Politically Aware
A Q&A with Congressman TIM RYAN.
 Tim
Ryan, who is serving his fifth term representing Ohio’s 17th
Congressional District, was first elected to the House of
Representatives when he was twenty-nine. He says he dabbled in
meditation and mindfulness for a long time. He watched his Catholic
mother and grandparents pray the rosary, learned centering prayer from a
priest, and experimented with yoga. It wasn’t until 2008, however, that
he got serious about practice. “After several years of really heavy
campaigning and governing here in Washington,” he says, “I was getting
to the point where I didn’t want to turn into a jerk just because I was
so fried.” Thinking it might help, he attended a Jon Kabat-Zinn
mindfulness retreat for leaders and innovators, and over the course of
that week he felt his mind become quieter and his awareness become
clearer. It reminded Ryan of when he was a star quarterback in high
school: mindfulness was like being in the zone. I talked to Tim Ryan
about his practice and the vision laid out in his new book, A Mindful Nation (review on page 77) — ANDREA MILLER
What would American society look like if the practice of mindfulness were widely adopted?
We’d
all slow down and reprioritize our values. Today, consumerism seems to
be front and center and caring about one another is on the back burner.
In a mindful nation, we’d begin to see and appreciate that we are all
connected—we are all part of the 100 percent. It would lead to an
education system that’s more mindful in teaching social and emotional
skills. It would lead to a health care system that focuses on
prevention. Our neighborhoods would start to look different. There would
be more urban farms and parks and bike trails—things that connect us.
In a mindful nation, the pressure would go down. There’d be more time
off with your family, like it was for my grandparents. On my mom’s side,
there were family dinners every night and picnics every Saturday in the
summer. The whole family would play bocce and cook out and just hang
together. It was family time. In America today, we’ve lost so much of
that—no one has time for it anymore. The family values that I’m talking
about aren’t family values that can get politicized. I’m talking about
valuing time with our family. That would come out of everyone slowing
down and paying attention a little more. A mindful nation would not be
utopia. But my hope is that in it we would regain basic American
values—that belief we used to have about being our brothers’ and
sisters’ keeper. For my grandparents’ generation, two world wars and a
depression seared into them the fact that we all need to hang together.
We’ve got to have that appreciation again for being in this together— we
can’t divide ourselves. We’ve been living divided in America now for
what seems like forever if you’re my age. Other than for a few days
after September 11, I can’t remember when we were really united.
Are you confident that mindfulness will take root in America?
I
am. There’s a real openness to something like mindfulness. Take
mindfulness in education. What teacher or parent is going to argue with a
politician or superintendent who says: “I want your children to be able
to concentrate. I want them to be compassionate to the other kids in
the class. I want them to care about their community and feel connected
to their school, their family, their community.” What parent is not going
to be for all that! I think there’s going to be a huge interest in
mindfulness in general, but particularly in education. It’s a question
in all our states: what are we going to do with the education system?
Well, I say let’s get back to the fundamentals. Let’s get back to the
building blocks of paying attention and connecting to each other so kids
don’t get so isolated that they end up in tragic situations. The rates
of teen suicide are unacceptable. If I find something like mindfulness
that’s going to be helpful, I have a responsibility to push it.
Was it a challenge getting into the habit of having a mindfulness practice in your own life?
Not
really. Since that retreat with Jon Kabat-Zinn there have been days I
haven’t practiced, but for the most part I do it every day because I’ve
realized that this practice of mindfulness helps me focus and quiet the
mind. It’s something I’ve wanted to
continue. I can tell how much the quality of my day changes if I don’t
do it—I become more overwhelmed with stressful situations. Also, after
practicing for a while, I’m starting to appreciate the fact that
mindfulness is not just something you do during practice periods. It’s
something to continue when you’re out and about. Throughout the course
of your day, you try to slow down, quiet your mind, and establish
yourself in the present moment no matter where you are.
How does mindfulness benefit you on the job?
