#8. Cultivating mindfulness and presence: How humanity can enhance its capacity to do good

The Last Stand

In our eighth episode of The Last Stand Podcast, we have a thought-provoking discussion with Tim Desmond about the importance of mindfulness, presence, and mental resilience when confronting the immense and varied challenges that currently face humanity. Tim Desmond is a psychotherapist, author, and Distinguished Faculty Scholar at Antioch University New England. He is also a student of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh and the co-founder of Morning Sun Mindfulness Center, which teaches mindfulness and self-compassion practices to professional and popular audiences around the world.

During our excellent conversation with Tim, we discuss how enhancing mindfulness and presence is essential to improving our ability to be effective and positive change makers in our communities. Tim also makes the case for why mindfulness is a quintessential component to boosting the effectiveness and stamina that fuels social movements. Additionally, Tim explains how he utilizes these practices and teachings in both his personal and professional life, and details how his mindfulness training was deployed during the Occupy Wall Street protest in New York City. Lastly, we discuss how mindfulness should be integrated into current social movements, such as Black Lives Matter, learn about the value of embracing life’s suffering while cultivating joy, and explore the emerging affliction of “toxic righteousness”.

FollowTim Desmond through his website and Twitter.

Show Notes:

• 8:30 – Discussion of Tim’s next book, Staying Human in a F*cked Up World
• 16:00 – “Resilience is a skill that you can develop through practice…”
• 20:15 – Toxic Righteousness – “The anger fueled self certainty that pervades so much of our political discourse…”
• 23:00 – Both despair and toxic righteousness are made out of compassion, and can only exist because we recognize suffering and it affects us
• 26:00 – There are two sides to the practice of mindfulness: 1) learning to embrace and transform suffering and 2) learning how to cultivate joy
• 34:00 – How to deploy the art of mindfulness on the front lines of social movements
• 45:45 – The importance of cultivating presence, and using mindfulness and compassion training to address humanity’s greatest challenges
• 50:00 – “…helping good-hearted people be more effective in their actions.”
• 53:00 – Additional resources

Additional Resources:

• Celebrate the Life You Have: How mindfulness can transform tragedy into a glorious appreciation for what is right in front of you
• Episode 106 of the Therapy Chat Podcast w/ guest Tim Desmond
• Tim Desmond’s publications and books available through Amazon
• Tim Desmond explains the structure behind The Self-Compassion Skills Workbook