What does a monastery, a couch, a non-alcoholic hazy IPA, and the Environmental Protection Agency have in common?
In this short talk they belong to one story. Sean Fargo is a former Buddhist monk who founded Mindfulness Exercises and leads the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification. He recorded it on his couch, with a non-alcoholic hazy IPA, to share news he says he still can’t fully wrap his head around.
In From Monastery to Mindful Government, he explains why he left the monastery, describes how a senior EPA leader and several colleagues joined the certification, and says what he hopes comes next in federal agencies.
He names climate change as his main reason for teaching mindfulness, and talks about mindfulness in workplaces and institutions. In his view, the science is clear that mindfulness helps reduce stress and anxiety.
Sponsored by our Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program MindfulnessExercises.com/Certification
Episode Overview:
- Leaving monastic life: hugging family, hard-shelled tacos, and climate change
- Mindfulness in the workplace, and why he says it has gone mainstream
- Bringing mindfulness into healthcare and government institutions
- EPA leaders enrolling in mindfulness certification
- Climate change as his main reason for teaching mindfulness
- Mindfulness passed from person to person inside an agency
- Training trainers: certifying people to teach mindfulness
- Taking workplace mindfulness home
- Hope for mindfulness in the federal government
Key Takeaway: Sean sees federal agencies’ interest in mindfulness as a sign of hope and optimism.
Show Notes:
Leaving the Monastery: When Practice Meets Real Life
Sean was a Buddhist monk for a couple of years. He says he left for a few reasons. One was to hug his mom and sister again, since monks in his tradition do not touch women. Another was to eat hard-shelled tacos: in his tradition you cannot take a bite of food you are holding in your hands, so everything is cut first. “I like tacos,” he says. The bigger reason, he says, was climate change.
He felt that teaching mindfulness could help people live with more consciousness, kindness, and empathy for animals and wildlife, and perhaps choose what they consume with more care for the planet.
He then worked at Spirit Rock for five years and in healthcare for a couple of years, and he now leads the teacher training program that certifies people to teach mindfulness, hoping that teaching people how to teach will “make big waves around the world.”
Why Mindfulness Belongs Inside Complex Institutions
Sean says that twenty years ago not many companies or schools were exploring mindfulness, and that in the last twenty years there has been a “sea change” toward the mainstream.
He describes mindfulness as helpful for senior leaders, managers, and people on the front lines, and mentions that several Navy SEALs have been in the certification program.
A couple of weeks before recording, Sean got an email from a senior leader at the Environmental Protection Agency. She and a few colleagues are in the certification, and he says they are liking it and sharing mindfulness trainings throughout the EPA, which has thousands of people across the country. They would like to:
- Enroll 15 or 20 more people in the next round of the certification
- Spread mindfulness further around the EPA
- Plant seeds for a “mindful Fed,” a mindfulness program for every federal agency
Sean says, “The science is clear that mindfulness helps reduce stress and anxiety,” and adds that in his view it also fosters more empathic and compassionate communication and supports well-being.
From One Leader to Many: How Mindfulness Spreads Inside Agencies
The EPA leaders who enrolled are sharing mindfulness trainings across the agency and want to sign up more colleagues in the next round.
Sean says other parts of government are also interested in the trainings:
- The Forest Service
- The Housing Department
- The Navy
Attention as a Shared Resource
Under this theme, what Sean describes is mindfulness passed from person to person: leaders who learned it are now sharing it with colleagues across an agency.
Training the Trainers: Scaling Without Losing Integrity
Sean says the certification is built around training trainers: it certifies people to teach mindfulness, in the hope that teaching people how to teach will make big waves around the world.
When Workplace Mindfulness Comes Home
Sean says that when people learn mindfulness at work, they don’t leave it there: “It’s not like you put your mindfulness in your top cubby in your desk.”
He says the more mindful we are at work, the more we can practice at home:
- With a spouse, kids, and loved ones
- In decisions about what we buy and what we eat
- In how we talk to people
A More Humane Vision of Public Service
Sean calls the EPA’s interest a sign of hope and optimism for our future as a country, a planet, and a species.
He thanks anyone making a positive difference, whether or not they teach mindfulness, and invites viewers to leave a comment about the good they are doing in the world.
He says that when he left the monastery he could never have dreamed he would one day be helping people help others in the federal government, and that it feels like it has come full circle. He is grateful, he says, to be involved in a very small way.
Additional Resources:
- Free Training with Sean Fargo: How to Teach Mindfulness With Confidence & Credibility
- Certification: Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification
- Blog: Why community matters for mindfulness and how we’re deepening ours
- Blog: 70+ Stress Quotes: Navigating Stress with Wisdom
