In this article, I share my experiences of mindfulness, starting from my early engagement as a schoolteacher to my current engagement as a politician in the U.K. Parliament. I outline the establishment of mindfulness sessions in the U.K. Parliament and the setting up of the Mindfulness All-Party Parliamentary Group (MAPPG). Some benefits of mindfulness in my personal life and my professional life, and benefits for some of my parliamentary colleagues, are also discussed. I describe the establishment of a parliamentary inquiry into how mindfulness could be incorporated into U.K. services and institutions and the publication of the Mindful Nation UK report. This article also sets out my advocacy for mindfulness to be introduced in other parliaments as part of a global initiative. I share my 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. I also provide some recommendations for setting up similar programs. Finally, I discuss how I would "re-vision" the role of mindfulness in the future. I conclude with a postscript of my early reflections on the role that mindfulness may play in responding to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)
"Be the change you want to see": A politician's perspective on mindfulness in politics