I’m
able to spend more time actually listening to my constituents. Because
of mindfulness practice, I can be fully in a meeting, as opposed to
sitting there thinking about the next meeting or the last meeting.
There’s so much information that comes at us in government, and I’ve
noticed that I now have a greater ability to retain information and to
decide what it is I need to remember.
How
did you transition from seeing mindfulness as a good tool for you,
personally, into thinking it could have wide use as government policy?
It
was almost instantaneous. As soon as I felt how mindfulness relaxed my
body and improved my focus, I thought that mindfulness should be taught
in our schools. It would be so helpful to kids under stress—who’ve maybe
been abused or who can’t concentrate because of the huge influx of
technology and information. I also instantly thought it could be helpful
in the healthcare system, as stress leads to disease. Then I thought of
our veterans, and how mindfulness could help them deal with the trauma
they’ve experienced. Mindfulness is low cost, it’s easy to teach, and
it’s a basic human trait. Right away, I thought that with a little time
and teaching, mindfulness could get infused throughout society. It’s
what our country seems to need right now.
How have you helped introduce mindfulness in the education system?
About
three years ago I got a million dollars to put social and emotional
learning and mindfulness in two school districts in Ohio, and the
teachers have responded in a wonderful way. In the Warren City School
District they just added another fifty teachers—the teachers who were in
the program spoke so highly about it that other teachers wanted to do
it too. The programs we’re running also have a parental component.
Parents are learning how teachers are talking to the kids about being
aware of their emotions. This makes a connection with the families.
Mindfulness is not a silver bullet. But there’s nothing else right now
cutting against the huge influx of information and technology coming at
our kids. We want to give kids the ability to choose what they put their
attention on. I’ve seen it in my own district— parents and teachers
love it.
I understand you spearheaded a mindfulness conference.
We
did a conference last year at the local medical school. It was held on a
snowy Monday in January, and we had 175 people come out for it. That
really made me aware that there’s a latent community interested in
mindfulness. They may not know everything about it, but it makes sense
to them. Mindfulness just resonates with people, even in places like
Youngstown or Niles, Ohio. It’s so fundamental and intuitive. People are
like, “Yes, I need to slow down. I need to pay attention. I need to
spend a little time quieting my mind.” People start looking for a way to
do these things and—when presented with the practice of
mindfulness—they gravitate to it.
How do you talk about mindfulness with constituents and other politicians?
I
explain that mindfulness is about trying not to get caught up in the
past or the future, and that it will help them to reduce their stress
and concentrate better. Then I let them know that mindfulness practice
is happening in major institutions across the country, like the Marines,
General Mills, Target, and Procter & Gamble. When people hear that a
company as successful as Google is using it to help their leaders, and
that basketball coach Phil Jackson used it because it improved the
performance of his players, they pay attention. People are interested
because they want to find ways to reduce their own stress, improve their
performance, and focus and quiet their mind.
You don’t get a lot of people who think it’s flaky?
I
haven’t. Because there’s the science behind it. People are becoming
more aware of how we’re able to monitor the activity in our own brains,
and when you talk about the science, and then you back it up with these
popular companies and institutions, then people are open to it. I’m not
saying everyone is going to go sit on a cushion immediately, but we’re
planting seeds. A lot of people are looking for something, but they
don’t want to get into the complexities of taking prescription drugs. If
they see something simple like mindfulness, they’ll give it a whirl.
How do mindfulness and religion intersect?
No
matter what religion you are, you can practice mindfulness. You don’t
have to set aside your beliefs and adopt new ones. If you’re praying,
you can be in the present moment. If you’re at mass, you can be fully
aware and participating in the ritual. If you’re telling your prayer
beads or praying the rosary, you can be in that moment. Mindfulness is a
human characteristic— it’s not limited to any particular religion. If
we can cultivate awareness, we can bring it to wherever we are. I would
love to see our religions spend more time teaching
contemplation—whatever religion it may be.
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