Mindfulness as crime-prevention? A True story.  

I am a passionate advocate of making mindfulness teachings more widely available. Recently someone reached out to me to suggest that mindfulness won’t help us solve our problems; what we need is more discipline.

While I can understand why someone might think this, the truth is that contemplative practices and healthy discipline/boundaries can absolutely co-exist! 

This viewpoint made me realize that people who have never had a firsthand experience of mindfulness can’t fully understand the potential positive impact to  individuals and society.

Here is a story that might help help people understand.  

This is a real-life situation where a mindfulness practice created new possibilities and very likely helped stop an assault, prevent a crime and keep someone out of jail.

This was a few years ago when I helped create and deliver an 8-week mindfulness program in an inner-city medical clinic.  Truth be told, I was a bit nervous and not sure how the curriculum would land for these people who were dealing with major challenges.

One person was homeless and living in a shelter. At least one person had recently been released from prison. All had serious medical issues and many had at least one psychological diagnosis.

Would they be open to mindfulness teachings? Should I modify the curriculum? I went in with an open heart and mind and an intention to serve as best I could.

So there we were in week 5, talking about mindful communication. At this point, we had been practicing mindfulness regularly and building our capacity to observe our automatic reactions.

The group seemed to be engaged and supportive of each other. It felt like a privilege as one of the facilitators to be there.

We talked about using mindfulness to create space to pause and consciously choose how to respond in challenging situations.

We explored other specific ways to cultivate ‘wise speech’ and how to move towards an assertive style of communication, rather than with aggression or passivity.  

We talked about speaking our truth without blame or judgment. These were new concepts and the group listened curiously.

I like to try and make all of this fun, so we joked and brainstormed how this might play out in their lives and I sent them off for the week with the invitation to fill out their daily communication calendar, noting any difficult communications and exploring in specific new ways.

The module on communication is often one of the most interesting weeks of the course for participants, as our reactions to other people can be one of our biggest sources of stress. When we came back together the following week, I was excited to hear what they learned in the laboratory of their own lives.

Mindfulness as Crime Prevention

One of the gentlemen who had recently been released from prison waved his hand eagerly when I asked if anyone had anything they wanted to share.

He described an evening when he was awoken from sleep in the middle of the night to the sounds of someone trying to break into his car.

He decided this would qualify as a potential ‘challenging communication’ so he took a few minutes to check in with himself before acting.

In his body he noticed his heart racing and his clenched fists. Emotionally, he had rage and anger arising. His thoughts were along these lines: I can’t believe they are really doing this to me right now!’

Without investigation, his automatic reaction would have been to grab a pipe or baseball bat and go beat the *tar* out of the person.

Instead, he took a couple of deep breaths, and asked himself how he could speak his truth without blame or judgment.  His mindfulness practice allowed him to stop and consciously chose how he wanted to respond.

He decided to try what he thought of as an assertive instead of aggressive response, so he went outside and said the following:

‘Excuse me, sir, this is my personal property and I need you to leave right now.’

To his surprise, the other person left. No one got harmed, no one went back to jail. My new friend could not have been more pleased with himself and delighted that something so simple was so effective.

I kept it together long enough to get through the class, but when I got back home, I wept. I cried for all the people who don’t have support systems, who have been dealt a bad hand in life. For these people, mindfulness teachings are not a luxury but a possible lifesaver; and it’s so simple and relatively inexpensive as compared with keeping people in prison!

I imagine the world we would have if these teachings/skills were taught to all. 

Look around at the current level of discourse we see around us. It seems clear that we have a lot of work to do as a culture if we want to heal and come together to live in peace. Although not a panacea, I propose that mindfulness (and heartfulness) teachings are an important piece of the puzzle and aught to be disseminated more widely. 

If you agree, Erin, let’s get started. There’s no time to waste. If you’d like to share your thoughts on the blog, please click here. I’d love to hear from you. 

Share Mindfulness With Your Community!

If you feel drawn to learn how to share these teachings with your community, I have another Mindfulness Teacher Training starting next month. Early bird pricing is in place only until August 11, so sign up now and save, 

Here are some words from a recent graduate: 

“This past week I devoted 5 hours of mindfulness teaching, all of them one-on-one in a comfortable, private setting at my center. So far, I held sessions on mindful communication and self-compassion. Leading up to these sessions, I was dealing with a “mixed bag” of emotions and a slight case of “nerves” which all settled as soon as I started teaching. I received wonderful and useful feedback thus far from each of my students. The private sessions were helpful as I was able to meet each person at his/her level and needs. Each one expressed interest in attending future group trainings or workshops, which is the validation I was looking for.

This has been one of the most rewarding and heart-warming experiences for me, and I thank you for your amazing teaching and mentorship.”  

I LOVE hearing about these ripples and knowing that we are sprinkling these skills around. At some point I envision a tipping point where we are suddenly standing in the more beautiful world we knew was possible all along.