De-Mystifying Mindfulness

Welcome to the course

People come to the study of Mindfulness for all kinds of reasons; I’m curious to know what brings you here. Perhaps you’re someone who already has a Mindfulness practice and you’re keen to know more about it? Perhaps you’re someone who has heard a lot about this mysterious thing called ‘Mindfulness,’ but you’re suspicious or skeptical about it, so you want to see what all the fuss is about? Is it really something real? Just a fad or fashion? Does it really cure all our ills? Perhaps you’re a student of psychology, or philosophy, or politics, or you’re an entrepreneur or a therapist? Whoever you are, and whyever you’re here, you’re very welcome. I look forward to learning about and from you as we embark on this adventure together.

'De-Mystifying Mindfulness' was first launched in 2016 and, since that time, it has been honoured by the participation of about 200,000 people on Coursera. During these years, we have listened carefully to the views, feedback, and needs of the participants, which have prompted us to make a series of changes and additions to the course. Thanks to the generosity of our donors (through our voluntary 'dana' box), we had the resources we needed to make the additions. So, as well as some minor changes, we've launched 2 major rounds of updates, including adding extra materials about sitting with difficulties and about the challenges of teaching mindfulness in 2019. We also added some extra audio files with meditation guidance for participants who requested these in the voice of Chris Goto-Jones. Then, in 2021, we added two entire new modules (Mindfulness, Trauma & Social Justice; Mindfulness, Nature and the Land), both of which included additional video and audio sessions. This 2021 update also included a new group of interviews with leading figures in the fields of the practice and study of Mindfulness. The result of these updates, we hope, is a responsive and relatively comprehensive guide to de-mystifying mindfulness; a side-effect might be that the style of presentation might sometimes seem a little inconsistent -- we hope that isn't too disconcerting for you.

Good luck with the course, and best wishes for your new adventure!

Introduction to Mindfulness

In this first module, we’re going to explore the foundational question of what Mindfulness actually is! This module has been designed to approach this question by considering a series of preconceptions about Mindfulness in contemporary societies. Hence, here we meet the characters who will help and guide us through the rest of the course: the scientist, the monk, the ninja, the zombie, and the hippie. I hope you find these to be worthwhile companions on our journey. In the end, we’ll discover that these preconceptions are not without merit, but that they are only partial pictures of the whole. We’ll also engage in our first Meditation Lab so that we can begin to weigh these preconceptions against our own experiences. Begin working on the week's Meditation Lab exercises at the beginning of each week. Be prepared to set aside time each day for the exercises in the Meditation Labs. The exercises can range from just a few minutes to nearly an hour, as indicated on each of the guided meditation recordings.

Psychology of/& Mindfulness

One of the most significant developments in the field of Mindfulness in recent years has been the development of ‘construct Mindfulness’ as a therapeutic tool and as a scientific technology. Both of these rest upon (and produce) bodies of scientific evidence about the effects and correlates of Mindfulness practice, both in terms of therapy and neurophysiology. In this second module, then, we’re going to explore some of implications and elaborations of these approaches. We’ll see what happens to the idea of Mindfulness when we make it into something that can be measured, and then we’ll investigate some of the most popular (and effective) Mindfulness-based Interventions, such as MBSR and MBCT. In the end, we’ll also ask whether this operationalized approach to Mindfulness actually hides deeper philosophical, religious, and existential questions, to which we’ll turn in the next module.

Philosophy of/& Mindfulness

One of the great debates in the field of Mindfulness revolves around the question of the nature of its relationship with Buddhism. In this module, we consider some of the ways in which this relationship can be understood, including by paying attention to the fact that Buddhism is a diverse and multivocal tradition. Going even further, we explore the possibility that traditions of thought other than Buddhism might provide valuable insights into Mindfulness, ranging from Daoism through Stoicism to contemporary American philosophy.

Politics of/& Mindfulness

It is commonly assumed that Mindfulness is a solitary pursuit, and yet there is also often talk of a ‘Mindfulness Revolution,’ as though Mindfulness is also a social movement. In this module we’ll explore some of the ways in which the practice of Mindfulness might impact on ethical, social, and political issues today. We’ll ask questions about whether a Mindful society would really be a utopia, or whether it would be a nightmare. We’ll investigate the significance of Mindfulness in the military and in education, and finally we’ll attempt to engage with the meaning and significance of the commercialization of Mindfulness in capitalist societies.

Extra 2021: Mindfulness, Trauma and Social Justice

While there is a tendency today to view mindfulness as somehow sealed off from the rest of society, like a kind of ‘clean space’ or refuge in which we might sit to shelter from the social, political, economic, and cultural turmoil around us, mindfulness is actually just as entangled in these forces as anything else. Over the last few years, an increasing body of research has started to explore some of the ways in which these social forces and personal histories impact on the experience of mindfulness practice. Such research shows that the field of mindfulness cannot assume that everyone sits onto the same cushion in the same room. And some people just might not have a cushion at all. Hence, this module explores the intersections between mindfulness and trauma, as well as mindfulness, privilege, prejudice, and oppression. Here we see that mindfulness is not free of concerns about racism, sexism, ableism or other forms of systemic discrimination. Nonetheless, perhaps mindfulness contains some seeds to help us confront these social ills?

We are fortunate to be able to include in this module a trauma-sensitive guided meditation by Elizabeth Stanley.

Extra 2021: Mindfulness and Nature & Land

One feature of contemporary mindfulness is that it is increasingly practiced in urban environments, in small rooms in big cities. This tendency has contributed to a form of romanticization of mindfulness in nature, as though practicing in a beautiful natural setting is somehow better or more ‘pure.’ We will see that this romantic view is not new at all, and also that it hides a much more complicated and subtle form of relationship between mindfulness and the natural world. In this module, we’ll explore some of the pros and cons of practicing in nature, as well as some of the myths about it. We’ll even learn a new meditation that is specifically designed to help us feel our place in nature. At the same time, as soon as we accept that the practice of mindfulness takes place in real locations (on particular territories or pieces of the earth), then we’ll see that we also have to accept that mindfulness is not free of questions of land politics and colonialism. What does it mean to practice mindfulness in a way that respects the land?

Mindfulness into the Future

In this last module, we’ll spend some time reflecting on the path we have travelled to get to this point. There is the additional content that learners requested and the community graciously financed. We’ll also consider some of the main challenges that we might have encountered, and also give some thought to what might come next for those of us who want to keep a Mindfulness practice in their lives.

Honours Project

Having come to the end of the regular programme, you might already be considering what you can do to continue the process of de-mystifying mindfulness for the world today. Perhaps you've identified a practice that really challenges you, or an idea that inspires you into action? Perhaps you're wondering whether your experiences and insights might also be valuable to other people; you're thinking of ways to test them or share them or both? This 'Honours Module' provides you with the opportunity to build on the knowledge we've accumulated and constructed over the previous weeks by creating original, new projects of your own. Successful completion of this project will mean that you will earn 'honours' on your certificate - the highest quality stamp available. More than that, your projects might make genuine and important contributions to our mission: building knowledge for a more mindful world.