Mindful Learning from the Pyrenean Foothills
VTT -the last day.
This picture was inspired by the book Mindfulness by Ellen J. Langer.
The mindfulness she writes about is in someways different from the common image of mindfulness that we often see, most notably as it does not require meditation. Ellen, who is a prolific researcher, claims that most of us are living mindlessly and she challenges us to be more aware and intentional about our everyday thoughts. Her approach is based around developing cognitive flexibility and letting go of certainties.
One area of her research is mindfulness and ageing. She believes it is mindless to accept some of the stories that we have around our diminishing health as we age and that a lot of the deterioration we experience is actually due to the thoughts we have.
Reading her book made me realise that I had mindlessly accepted some of the stories around women and ageing. Approaching fifty, I had started to fuse with the narrative that I was no longer as fit as I was and that I could not do some of the same bike rides that I had even a few years ago. When I mindfully engaged with this story, I realised that it was just that - a story - I couldn’t be certain it was true because I had stopped riding longer distances!
I could see that these thoughts were becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Determined to challenge this mindset, I set out on a 200km bike ride with a 4,000m ascent through the Pyrenean foothills. Did I achieve the goal? Well, yes and no. I fell on day one due to tricky terrain, accumulating a few bruises, and after four days of riding, heavy rain forced us to cut the journey short and change our route.
But I had, in fact, cycled long distances with all my camping gear, up and down hills, for four days. The story I’d told myself was officially rewritten.
No doubt these thoughts will resurface and at some point they may be right - but not accepting these thoughts as a certainty, I hope will keep me active for longer. And when they do, or others like them, I know I need to ask myself whether these thoughts are helpful in taking me towards living the life I want to live.
The book also made me think about how much of what takes place in school is mindless rather than mindful - doing things the way we have always done them. What if we started to really explore some of the routines, structures and practices that we have in place, hold them to the light - would they make sense with a mindful eye?
What areas of your life would be interesting for you to approach with a beginner's mindset?
Where might you be acting ‘mindlessly’ rather than choosing what is mindfully right for you at this time?
What three new things can you notice about you, your home or your work?
Check out Ellen J. Langer’s book or one of her podcast appearances: Watch here.
