REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE SANCTUARY NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON “THE ART OF BEING STILL”
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE SANCTUARY NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON “THE ART OF BEING STILL”, MINDFULNESS AND YOUNG PEOPLE
Dia dhibh a chairde; is mór an onóir dom bheith anseo inniu.
Thank you for that most generous welcome and a particular thank you to
Sr. Stanislaus Kennedy for her kind invitation to speak at this year’s conference. It is good to see the Sanctuary continue its invaluable work in the field of mental health, for make no mistake about it this conference is about helping young people to make sanctuaries of their own minds. It is about introducing them to ways of interior growth and simply being that can be learnt and practised so that they become strong in both mind and body, better able to cope with life’s ups and downs.
Many people are probably familiar with Wordsworth’s famous words: ‘What is time if full of care, we have no time to stand and stare’. Although they were written over two hundred years ago, they resonate even more strongly today than ever before. Very many people in 21st century Ireland operate on very busy schedules running from pillar to post, on the go from the minute they get up in the morning until it is time to go to bed, every minute accounted for and under pressure from morning until night. Some are on such a treadmill that they cannot fully relax and have lost the art of just being still, of living deeply and comfortably inside the present moment. Then there are those who for want of work or other reasons have too much time on their hands – they find themselves agitated by boredom, frustrated by an absence of plans and, for them too, the present moment is not an easy place to inhabit, full as it is of thoughts of life passing them by and envy of other people’s busyness. They yearn for activity or distraction.
Whether we are too busy or not busy enough, it is essential to our mental well-being and our quality of life that we find time and ways to relish the breath in our bodies, to savour time instead of chasing time. How do we do that? One way is through the art of Mindfulness, a learnt art, an attitude and a technique that can help us as individuals relax into the ‘now’ so that we become acutely aware of our surroundings, focus on the experience of the present moment, a moment we will never ever get back for while we cannot hold time, time can if we let it hold us.
There are many pathways to mindfulness. I have been a meditator for over thirty years now and in the days when I taught advocacy skills to law students who would have to put in live performances in court day in and day out, I taught them to centre themselves before going live, to take a few minutes to draw up fresh reserves of mental energy and focus to help them do the best job possible. Some people use different forms of mindfulness to overcome stage nerves, to simply relax, to remove themselves from the banal everyday into the transcendent.
Research shows that mindfulness techniques have been used effectively to alleviate stress, depression and other serious and distressing mental illnesses. We also know that it can be used to prevent a slide or relapse into these traumatic and upsetting conditions. Mindfulness can be a very powerful tool in a modern and often frenetic world and it is great to see this conference deal with Young People and Mindfulness.
In an ideal world, childhood and youth should be happy and carefree times - with no stress or dysfunction, sorrow or sadness. But the reality for many young people is quite different. There are stresses and strains that can take a heavy toll on an immature and inexperienced young mind. They can come from anywhere and anyone - from home, school, street, community, illness, disability, internet, social networking sites, relationships, friendships and many other things. Modern life is fast and pressurised and our children are not immune to its consequences. It is also a noisy life - much noisier than in any other era - the TV, the radio, the mobile phone, the computer, video games, the voice of the bully, the call of the gang. It is easy to be distracted and so for a young person the gift of being able to live quietly, deeply and happily right in the present moment can be as difficult to achieve as it can be for us adults.
In that culture of constant distraction, of filling every available space with noise of some sort, our young people may be missing a valuable opportunity to treasure the moment, to absorb what is actually happening around them, to build solid friendships grounded on real person to person communication and to really live in the here and now.
Our mental health is very precious and it is important from an early age that we learn to value and protect it in the same way that we do our physical health. A key to lifelong mental health is to practise from an early age the things that build up inner resilience. Teaching and encouraging mindfulness is simple and inexpensive; yet it can unlock minds, free them from extraneous clutter and develop a capacity for love of life, confidence in life from our earliest days - a skill that can last and enhance a lifetime. As Mahatma Ghandi once said ‘There is more to life than increasing its speed’.
I can speak as someone who learnt mindfulness to help me cope with convulsive and tough times. It has been a great companion through life - a place in which to find gratitude and joy, balance and insight; a place to steady nerves, calm moods and temper instant reactions; a place to grow emotionally and psychologically so that, no matter what the tempests, that place of contemplative confrontation is a rock that is in me and does not have to be looked for elsewhere.
There are so many predators out there promising easy answers to our young peoples’ anxieties - drugs, alcohol, selfish individualism, crass bullying, gang life, criminality. There are so many easy pathways to mental ill-health but there is no surer pathway to mental health than knowing how to calm your own mind and body effectively. We are going to find here as others have elsewhere that young people embrace mindfulness with a natural aptitude and intuitive understanding of its power - they can feel their concentration strengthen, their confidence grow, their appreciation of stillness deepen.
This is not the old cry of “be quiet”, the command to stop making noise. Being quiet and being still are two very different things. Stillness takes us to the simplicity inside our very complex selves and gives us the control buttons to our moods, our temperament, our attitudes, fears and aggressions.
This could be one of the most important gifts we ever give our children. It is surely worth a good, serious, try.
Sincere thanks to all the team at the Sanctuary for your leadership, your ongoing dedication and your commitment to helping children and young people find a better pathway for their lives. I would also like to thank all the presenters here today for what I am sure will be very interesting discussions and presentations. I wish you every success in your work. To the young people who will take part in today’s event, and share their experiences of mindfulness with us, I extend my warmest congratulations and my good wishes that the day will go well for you all.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.