Perth Mindfulness Conference Recap

At the recently held Perth Mindfulness Conference, there was a rich and diverse program of presentations and workshops on mindfulness in today’s world. Timothea Goddard, Director of Openground and Mindfulness Training Institute Australia and New Zealand, kicked off the conference with an aptly titled talk on the ‘Possibilities and Pitfalls for the Mindfulness Movement.’ Equally compelling a presentation was Dr Craig Hassed’s talk on ‘Mindfulness, Mental Health, & Schools – the hype, the hopes, and the fears’. A personal favourite workshop I attended was David Michie’s, ‘Experiencing the true nature of our consciousness’. David’s insights into mindfulness and awareness are as acute as his understanding of cats – I’d recently enjoyed reading his book, The Dalai Lama’s Cat.

It was great to see interest in my particular area of passion, the optimally mindful state of flow. As well as my own workshop, ‘Stepping into Flow’, Conference Director, Dr Ron Cacioppe, presented on a concept he is calling ‘MindFlow’, or Mindfulness-in-Flow. Ron has been Executive Director of Integral Development for many years. Integral Development is a well-established leadership development company based in Perth. Ron shared some quotes from one of my favourite mindfulness-in-action practitioners, Phil Jackson, Coach of the Chicago Bulls & LA Lakers (coach of 11 NBA championship wins), including this one:

• “The secret is not thinking. That doesn’t mean being stupid; it means quieting the endless jabbering of thoughts so that your body can do distinctively what it’s been trained to do, without the mind getting in the way.”

It was great to hear from an expert from the field of leadership speak about the significance of flow for optimal performance. Ron details his ideas on mindfulness-in-flow in an upcoming book, MindFlow, to be published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing.  

Another conference highlight was the closing session by former Olympic swimmer, Lisa Forrest, titled, ‘Getting on your own side – if not you, then who?’ Lisa candidly shared some of the experiences that led her own journey to the mindfulness path.

The conference organising committee did a wonderful job of bringing together people from around Australia who are working with mindfulness in many different domains. It was great to be part of this event, building the network of mindfulness in our country.