In the light of International Women’s Day, I have a confession to make.  I’m kind of old-fashioned.  Even in my Boulder, Colorado heyday of hippie-inspired activism, I could never really get behind the feminist movement. Environmentalism?  Great!Parity in education?  Totally reasonable!Universal access to health care?  What a lovely idea! I could corner strangers and harass them about the importance of those topics with the best of them. (Seriously.  I used to canvas for Greenpeace.)  But when people would try to get me talking about feminism, I would muster up and lackluster smile and say, “Mmmhmmm!” as enthusiastically as possible before making up an excuse about needing to hit the 5-day-old…

The mindfulness topic has stayed on my mind through the day, leading to an important subcategory: Mindfulness at Work.  Here are some continued thoughts. Mindfulness At Work 1) I feel like am more mindful in my private life than in my professional life.2) That’s probably because it’s difficult to be mindful (ie aware and present for what is happening in the moment) when someone is dictating the parameters of what is important and setting the deadlines for work to be completed3) Maybe I should stop caring so much what the administrators that set deadlines think of my professional performance. To bring mindfulness into my professional life… I think I need…

Mindfulness has been a trending topic in education lately.  Like all trending topics in education, the popularity has led to much sarcastic skepticism about what it really means to be “mindful”.  There are lots of super fun internet searches involved in this! Someone with a reasonably sarcastic sense of humor (me, my boyfriend, the majority of people I choose to spend time with) can have a ton of fun debating the merits of quotes like “Mindfulness is the opposite of mindlessness” and “Spending time on purpose”. But seriously, I sort of get it. It is about being present in the moment.  That’s important.  It involves lots of deep breathing.  I…