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The women showcased here demonstrate what can happen when we prioritize ourselves and support one another. In this fifth segment of our series highlighting influential women—chosen by their peers—who are at the forefront of the mindfulness movement, there’s a shared theme in their narratives: the resolve to remain open-hearted and aware, even when it’s tempting to retreat and disconnect. They embody the bravery to deeply listen and to remain fully engaged with themselves and their surroundings, embracing the present and adapting to it. Each has developed distinct practices that enrich their personal growth and missions. By sharing their experiences, they inspire us, encouraging everyone to do likewise in our unique ways.
Accept What’s Imperfect
Brenda K. Mitchell
Pastor, Advocate, Educator
Throughout her adult life, Brenda K. Mitchell has been regarded as a reliable figure in her community—determined, engaged in politics, and advancing in her profession. As a pastor, she has a profound commitment to helping others and making a difference.
However, after losing her 31-year-old son Kenneth to gun violence in 2005—leaving her with two grandchildren and another on the way—Brenda struggled to maintain that strong persona. With family depending on her, she felt the pressure to keep going.
At the time, she didn’t fully grasp how trauma could impact her mind and body. The grief she experienced was profound, and her physician advised her to take a break. “Despite my usual strength,” she states, “I had to pause and confront my brokenness to begin healing.”
“Despite my usual strength, I had to pause and confront my brokenness to begin healing.”
Following her doctor’s counsel, Pastor Mitchell allowed herself to rest. In a grief support group, she was encouraged to attend a mindfulness retreat aimed at survivors of gun violence.
During this retreat, she learned about the “benefits of taking a pause” and how to be genuinely present with herself and others. She recognized that even amid healing, there were still parts of her that required attention.
The compassion embedded in mindfulness enabled her to prioritize her healing journey and embrace all facets of her grief.
Today, she is dedicated to practicing and leading in mindfulness environments, particularly supporting other trauma and violence survivors.
Currently, mindfulness is woven into every aspect of her work as a leader, pastor, activist, and facilitator. “I realized how vital it is for me to engage with communities of color and within faith settings,” she reflects. “Indeed, you may have God and therapy at your side, but there may still be a need for deeper healing. It’s crucial to tap into all our resources, as trauma is very real.” – SM
Prioritize Love and Freedom
Shelly Harrell
Psychologist, Mindfulness Educator, Founder of the Soulfulness Center
Growing up in 1960s Detroit, Shelly Harrell was influenced by the rhythms of Motown. Tracks by Earth, Wind & Fire and Stevie Wonder played frequently in her home. “In those melodies, compassion is at the forefront, the importance of caring for humanity shines through,” she expresses.
She acknowledges music as her initial mindfulness mentor and dance as her first meditation form, “a place where I could truly find myself.” Following her father’s death during her teenage years, she turned to dance, saying, “I learned to trust my body once more and stay present with my inner feelings.”
Today, Harrell’s development, both personally and professionally, is shaped by her pursuit of healing knowledge that respects diverse perspectives beyond typical Eurocentric models. “While stillness and silence are lovely, they aren’t the sole paths to mindfulness,” she emphasizes.
“While stillness and silence are lovely, they aren’t the sole paths to mindfulness.”
In the early 2000s, she identified a disconnect between Black Americans and the mindfulness community—not just due to the predominance of white faces within these spaces but also because of the underlying notion of detachment that often accompanies the quest for individual peace. “For cultures that thrive on community and connection, a message of separation feels irrelevant,” she explains. This led her to establish The Soulfulness Center, where the emphasis is on “love and liberation… focusing on reconnecting with what has been lost, overlooked, or forgotten,” she remarks.
“Mindfulness is about returning, returning to breath, returning to that anchor repeatedly.” She often refers to an African proverb linked to the West African Adinkra symbol called Sankofa, which means “to go back and retrieve.”
