Mindful voices

This is one of the most common questions I'm asked by people wondering if mindfulness is for them. There’s often a subtext behind the inquiry: most mindfulness courses ask participants to practice for up to 45 minutes a day, the suggestion being that this will be a vital part of the learning process. Forty-five minutes a day seems a lot of work for most people, especially in a culture where sitting still and "doing nothing" for any time at all is unusual. If mindfulness just means paying attention, why can’t I do that without having to meditate? Can’t I just decide to notice things a bit more?

Of the multiplicity of amazing and not-at-all amazing features that appear on the web, my hands-down favorite is RSA Animate. It’s never failed to please me. In a nutshell, the Royal Society of Arts in London invites authors and innovators to give short talks on new and challenging thinking. The talks are then  given to animators who take the ideas and turn them into pictures, capturing short phrases that summarize what’s being said and the RSA produces a short YouTube video with the talk providing the voice-over for the animation. For some magical reason, it makes it so much easier to absorb the information. Sometimes, I wish I could RSA Animate a table conversation, or even a column or blog I’m reading. The visual and the aural interplay so beautifully.