I did not feel well today. I did an only synchronous Zoom class and several meetings, and at the end of the day… crashed. I had to close my eyes for a while. Now I pulled up the Lilly Online Conference 2021 talk entitled “Mindful UNCW: A Campus-Wide Initiative Promoting the Practice of Mindfulness” by Jaquelyn Lee and Anne Pemberton from the University of North Carolina Wilmington. They began by talking about mindfulness and what mindfulness is not! They stated that it is not simply a stress reduction technique, it is not a technique to get us to a specific state, it is not controlling your experience, it is not an escape from what is happening, it is not a quick fix, and it is not a blank mind. Lee talked about mindfulness paying attention in a particular way on purpose based on Jon Kabat-Zinn’s 1994 definition. Some attitudes of mindfulness that Kabat-Zinn 2009 described and Lee mentioned are: non-judging, patience, beginner’s mind, and trust. Lee talked about being an observer: “I am having the thought “I can’t do this.” At UNCW, a predominantly undergraduate campus with around 17,000 students, the Mindful UNCW initiative was designed to increase mindful practice. The initiative was launched in the fall of 2020 with a couple of funding sources. The first goal was to build a campus community. The second goal was faculty and staff development. The third goal was scholarship that is mindfulness-focused. Goal 4 was to co-create with other groups. The seminar series started with the state of science and included contemplative neuroscience, anti-racism in higher education, compassion, mindful listening… mindfulness and racial justice themes were also integrated into several courses.
Pemberton shared preliminary data: 866 confirmed attendees across all events. There were 316 people who registered but did not attend, and Pemberton speculated that they might have expected a recording, and for some speakers recordings were not available. Students attended events: 203 attended one or more speaker events. The post event survey they sent to attendees resulted in a ~26% return rate. Pemberton also shared a handful of open-ended responses and discussed the wealth of data they now have to analyze. Moving forward, they may adjust some of the questions asked. They group seems to have several ideas for 2021 and beyond including lightning talks, changing the timing/expectations for book clubs, and building more collaborations. Areas for improvement that Pemberton mentioned were more advertising, learning some ways of streamlining the administrative tasks, and developing themes. Pemberton ended by talking about how their team of three accomplished this for their entire campus! Impressive! They emphasized asking what does your campus need and how feasible is it? To start a personal informal mindfulness practice, there are several ways to get started. I enjoyed learning what three people with initiative were able to do with limited funds and resources. The impact they had on the campus and 800+ attendees is still being evaluated, and their model will continue to be refined. For now, I’m going to be mindful of this sinus infection (?) and go to bed.