“There’s a temporal interconnectedness inviting us to engage with past, present, and future ancestors as well as living descendants, connecting us with the continuum of our origins, our current state, and our future,” she reflects. “For me, it’s about cultivating a broader worldview, centered around communal wisdom and interconnectedness as an ethical foundation. When we start from there, how does that redefine our lives?” – AWC
Approach It With Compassion
Caverly Morgan
Founder of Peace in Schools, Teacher, Author
Before Caverly Morgan embraced mindfulness, she was completely unaware of her inner negative self-talk. During her first retreat, she considered those discussing this topic to be somewhat eccentric. “To me, it wasn’t negative self-talk. Those were just truths about myself. I didn’t even realize there was this voice constantly steering my thoughts.”
Her journey into mindfulness began as a means to better understand her relationship with that inner voice.
Once we acknowledge the existence of our Inner Critic, she notes, we tend to instinctively believe we must fix it. We think we need to conquer the voice, acquire new techniques, and develop skills to become more compassionate, believing this will lead to happier lives.
However, approaching compassion with a mindset centered on self-improvement transforms it into another area where we can either excel or fail. We find ourselves trapped in the cycle of feeling good enough or not.
“When we approach compassion with that energy of self-improvement, we stay stuck in the mental ruts of good enough/not good enough.”
Morgan provides kind suggestions for altering these thought patterns. When the Inner Critic appears, there’s no need to vanquish it. Instead, we can acknowledge its presence and respond with a practice rooted in unconditional acceptance.
Unconditional acceptance isn’t merely about contradicting the Inner Critic with forced positivity. It is grounded in reality, no matter our circumstances or feelings. So, during moments of perceived failure, the practice is not to claim, “You’re incredible and immensely successful!” Rather, it’s about acknowledging, “Whether you achieve success or not, I love you unconditionally.”
Our mindfulness practice, therefore, isn’t just a method to alter the aspects we dislike about ourselves; it serves more like a lifeline to hold onto during turbulent times until we feel secure enough to relax into the immense ocean of love surrounding us. This practice assists us in returning to the present moment. The more often we achieve this, the more we become aware of the fact that compassion is inherently present within and around us; it arises naturally from our true selves. We do not need to amplify it for ourselves or others; all we need is to pause long enough to let it emerge organically. – SM
Celebrate Who You Are
Sue Hutton
Social Worker, Mindfulness Teacher, Disability Rights Advocate
Sue Hutton has dedicated her career to working with adults who have neurodevelopmental disabilities along with their families and caregivers since her 20s, and has been practicing mindfulness for even longer. She describes these communities as wonderful environments for practicing mindfulness. “I cherish celebrating our differences and discovering how each individual expresses their being.”
Her motivation has always stemmed from compassion. The traumatic experiences from her childhood, including her mother’s suicide attempts, fueled her desire to alleviate suffering. “My feelings of alienation and being an outsider intensified my need to support others and ensure no one feels sidelined.” Hutton collaborates with paid autistic advisors at the Azrieli Adult Neurodevelopmental Centre in Toronto to design and modify mindfulness programs for neurodivergent individuals and their caregivers.
Earlier in her professional journey, Hutton focused on educating disabled adults and their families about their rights. Given the neurodiversity within her own family, she mentions, “Incorporating justice and accessibility rights into my mindfulness practice came quite naturally.”
“I cherish celebrating our differences and discovering how each individual expresses their being.”
Despite the growing discussions around disability and neurodiversity, especially within the mindfulness community, Hutton observes that substantial change has been slow. She often witnesses superficial efforts that lead to further exclusion rather than genuine progress towards inclusion and accessibility rights.
Alongside advocating for systemic change, Hutton sees immense value in self-compassion. She points out that typical meditation practices often presume everyone engages with mindfulness similarly, underscoring the importance of self-compassion, especially for neurodivergent individuals.
“Each person who sits down to meditate does so through their own unique brain structure and wiring,” she explains. “It is crucial to acknowledge and respect that everyone has their distinct experience with mindfulness, and we need to embrace that diversity.” – AT
Find Your Strength
Melli O’Brien
Mindfulness Educator, Entrepreneur, Mental Health Coach
As a teenager, Melli…
O’Brien visited her local public school library and borrowed every book she could find regarding mental health and happiness.
