Two meditation experts weigh in on the question of how mindfulness can be achieved: Sharon Salzberg, author of Real Happiness, and clinical psychologist Donna Rockwell. They discuss what mindfulness is and how the techniques can be applied to everyday life. When Rockwell demonstrates two breathing practices, the whole audience seems to be participating: eyes shut, backs straight, sitting in silence.
The Mindful Life Project, founded by JG Larochette, is a non-profit that brings meditation, yoga, and the arts to 3,000 students in 6 schools in the Bay area. “Teachers come to us and say, ‘I’ve been teaching for 20 years, and I’ve never had my class as focused and still as when you come in and teach mindfulness,’” says Larochette. Couric asks how Larochette sees how mindfulness works with the kids: “Kids are creating a way of navigating their difficult experiences through understanding and having awareness of their emotions, thoughts, and creating space between a stimulus and a response,” says Larochette.