{youtube}zrMNqIsZmQE{/youtube}
This post is copied from the Contemplative Teaching and Learning blog – we felt it deserved to be shared widely…
The topics we’ll be exploring during November’s Contemplative Teaching and Learning Symposium were framed in the keynote of last year’s symposium given by Mark Greenberg, Chair of the Contemplative Teaching and Learning Leadership Council. Greenberg spoke about the need for more exploration of the use of interpersonal contemplative practices in educational contexts.
According to Greenberg, intrapersonal practices such as yoga and meditation are receiving considerable academic attention, with research indicating their potential benefits in symptom reduction, self-reports of mindfulness and changes to brain activity.
But interpersonal practices, that is practices based on people engaging with one another, have received far less academic attention. Interpersonal practices include but are not limited to, deep listening, story-telling, contemplative dialogue and discourse, council procedure and groups, empathy training, certain martial arts, certain forms of service learning, contemplative art and contemplative music, contemplating the natural world and our awareness during daily activities.
Greenberg argued that we need to study both types of practices, and their potential effects on interpersonal outcomes such as social relations, self-awareness and self-regulation in everyday interactions and compassion for self and for others.
You can watch the entire talk titled “Nurturing Mindfulness In Families, Schools and Youth: Advancing the Science and Practice of Awareness and Caring” as well as other talks from last year’s Symposium by clicking here.