Responding to Global and Local Challenges with Compassion and Equanimity: The Role of Mindfulness

Mindfulness practices develop a calm, clear, balanced mind with the capacity for increased insight into the challenges we face right now, from global public health to local economies.  Mindfulness also prepares us to respond with compassion, which is empathy for another person’s suffering accompanied by the desire to relieve that suffering.  This lecture will cover how these ancient practices have proved helpful in contemporary life. Mirabai’s own experience of mindfulness began in India in 1970.  From that beginning, she worked to find ways to integrate it into both for-profit and nonprofit organisations, teaching mindfulness to leaders in diverse sectors, including law, education, philanthropy, government, social justice activism, the military, and business (Google). She will lead two short practices so listeners can experience firsthand their simplicity and accessibility.