During that period, she faced severe depression and struggled with an eating disorder, stemming from a feeling of inadequacy. At the same time, the Iraq war was ongoing, and she felt lost trying to understand the actions of world leaders that harmed so many lives. O’Brien realized she had two possible futures: one path led to suicide, while the other offered a chance to heal, fortify her inner strength, and possibly contribute to the positive changes she wished to see in the world.
“If I had listened to those negative thoughts without transforming them, I don’t believe I would have been able to assist so many individuals,” she reflects today. “That’s a powerful reason to tap into your own gifts, so you can share them with others and do your part, however small, to enhance their lives.”
Her exploration of happiness revealed two significant insights that transformed her life: first, that inner strength is a skill that can be developed; and second, that mindfulness is a valuable practice to foster that strength.
“That’s a powerful reason to tap into your own gifts, so you can share them with the world.”
“After just a few sessions of mindfulness training, I realized I am not my mind, nor my thoughts; I can create space… and I experienced a sense of freedom,” she shares. “I fell in love with mindfulness practice.”
O’Brien dedicated years to refining her practice, which not only helped her recovery but also paved the way for her to become a mindfulness instructor. In 2015, she co-founded The Mindfulness Summit, which raised $500,000 for mental health organizations globally, and she co-founded the well-known app Mindfulness.com in 2020.
However, she eventually suffered from burnout.
“The overwhelming amount of challenges I faced all at once brought me to my metaphorical knees,” she explains. During this phase, the World Health Organization declared a global mental health crisis, a reality she recognized not only within herself but also among her clients.
“I needed to slow down and deeply reflect on who I want to become, how I want to serve others, and how I want to live my life,” she says. This introspection led to The Deep Resilience Method and her upcoming book titled the same.
“I see this book and method as a love letter to myself. It answers my questions about what I need, and I hope it will also assist others who want to navigate these tumultuous times and create positive change,” she states.
“One of the greatest barriers I’ve noticed is that people feel as though there’s no purpose. Practices like acknowledging your own strengths can guide them towards finding that purpose.” – AWC
Reconnect with Your Body
S. Helen Ma
Clinical Psychologist, Mindfulness Researcher, Teacher Trainer
In 1998, S. Helen Ma journeyed from Hong Kong to the US for mindfulness training with Jon Kabat-Zinn, the founder of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. She expressed to him, “I understand that mindfulness is beneficial, but I want to grasp how it works.”
At that point, Ma had spent a significant part of her career working in hospitals in Hong Kong and Australia with patients suffering from clinical depression. While she witnessed healing, she also observed relapses. The emotional toll along with compassion fatigue became overwhelming—until a colleague introduced her to mindfulness.
“In psychology, we focus heavily on individuals’ narratives—what has occurred in their past,” she notes. “However, with mindfulness, those stories don’t hold as much weight… Everything arises and eventually subsides. It’s incredibly liberating.”
She came to realize she could remind herself that it’s merely a thought suggesting she wasn’t helping anyone or that the suffering would persist indefinitely. Instead, she asked herself, what is happening right now?
“Everything arises and eventually fades. It’s incredibly liberating.”
Kabat-Zinn connected her with John Teasdale, a prominent researcher from Oxford, and together they led one of the pioneering studies on the use of mindfulness to prevent relapse in clinical depression. Their findings demonstrated that mindfulness could be an effective intervention in clinical settings, transforming the landscape of the field.
In recent times, however, Ma has stepped back from her focus on mindfulness research and teaching to care for her husband, who is living with dementia.
“I am eternally grateful for this practice,” she expresses. “There are still attachments, aversions, joys, and sorrows. At times, the experiences can feel overwhelming… Yet, I can acknowledge, my heart is aching right now. Can I open my heart to embrace this sorrow, to experience the grief? Let me observe how long this feeling lasts and when it fades.”
