply the integrative human development concepts highlighted by Professor Siegel to generic teaching-learning environments/classrooms to enable individuals to achieve enhanced learning, creativity and wisdom. By emphasising on these mind integration practices, we as educators can focus on the much needed “whole person� or “holistic� development of learners. Linking any new concepts or contents introduced to as many autobiographical memories of the learners and transforming their implicit memories to explicit ones using an appropriate pace following mindfulness concepts would be some critical pedagogical practices we have to engage. Similarly, we should use open-ended questions as well as reflective journaling practices for mindfully retrieving learners� idiosyncratic and creative ideas for assessing them for their learning as well as in holistic human development. Such assessment would yield more accurate and lasting evaluations of the level “whole person development�, which can be used as a metric for further developments along the same lines, leading to individual productivity, resilience and happiness in general. Interestingly and encouragingly, Professor Siegel has put forth how narrowly focused education systems (focusing on a disintegrated narrower set of skills) existed at the time he was a student have started to improve with a realisation to value broader “whole person� development approaches. The book on "Mindsight", by Professor Siegel gives some highly useful insights and guidance to educational professionals including policy-makers to direct our pedagogical practices and education systems towards more evidence-based and much-needed learner transformation practices and systems. Such changes will help us to develop more harmonious and sustainable societies....more
In “Wherever You Go There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life�, the author Jon Kabat-Zinn highlights the message that the practices of miIn “Wherever You Go There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life�, the author Jon Kabat-Zinn highlights the message that the practices of mindfulness are not restricted to particular times at some locations, but it can be followed in anything one does anywhere. Further, he emphasises the fact that the mindfulness practices are not rigidly associated with a particular group or religion, rather it is a way of being that any individual can benefit immensely. The essence of mindfulness practices is the notion of getting one’s attention voluntarily on what he/she does in the present moment, non-judgementally. In other words, simply it is about not performing a task with the autopilot on, following the notion of automaticity � instead, it is about getting all the brain resources focused on it in a non-judgemental way. When we pay non-judgemental attention to a task or matter, we tend to see it more openly, in an unbiased manner or we become more receptive to the information per se that reaches us. Such an open reception of information will help us to see the reality as is, instead of through coloured glass, as is the usual case in many situations. Just imagine the strength of the idea of possessing a mind trained with appropriate mindfulness practices with the acquired skills to see or sense everything one does anywhere, anytime clearly and vividly as is, as highlighted by the author, Jon Kabat-Zinn. In fact, Jon was an emeritus Professor of Medicine who himself had been practising mindfulness meditation since the age of twenty-two before introducing mindfulness practices to the mainstream medicine in the USA through programs such as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR).
As an educator, I see a great value for any learner in following mindfulness practices that enable achieving enhanced learning constantly. Neuroscience research has revealed that most of our learning is implicit and it does not necessarily take place in a formal learning environment or classroom. In regard to this revelation, imagine the extent to which a learner can benefit, or can engage in learning per se if he/she can maintain a state of mindfulness constantly by paying voluntary attention non-judgementally in everything encountered and anywhere. In a universe of information that we cannot avoid as the transmission is enabled by various technologies and media cost-effectively, the best way to respond is to be receptive non-judgementally by keeping all our sense open rather than getting overwhelmed by it and closing our receptive sensors. We should also not disregard our internal body signals that help us develop a self-awareness by identifying and reflecting on our feelings, emotions and thoughts and the like in making our all-important decisions and in enhancing our well-being. Researchers have identified that such an awareness that can be developed through mindfulness practices is of prime importance in developing individuals with healthy minds or in achieving higher levels of human development. When we progress to higher levels in human development, we necessarily involve in an integration process of both external information as well as internal body signals that enable a "whole person" development learning path leading to wisdom. Further, we as learners/individuals become better-skilled in essential human functions such as attention regulation (AC), emotional regulation (ER) and cognitive regulation (CR) so that we develop the capacities required to be more effective, empathic, compassionate, resilient and productive social members. These members are better equipped and more capable of identifying and proper addressing of so called wicked problems.
