Mindful Politics

The typical political conversation is often callous towards the other side, seeing them as stupid, immoral, or both… while painting “our” side as smart and principled. (This is done on all sides.)

The aim of Mindful Politics is to provide an alternative that uplifts the audience and brings deeper understanding of one another, and innovation to political dialogue.

We will model a political conversation that aims for compassionate learning about the most popular issues, so that everyone can be wiser in their activism and voting.

Our hope is to present varying sides, in the spirit of humble dialogue, so that we can understand holistic solutions that allow us to move forward in a way that makes all stakeholders feel cared for.

~ Isn’t this too slow? ~

Don’t we need to urgently solve political problems so we can ease suffering, and build a better society quickly?

Look at most of our political issues. Decade after decade, opposing sides continue to battle it out, always painting each other as stupid or selfish. In all this time, the most important issues have not been solved in a lasting way.

We believe that Mindful Politics has the potential to solve the issues faster. Time (and elections) will pass anyway. We might as well learn to really listen to each other, build our capacities to love one another, and move forward in a spirit of greater understanding and togetherness.

~ Values ~

Humility:

Humility is key to civility.

Each participant of a Mindful Politics conversation is encouraged to generously apply these postures: “Hmm… I’m still sorting this one out… curious about your thoughts?” “I know there’s so much more I need to learn.” “You’re right / That’s interesting / Hadn’t seen that before …thank you.”

Appreciation:

Truth is a mosaic.

There are always interesting facts and stories on the “other” side and we aim to uncover them via compassionate listening. We aim to understand the value of each other’s positions.

Appreciation brings compassion (and vice versa). Compassion in a challenging political discussion means that we actively help each other “save face” and feel respected, and even liked.

Togetherness:

Solutions are what we ultimately seek -- ones that can unify all sides and provide everyone with dignity and a sense of being cared for.

Look up the synonyms for togetherness. It’s the spirit of what we seek here.