Minding my social work manners

Mind
Mind- mindful- mindfulness-mindless-mind

I had a week of mindfulness/meditation/walking/yoga/eating/retreat/rest/connection at Omega Institute with Jon Kabat Zinn.
Did it change me? Of course not! It would take a million more.
It did make me think.
It made me think of my role as a clinical social worker/therapist. I will continue to be the same person, I will continue to bring the world that I know into my practice. I will however, think, wait it out, and then answer. I will be less hurried to fill-in the silent gaps. I will pause and I will breathe. This retreat was not about social work or even social justice, although people were certainly itching to get into the messiness of it. But this was not the place and Jon Kabat-Zinn  is a master at controlling the masses. It is well that he does it for good. It was also a small group of 200. But all it takes is one. The mob mentality sets in and it cannot be stopped. I saw it there, I saw selfishness, greediness, entitlement and self-centeredness as only Americans can. I also saw good, kindness, and built myself a little network of women. We stuck together through the end.
I had important moments to bring back to my practice, that of social work, to my life, both personal and spiritual and to my environment.
I went to empty my mind and return with a full but less cluttered one. That makes all the difference, the clutter, not the mindfulness, the meditation, whatever! But to be clear in your head, in my head, to be aware of the impact my actions make, oh joy, to be more in touch with the whirlwind going through my head, oh joy, to better be able to separate the waters, oh joy!
I most importantly became aware of my own biases, or should I say I owned them and now it's the work to unload them.
Most importantly, for the first time, I felt what it was like to bring my mind into my body. If for nothing else, and there was much more,  thank you Jon. This will also be part of my clinical practice.
I will also continue to practice mindful meditation, now for longer stretches at a time and will start again with yoga which really helped my knees and I have hope that it will help my shoulders.
What a week. So much with so little!