“In today’s fast-paced and technologically driven world, it can be challenging, but if we could just take a moment to pause and reconnect with our bodies, it could reveal so much wisdom,” she emphasizes. “It’s about coming back home, you see. If everyone could find their way home, the world would be a very different place.” – AWC
Forge New Paths
Nanea Reeves
Founder and CEO of TRIPP
Nanea Reeves began her meditation practice before mindfulness gained widespread recognition. Having witnessed her mother grapple with mental illness and addiction, she found herself in a hospital at 15, dealing with a crisis. A therapist there taught her a breathing technique to help her stay present.
“I consider it one of the best gifts I’ve ever received,” she reflects. After the devastating loss of her younger sister, Vicki, due to a drug overdose, Reeves grew even more dedicated to providing others with access to the healing that meditation can facilitate.
“I’ve truly worked on the journey of learning to open my heart wider. Now that I can put this into practice, it feels like a privilege.”
While engaged in the video game industry, a vision started to emerge for her. Today, her award-winning venture, TRIPP, provides virtual reality and AI-driven guided meditations. “There are numerous paths to the summit,” Reeves explains. “If we offer individuals the experience of being aware in the present moment through this approach, might it assist them in carrying that awareness into their real lives?”
The AI guide within the TRIPP app, Kōkua—a Hawaiian term meaning support and selfless giving—customizes guided meditations based on the user’s emotional state and adapts in response to their feedback. Though it is not intended to take the place of human interaction, Reeves describes it as “that supportive voice you can rely on at two in the morning.”
“Growing up in a household filled with violence, I learned to shut my heart off, as it had been wounded so frequently,” she expresses. “Opening my heart more has been a significant journey for me. Being able to manifest this now is truly rewarding.” – AT
Hold It Lightly
Vidyamala Burch
Mindfulness Teacher, Author, and Founder of Breathworks
After enduring chronic pain for five decades and practicing meditation for 40 years, Vidyamala Burch shares, “I find myself laughing a lot more than I used to.” She beams with a smile. “I love mentioning that because it truly surprises people.”
“I believe one of the outcomes of extended practice is the capability to take life lightly. It’s crucial to engage seriously with life since it holds significant weight, yet we can also hold it lightly.”
Burch established Breathworks, a UK-based charity that aids individuals grappling with chronic pain, illness, and stress in living more fulfilling lives through mindfulness. Her method is deeply rooted in her personal experiences with pain.
As a young girl, she was active and loved the outdoors in New Zealand, aspiring to be a wildlife officer until a serious injury fractured her spine, first at 16 and then again at 23.
“You can’t truly practice mindfulness without love, and you can’t genuinely love without mindfulness.”
As she lay alone in an intensive care unit after her second injury, facing unbearable pain and uncertainty about the morning, she realized that she only needed to focus on getting through one moment at a time. Gradually, this approach helped her reach dawn.
“As humans, we constantly have two choices: we can either turn away from pain or face it head-on while keeping our hearts open,” she explains. “I always remind those at Breathworks, ‘You are heroes for being willing to address your mind and physical being.’”
Breathworks teaches participants how to balance between denial and being overwhelmed, initially confronting their pain and eventually addressing larger global issues. “Imagine if billions could approach what’s occurring with an open heart without falling into denial or feeling overwhelmed; we would likely have a species more prepared to tackle contemporary challenges.”
“Keep practicing. This is essential for the world and for ourselves as individuals,” she encourages. “You can’t be mindful without showing love, nor can you genuinely love without mindfulness.” – AWC
Keep Your Heart Open
Shalini Bahl
Mindfulness Instructor, Researcher, Consultant, Author
Shalini Bahl believes that trees were her earliest mentors in mindfulness. After her divorce and relocating with her son from India to Amherst, Massachusetts—which meant leaving behind her family, friends, and culture—she often found solace among the trees, “reflecting on my life,” she recalls. “I would have so many questions: Why is this happening? What went wrong? Then, a thought would arise: Just breathe, and you’ll find your answers.”
