Five Mindful Lessons from the Halls of Westminster

In a report by the UK’s Mindfulness All-Party Parliamentary Group, mindfulness was described as “one of the most promising prevention strategies” for addressing mental health issues and encouraging the flourishing and well-being of a healthy nation. Here are some key takeways from MPs who have been learning and practicing mindfulness in a heated workplace environment.

Pay Attention To Task Switching

A politician’s day is filled with an extreme overload of information and changing tasks, requiring them to shift and navigate what takes priority. Mindfulness has proven deeply beneficial with demands on attention and prioritization, offering a greater ability to regulate attention and focus. “I found the course extremely helpful in focusing my mind, reducing stress and improving concentration,” said a parliamentarian.

Make Time For Real Rest And Reflection

Mindfulness has helped politicians recognize the need to take breaks, using them to relax and restore their energy. These moments of quiet and calm are important for them to reconnect with themselves and touch base with their values so they can align with their inner compass. One parliamentarian said, “Mindfulness need not be thought of only as a ‘cure’ for those in need; it also helps one to know how to…enjoy living a life of service.”

TRANSFORM RELATIONSHIPS WITH SELF-COMPASSION

In the life of a politician, words and actions are analyzed immediately and often remembered for a long time via the media. The result is often a deep sense of self-criticism, which can be disabling and affect performance. Parliamentarians have found that mindfulness has helped them manage negative thoughts, and self-compassion has empowered them to recognize their humanity and show greater kindness to themselves.

Embrace The Power Of The Pause

Using the practice of mindfulness has helped many politicians practice impulse control, implementing the skill of responding versus reacting. “Many political careers have ended due to something said impulsively,” said Jamie Bristow, “and taking a pause before responding has enabled many to think with greater compassion and thus to disagree better.”

Meditate Where You Work

The halls and rooms of Parliament are filled with distractions—there are the frequent sound of bells and flashes of light throughout the building, alerting politicians to come to vote—making it far from ideal for practicing mindfulness meditation. “This is exactly the place to practice mindfulness as it brings your awareness right into the business of daily living and working,” says Mark Williams. “It’s precisely why mindfulness is now done in the workplace.”

PRACTICE Mindful Listening

When we think we already know what there is to hear, we are simply moving a little too fast to really listen. That’s where mindfulness comes in. mindful.org/ listening

Practice Isn’t Perfect

While mindfulness continues to permeate the halls of Westminster and beyond, the reality remains that the number of politicians practicing is relatively small. “Although some of the parliamentarians are quite visionary about what mindfulness could be to them and to politics, what’s seen in the debating chamber is still a minority, and for some who have taken the course, it’s far from a daily practice,” said Bristow. “As I like to say, the petals of a flower need to open all at once; you can’t put it on one petal.”

A politician’s day involves constantly switching from subject to subject, focusing on constituents and their problems, concentrating in the chamber, and fielding thousands of emails. “We hear from politicians that mindfulness is able to bring them attention regulation, compassion for constituents, self-forgiveness, resilience, and an ability to keep things in perspective,” says Bristow. “Using mindful awareness to stay tuned in to their inner compass can keep them on the right track.”

In a 2019 article in Current Opinion in Psychology, Bristow addresses some of the unique challenges faced by an elected representative, which, he writes, may explain the growing appeal of mindfulness practices for politicians. Mindfulness, he explains, is helpful in the areas of attention and focus, as 24-hour newsfeeds, social media, and a plethora of briefing papers can overwhelm one’s concentration. An ability to better self-regulate and tame reactivity—in order to avoid regrettable responses in the face of the public eye and debate skillfully (read: respectfully)—is another well-reported benefit. Including kindness and self-compassion as priorities has played an effective role for parliamentarians who report greater empathy for the public, as well as improved coping skills for times they’ve made mistakes. Lastly, Bristow points out the impact of meta-cognition—thinking about thinking—and how politicians express how mindfulness helps them keep perspective and create some space between a thought and “the truth.”

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Even with a minority of the country’s politicians practicing mindfulness—the UK has one of the largest legislative bodies, with 650 members of the House of Commons and another

778 in the House of Lords—the transformation to accepting it as a tool for improving mental health and reducing daily stress levels has gained momentum. Powerful non-practitioners have voiced support for the initiative, such as Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the current Speaker of the House of Commons, who in response to what he described as “disgraceful behavior in the chamber,” in February 2022, later tweeted: “Our words have consequences, and we should always be mindful of that fact.”

Disagreeing, Agreeably

Since its debut, the zeitgeist around mindfulness has morphed, bringing a sense of deeper interpersonal connection. “The people who continue to practice together sometimes open up about issues from their childhood or about bereavement,” explains Ruane. “It’s hard to bare your soul to people from different political parties in the evening and then be nasty the next morning.”

The parliamentarians who have gone through mindfulness training have been very open about their stress, according to Mark Williams. “It was more than simply a job, but also the worries of social media, death threats, and the necessity of security detail in their homes,” he said. “These are people with highly pressurized jobs looking for something that gives them a sense of peace and insight into the cascading mind, and to have the resources to do the job they mean to do.”