Finally, the author Jon Kabat-Zinn, who himself has been a practitioner of mindfulness for over forty years, put the readers on a path to developing wisdom. The benefits of mindfulness practices have a radiant effect on many facets of life � in enhancing learning, healthcare, self-awareness, emotional and social intelligence, interpersonal relationships, parenting, decision-making and in short overall well-being and productive human operations....more
In “Mindfulness: a practical guide to FINDING PEACE IN A FRANTIC WORLD� by Mark Williams(an Emeritus Professor of Clinical Psychology at Oxford UniverIn “Mindfulness: a practical guide to FINDING PEACE IN A FRANTIC WORLD� by Mark Williams(an Emeritus Professor of Clinical Psychology at Oxford University and a co-founder of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy - MBCT) and Danny Penman put forth the important message of the role played by inward-looking capacities developed through mindfulness practices towards finding peace within a world of unavoidable chaos. In other words, it is better that we actively look for developing appropriate conditions internally or attempt to develop a self-awareness, instead of waiting (sometimes forever) for solutions to appear magically and externally from a frantic world. Consequently, mindfulness is a practice that empowers individuals to take control of their lives and be content and happy with an enhanced perception of reality so long as the basic needs such as food and shelter are satisfied.
One interesting notion the authors highlight in the book is the “habit release� mindfulness practice. In the words (given in the foreword) of Jon Kabat-Zinn (a pioneer in the area of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction � MBSR), it is:
"I particularly like the simple yet radical habit-breaking suggestions, what they call ‘habit releasers,' that they offer, which are meant to reveal and break open some of our most unaware life patterns of thought and behaviour, patterns that unbeknownst to us, tend to imprison us in a smallness that is definitely not the full story of who we are."
By engaging in the mindful practice of “habit release�, we switch-off the “auto-pilot� whenever it is appropriate and shift from a “Doing� mode to “Being� mode. In a frantic world, we get entangled in a “Doing� mode, trying to squeeze in as many “robotic� procedures as possible into our daily routines. We simply work like machines performing routine tasks repetitively with no time spent on reflections to see, or more correctly, to perceive what we are doing in a more detailed and creative way with wisdom/insights while being in a "Being" mode. Most importantly, the key to our health and well-being, reducing symptoms such as stress, anxiety, depression and similar negative psychological conditions is the increase of time in a “Being� mode while minimising the time in a “Doing� mode.
Another significant mindfulness practice that is highlighted in the book is the development of an approach/acceptance-oriented mental state as opposed to an avoidance-oriented one even in the presence of unavoidable realities of life yielding negative emotions. That is we befriend with such emotions like sadness and frustration with a loving kind/compassionate attitude towards us as well as towards the rest of the world. Clearly, this is not passive acceptance of or resignation to the adverse conditions in a spineless manner. Instead, it is the practice of equanimity through which we get to see and understand the realities of life better, possibly through the secretion of mood-control body chemicals such serotonin at appropriate levels. Through this clear vision and perceptions, we, in fact, get to the point that we can seek real solutions to the problems/conditions that caused the adverse situation. Further, we may get to see that these real solutions may not be present immediately; we may have to persevere for weeks, months or even years at times to find and apply them in a lasting manner. Authors also aptly highlight that mindfulness practices help us to avoid the rigid and inaccurate decision-making following a process of over-generalisation. When we are not appropriately mindful, possibly due to being entangled in a "Doing" mode, we tend to jump to inaccurate decisions or conclusions without having access to an adequate amount of information related to the matter. Consequently, it stops us from perceiving the realities better resulting in negative conditions such as stress, anxiety, sadness and frustration. Worsening the situation further, we may continue to rigidly believe in what we understood as real without adequate information and without being reflective or open-minded.
As educators, we have many lessons to learn from the practices of mindfulness to enhance student learning. First and foremost, we must make sure to avoid the teaching-learning process get into a “Doing� mode. Instead, we should allow learners enough time to reflect and be mindful during the learning process. Further, during the process of learner assessment, we necessarily need to get them to a "Being" mode, disallowing them from getting into a “Doing� mode in which they produce premeditated, habitual answers devoid of reflection and open-mindedness. Such conceptual changes at fundamental levels would lead to enhanced learning and more valid and lasting learner evaluations....more
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