Mindfulness: Developing Agency in Urgent Times

"Magnificent! Mindfulness: Developing Agency in Urgent Times is a tour de force." - Professor Jon Kabat-Zinn

Humanity’s future may depend upon strengthening our agency.

Multiple interconnected crises call for skilful response on a global scale - but our capacity for intentional action in our collective best interest is underdeveloped and increasingly undermined.

This discussion paper opens a dialogue on the contribution of evidence-based mindfulness training to individual and collective agency.

Beyond a ‘nice to have’ wellbeing benefit in the workplace or an alternative to prescription drugs, we’ll discuss how cultivating the innate capacity of mindfulness and its essential qualities such as attention regulation, receptivity, meta-cognition, cognitive flexibility, embodiment, emotion regulation and kindness could be foundational in responding to the complex challenges of the 21st Century.

"This is full of gold insights. If anyone wanted a thoughtful introduction to the importance of inner change to the problems of the world, this is it." - Ronan Harrington, founder of Alter Ego, a global network of progressive leaders exploring the connection between personal, cultural and political renewal.

"I consider Mindfulness: Developing Agency in Urgent Times to be the most important document in this field in the last decade. As a clinician, mindfulness trainer and director of a non-profit all orientated towards waking up, healing, understanding and compassion in a complex, systemic context I resonate so deeply with it. It was like reading a beautifully crafted and articulate reflection of my own seen and hidden highest thoughts and feelings." - Dr Simon Whitesman MBChB, Programme Director: Certificate Training in Mindfulness-Based Interventions, Stellenbosch University Faculty of Medicine & Health Science & Chairperson: Institute for Mindfulness South Africa

PRINT VERSION: World of Books (£6.29 UK) / eBay (£7.25 UK) / Amazon UK / Amazon US

ONLINE VERSION: DOWNLOAD PDF (Not working in Firefox, use alternative browser)

[Version 04 released Nov 2020]

Writing: Jamie Bristow & Rosie Bell
Research: Jamie Bristow, Rosie Bell & Dan Nixon

Watch the online launch

To support the continuation of debate on this topic, the Mindfulness Initiative ran an essay competition and published the winning contributions in a collection titled Responding to Mindfulness Developing Agency in Urgent Times.

You can offer your reflections or feedback on this discussion paper here.

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