Real Mindful

In this week's episode, JG Larochette, founder of the Mindful Life Project, sits down with Mindful managing editor, Stephanie Domet and shares his transformative encounter with mindfulness. Larochette shares his experience with bringing mindfulness into the classroom and the healing effect it had, not only on his students, but on his greater community. He reminds us that mindfulness is an innate skill we all possess and shares some tips on how to unlock this powerful ability.

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Mindful Life Project

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In this week's episode we learn from experts about empowering men through a courageously expansive and compassionate vision of what it means to be a man. Mindful senior editor Amber Tucker speaks with Edward M. Adams and Ed Frauenheim, authors of Reinventing Masculinity: The Liberating Power of Compassion and Connection. Adams and Frauenheim share why they choose to use the terminology "confined" masculinity, instead of "toxic" masculinity, and how mindfulness helps to cultivate self-awareness, courage, vulnerability that can help men live more full, connected lives.

Plus, managing editor Stephanie Domet chats with senior editor Kylee Ross about the fifth annual Mindful30 Meditation Challenge, an offering from Mindful and eight world-renowned mindfulness teachers that you won't want to miss.

"Gentle accountability," Mindful founding editor Barry Boyce says, ​​"is the cornerstone of the deepest kind of friendship, where we rely on each other to let us know when we're full of ourselves." In this episode of Real Mindful, Barry Boyce sits down with managing editor Stephanie Domet to talk about overcoming our differences, how mindful awareness can help us navigate the habits and patterns that arise in our in-groups, the refreshing value of encountering other perspectives, the benefits of mindful teasing and the beauty of encouragement.

For mindfulness teacher, author, and clinical psychologist Ruth King, holding onto hate is not an option. Instead, she returns to the knowledge that we are inter-connected, and that we belong to each other—even when it's hard. "The world needs our wise hearts right now," she says, and mindfulness can give us the inner stability to respond, rather than react, when change feels urgent. In the first ever episode of Real Mindful, Ruth joins managing editor Stephanie Domet in conversation about finding comfort in impermanence, and the healing power of compassion.

Imagine a retreat where you don't talk, partake in some labor, and your dad expects you to come out of the whole experience as an altered and evolved version of yourself. The character Fleabag, in the half an hour dramedy Fleabag, experiences just that.

Barry and Stephanie consider this one-and-done approach to mindfulness and engage with the telling hilarity found in the episode.

They both agree there's a lot of creepy and crappy teachings of mindfulness, Fleabag's retreat and some real-life retreats are some of them.

After they dive into the show's revealing satire, Barry and Stephanie reflect on the uncertainty of the pandemic we're all living in and our interconnectedness along with a few references to violinists and expressions of our new universal love language: wash your hands.

Show notes:

Fleabag Season, 1 Episode 4

Violinist Fritz Kreisler

Not to be confused with Fritz Crisler, American football coach

Violinist Itzhak Perlman is not a cellist

Good news: It's okay to be a mindful vulgarian. What's important is that you're aware of the context, the words you use and how you use them. It's all about mindful communication.

Special guest Pat Rockman joins Barry Boyce and Stephanie Domet. Stephanie guides the conversation by gleaning Barry and Pat's insights into mouthing off mindfully. And, she finds out if they ever write someone off as a jerk.

Show notes: This episode contains strong language.

Patricia Rockman, MD, CCFP, FCFP is a family physician with a focused practice in mental health.

Have you ever had those moments of inescapable boredom? It persists like an itch you can't scratch. Often in those moments, we desperately try to find something to satisfy or entertain ourselves. But maybe we should stop doing that.

Barry and Stephanie discuss their own experiences with boredom. For a while, Barry had the itch come up in his meditation practice. Stephanie recalls moments of boredom in childhood and times she grappled with her attention span.

Together they provide insight into why boredom can come up in meditation, how to move through it and the perception you can find beneath. And that perception is a gift for you to use.

You don't want to miss this layered conversation that addresses racism, privilege and fragility.

Experts Rhonda Magee, Ram Mahalingam and Mirabai Bush talk to Barry about contemplative practice and equity issues. The four of them draw on their experiences and mindfulness practices to provide a rich dialogue on navigating racial justice.

Show notes: Rhonda V. Magee is a professor of law at the University of San Francisco. Also trained in sociology and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), she is a highly practiced facilitator of trauma-sensitive, restorative MBSR interventions for lawyers and law students, and for minimizing the effects of social-identity-based bias.

Ram Mahalingam is a cultural psychologist, award-winning researcher, teacher, mentor, artist, and filmmaker. His current research concerns nurturing a caring and compassionate workplace that treats its workers with dignity.

Mirabai Bush is a senior fellow at the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society. She has led mindfulness training for lawyers, judges, educators, environmental leaders, activists, students, and the army, and was a key developer of Search Inside Yourself at Google.

Anger, passion and the other emotions that circle through you are welcome in the space of mindfulness.

Barry Boyce and Stephanie Domet talk about the push and pull of emotions versus rationality. They discuss how people can have the impression we need to remain in a neutral, calm state. Barry says that's not the answer nor is it the truth of who we are as humans. He recalls moments where he's dealt with anger and what he's learned from it all.

Barry leads Stephanie through a practice to sit with your emotions. Together they reflect on the role of emotions in our lives and in our mindfulness practices.

Show notes: Meditation by Barry Boyce.

Barry and Stephanie talk about the big-p: politics of governments. And the small-p: politics of everyday life. We move in and out of the zones, sometimes unaware of the politics and our own bias that's operating within the spaces. How does politics fit into mindfulness? How do they fit into Mindful magazine?

Barry and Stephanie break down these ideas and show the ways mindfulness can help us to utilize compassion and awareness to address bias, privilege, racism, and other political issues, both big and small.

They also begin their discussion of mouthing off mindfully because let's face it, it's not realistic to remain neutral in all of life's arenas.

Show notes: This episode contains strong language.