BJW Goes to Wales
Becoming Jackson Whole, our hometown venture to connect and support our community through mindfulness practice, gained international recognition this month when it was featured by Kelly Boys of the Mindful Cities Initiative in a presentation to Mindfulness Wales.
“BJW is an incredible flagship Mindful City because of the cross-sector integration and the Summits that are held,” Kelly said. “It's rare to see a city come together as a community around the themes of well-being and mindfulness, showcasing stories of how they are engaging with the practice and sharing expertise and learnings.”
Kelly, a veteran mindfulness program developer and facilitator (for Google, the United Nations, and others), is director of the Mindful Cities Initiative and its parent organization, the Foundation for a Mindful Society.
The success of the Mindful Cities Initiative arises, she says, from a consultative process: of listening to each community’s needs; of connecting the community with national resources such as researchers, trainers, and other program models; and of supporting and promoting each community’s progress. Jackson is one of three Mindful communities, along with Flint, Mich., and Boston, Mass.
Mindfulness Wales, a sister program to Mindfulness at Westminster in England, invited Boys to share each Mindful City's priorities and planning, which vary broadly depending on the project leadership within each community and residents’ most pressing concerns.
In Flint, Mich., leaders desperately wanted tools to address tension that was eroding resident relations with law enforcement. Their solution was to roll out training of both neighborhood groups and police officers, then bring the trainees together to practice mindful listening and cultivate understanding. The result was deepened community and respect, according to one resident, Carma Lewis, who spoke in Boys’s video presentation. “We need a relationship with our officers,” she concluded. “We need to come together, make things happen.”
In Jackson, leadership came from Sara Flitner, who, after serving as mayor, founded Becoming Jackson Whole to create mindful awareness across the community. The goal is to “floats all boats” on the benefits of greater compassion, resilience, and trust—within a generation.
Kelly illustrated Jackson’s remarkable progress by sharing several clips from Becoming Jackson Whole’s 2023 Summit: Giving Rise to a Mindful Community, featuring professionals who have implemented mindfulness training as a tool in the workplace. These include first responders, teachers, and business and nonprofit leaders.
Kelly also applauded Becoming Jackson Whole’s year-round programming, which includes practice resources for individuals, regular group practice opportunities, customized workplace trainings and train-the-trainer sessions, and community events, such as the Summit.
"From the police to the hospital to the ski patrol, education and businesses, the community is engaged together in a way that should be an inspiring example to other cities,” she said.
We wish all of Wales well as their learning sessions inspire programming that "gets mindfulness into the water table," as Kelly suggests. It works—and we're among the proof.
What We're Trying: More from Mindfulness Wales
Watch Kelly's presentation to Mindfulness Wales, which opens with a 5-minute guided mindfulness practice, and explore other recorded discussions with mindfulness researchers and trainers from around the world, including:
Integrating Trauma-Sensitive Approaches
Compassion and Why It Matters
Deepening a Mindfulness Practice
Mindfulness and Addiction Recovery
Transforming Culture
How We're Practicing: Connection
This 7-minute loving-kindness practice with Becoming Jackson Whole mindfulness trainer Laura Callari helps us cultivate a warm-hearted orientation to the world around us.
Sometimes you won’t feel particularly magnanimous during a connection practice. That’s okay! Just notice what comes up for you, without judgment.