This contemplative experience ignited her journey into mindfulness, leading her to train with esteemed figures like Jon Kabat-Zinn and Mirabai Bush. As she progressed in her academic career, she began sharing mindfulness with her marketing students before ultimately shifting her focus entirely to mindfulness—teaching, consulting for organizations, and conducting research on effective mindfulness practices in marketing and business. “My aim is to leverage mindfulness skills to inspire meaningful change for a better world.”
It’s not an easy task. While serving on the Amherst town council, she found that the compassion, equanimity, and curiosity honed during meditation didn’t always manifest in her interactions. To reconcile this, she created a framework for mindful living and action, founded on eight essential habits from contemplative teachings.
“The key is to keep our hearts and eyes open while we journey together.”
This framework inspired her book Return to Mindfulness, set to be released in January 2024. She describes its insights as reminders to pause and reflect: Am I reacting out of habit, bias, or am I approaching life with clarity and ease?
Through her experiences, she’s noted that nurturing openness and clarity fosters greater compassion. One day, as she conversed with a person without a home, a bystander kindly offered him two croissants. To her surprise, he immediately shared one with her. This moment of generosity touched her deeply. “I had initially judged him solely based on his circumstances.” Their burgeoning friendship greatly enriched her perception of shared humanity.
At that moment, she committed: “I will be present for him and remain open-hearted. When I am able to do more, my heart and eyes will be ready to take action.” Later, upon being elected to the town council, this intention empowered her to advocate for shelters aiding those in need.
“Living compassionately involves being open to what we can do, even when it’s unclear,” she shares. “Above all, we must keep our hearts and eyes open.”
“and see one another along the journey.” – AT
Share a Fresh Narrative
Yuria Celidwen
Scholar, Researcher, Educator, Indigenous Nahua and Maya
When Yuria Celidwen speaks about contemplative practices, she refers to something far broader than just mental processes.
“In the Mesoamerican tradition, and in many Indigenous practices, it encompasses the emotional state, the heart, and the body—all of which interplay to inform our mental processes, ultimately revealing life’s animating essence,” she explains.
Her rich understanding of complexity was instilled in her from a young age. “From my parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents, I absorbed lessons about coexisting with the landscape and being integral to a larger community.” However, when she reached elementary school, she encountered racial discrimination. Navigating these contrasting realities propelled her to explore themes of identity, consciousness, and cultural narratives.
In contemporary contemplative studies, there is an increasing acknowledgment of Indigenous viewpoints; when Celidwen entered this field 15 to 20 years ago, such representation was scarce. “I was the advocate for integrating Indigenous wisdom into this area, viewing it as a sophisticated system capable of transforming our understanding of identity and cultural frameworks, which can lead to social and environmental changes for well-being,” she asserts.
“How can we learn to truly listen to our world? To the living, beautiful Mother Earth that sustains us?”
In Western perspectives, mindfulness is frequently seen as a set of tools mainly for personal benefit. However, in Indigenous knowledge systems that she investigates and teaches at the University of California, Berkeley, there exists a vision of “a conscientious and ethical community” where every being is acknowledged and valued as part of the family. “How can we learn to truly listen to our world? To the living, beautiful Mother Earth that sustains us?” she questions.
These insights align with what Celidwen refers to as the Ethics of Belonging. This concept is articulated in her academic endeavors and examined in her upcoming book, Flourishing Kin: Indigenous Wisdom for Collective Well-Being (set for publication in November 2024).
“It is well known that humans acquire knowledge through stories,” she remarks. Old narratives that haven’t benefited us—those centered on individuality, personal success, and viewing nature merely as a resource—can be transformed, she suggests, “to create a nourishing new narrative, one that unites us.”
“Creating improved relationships, enhancing our ability to listen and express ourselves, and fostering our landscapes more effectively—these actions can help us recognize that we are part of the greater system, and we can contribute to change.” – AT