Why I Meditate (and Why You Should Too!)

, Professor of Studio Art Middlebury College

After personally realizing the connections between mindfulness and creativity, I have used meditation practice in my Studio Art courses for ten years. Over the last four years, I have taught four introductory courses on mindfulness. This course involves meditation practice and integrates the intellectual and personal concerns of students.

Courses

I use mindfulness to support learning in all of my Studio Art classes: ART0159 Drawing ART0160 Sculpture and Video ART0327 B&W Photography ART0328 Color Photography

I also teach Introduction to Mindfulness courses, INTD1125 and FYSE1393, which offer meditation, reading, writing and discussion on just that subject.

Mindfulness Teaching Statement   Mindfulness promotes increased attention, self-awareness and empathy. These qualities enhance the holistic development of our students with benefits for their academic endeavors and personal lives. When students encounter challenges mindfully, they can move beyond habitual reaction into more conscious and appropriate response. Self-awareness reveals our implicit, intimate and extensive relationships with the world and extends empathetic understanding.

Meditation on one’s own is certainly possible and is done by some students. However, for many, justifying the time commitment is difficult. For others, mindfulness practice is simply not well understood, or, a regular disciplined approach is problematic. Students doing meditation on their own may reduce the practice to just a form and miss out on the philosophical and ethical richness. Semester-long classes dedicated to meditation give students a practical and intelligent basis with which to incorporate mindfulness into their studies and lives in profound ways. Earning a college academic credit ensures the proper seriousness and effort from the students.

Our college mission statement declares that we are committed “to cultivate the intellectual, creative, physical, ethical, and social qualities essential for leadership in a rapidly changing global community.” We can integrate the academic, the personal and the social. Mindfulness practice encourages a wide space of awareness where a large context naturally arises. Meditation is experiential learning at a fundamental level. Practitioners develop a quiet, precise observation of their own mind and the environment, exactly the qualities our graduates need to be the stewards described in the mission statement.