The adversarial nature of the Parliament, with lines of benches facing each other, does not lend itself to mindful listening. →

But after sitting and practicing in small mindfulness groups—where there may be members of both Conservative and Labour parties, mixed in with Liberal Democrats and members of the Scottish National Party—some politicians are able to listen and even disagree better. “People who practice together in silence learn that there are no boundaries, and that what you have is human beings talking about what it’s like to be human,” says Williams. “You can disagree but you can disagree agreeably and with kindness.”

Mindfulness makes it seem possible for some of these politicians to simply understand one another for the greater good of a common goal. Bristow quotes Baroness Ruth Lister, a peer of the House of Lords and a vice-chair of the MAPPG, as saying, “We talk about mindfulness being better ‘out there,’ but what about how mindfulness can help ‘in here,’ in Parliament?”

The benefits of clarity, slowing down, and communicating more mindfully have clearly been profound for those who apply the teachings to both their professional and private lives. “Mindfulness changed me from a rowdy heckler into a calmer, more reflective politician,” said Ruane, now chair of the Global Network of the Mindfulness Initiative. Initially, the mindfulness training was paid for by the politicians’ donation, and now, it is the House of Commons who covers the expense. “It has full endorsement, is appreciated and has gone from strength to strength,” says Ruane.

One parliamentarian told Bristow, “Mindfulness doesn’t make me less ideological. I still strongly believe in what I believe, but I am more civil and able to have positive and productive relationships with people in other parties.” And yet another said, “I bring more of myself to the job.”

“For members of all parties, this weekly mindfulness drop-in group is an oasis of trust and friendship—something very important in our adversarial politics,” said Lord Alan Howarth, peer of the House of Lords. “It is a very great help for my focus, energy, perspective, and sense of proportion and balance.”

Tracy Crouch, a Conservative MP and former Minister for Sport, has shared publicly how mindfulness helped her manage her anxiety and depression. “If we can normalize talking about mental health, then we will normalize talking about tools like mindfulness to deal with mental health conditions,” said Crouch.

The media and its impact on public opinion have also affected some politicians’ decision to voice their support of mindfulness. In the past, some parliamentarians said they’d join the mindfulness effort if it was kept strictly confidential. “There was a real worry that right-wing newspapers would use this as a salacious story,” said Bristow, “but at least twice it has passed the ‘Daily Mail test,’ where they couldn’t find anything negative to say about mindfulness in politics, so they just reported its existence.”

Opening Up to a World of Possibilities

Of course, the work of bringing mindfulness into the threads of British society is not without both its challenges and triumphs. There have been successes in areas such as health care, where mindfulness is now provided by the National Health Services as a way to combat recurring depression. The UK’s Ministry of Defense has rolled out training in mindfulness, and any member of the military is given free access to the Headspace app. In the area of education, however, the Parliament decided to hold off on expanding mindfulness because according to Bristow, “the competency of teachers was not achieved when trying to scale it up in a big way.” A seven-year research project studying a mindfulness intervention to improve mental health in early adolescents, employed in 100 UK schools— called MYRIAD—demonstrated that a great deal more work is needed before the most effective means of incorporating mindfulness practices at various stages of development can be found. In the area of criminal justice, as well, the evidence for mindfulness implementation hasn’t been strong enough, so further research is needed.

On the global front, mindfulness is making its way into the climate conversation. A recent Mindfulness Initiative report from May 2022 suggests that a key element that is missing in the global response to the climate emergency is an exploration of the human heart and mind. Compassion and empathy are what’s needed to remedy some of the environmental catastrophes, reads the report, which argues that the climate emergency is “rooted in a failure to acknowledge the wholeness of our world and act as if we are a part of it.”

BY SHAI DOLEV © THE MINDFULNESS INITIATIVE, ILLUSTRATIONS BY BLUELELA / ADOBESTOCK

This notion came to light in Brussels last May, when European Union (EU) officials came together for forest walks and meditation sessions as part of an effort to explore ways to tackle the climate emergency. An article published in The Guardian reported that the gathering was attended by politicians working on the 27-country bloc’s green deal climate policy. As part of the EU training, attendees were taught mindfulness practices and then presented with hard facts about the climate emergency. Discussions followed about how they personally relate to the issues that can feel daunting. Jeroen Janss, cofounder of the Inner Green Deal, who led the mindfulness training, told The Guardian that participants experienced many difficult emotions, from deep sadness and frustration to a sense of hopelessness. Practicing mindfulness helped them learn how to manage these emotions, find their role in making change, and move forward with greater agency.

Back to traveling in a post-COVID world, Ruane continues to advocate for mindfulness in government as part of a global initiative. Meeting with politicians from other countries, he shares his vision for the role that parliamentarians and government institutions can play in employing mindfulness to develop policies to promote compassion in action, well-being, and human flourishing.

It is safe to say that mindfulness in the UK has made great strides. Its impact on parliamentarians has created pathways to greater empathy and understanding, both as individuals and members of a team that is meant to work for the larger whole. It is the hope of many, it seems, that open-heartedness and collaboration emerge as something more attainable. “I have seen some hearts soften both on the left and right,” said Ruane. “Sitting together is great, but there are big decisions that have to be made. Difficult or not, if they’re made from a position of equanimity, it’s going to be better than a position of imbalance.” ●

About The Author

Caren Osten Gerszberg is a writer, certified positive psychology life coach, and mindfulness teacher. She helps clients find balance, resilience, and positivity. Also a contributor to The New York Times and Psychology Today, Caren writes about well-being, mindfulness, and education.