“Mindfulness is about having a regular daily commitment to a kind of practice that is about awakening and awareness, in a very deep way, that is ongoing for one’s life.“
Rhonda
Rhonda V. Magee (M.A. Sociology, J.D.) is a Professor of Law at the University of San Francisco and an internationally-recognized thought and practice leader focused on integrating mindfulness into higher education, law, and social change work. A prolific author, she draws on law and legal history to weave storytelling, poetry, analysis, and practices into inspiration for changing how we think, act and live better together in a rapidly changing world.
Born in North Carolina in 1967, Rhonda experienced a childhood of significant trauma and challenge. Yet, she was gifted with the insight that through a life of caring engagement, self-development, and service with others, she could find a way up and out. She has dedicated her life to healing and teaching in ways that support others in a journey to wholeness and justice. A student of a variety of Buddhist and other wisdom teachers, including Norman Fischer, Joan Halifax, and Jon Kabat Zinn, she trained as a mindfulness teacher through the Oasis Teacher Training Institute of the University of Massachusetts Center for Mindfulness.
She teaches mindfulness-based interventions, awareness, and compassion practices from a range of traditions. A former President of the board of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, Professor Magee is a Fellow of the Mind and Life Institute, where she recently completed a two-year term on its steering council. She is a member of the board of advisors of the University of Massachusetts Center for Mindfulness and the board of directors for the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute.
Rhonda has served as a guest teacher in a variety of mindfulness teacher training programs, including those sponsored by the Mindfulness Awareness Research Center (2017, 2018), led by Diana Winston, the Engaged Mindfulness Institute, led by Fleet Maull (2017, 2018), and the Center for Mindfulness (2017), led by Saki Santorelli and Judson Brewer. She serves as daylong or retreats co-leader and solo teacher at centers including Spirit Rock Meditation Center, the Garrison Institute, the Shambhala Mountain Center, the Omega Institute, Esalen, and New York Insight Meditation Center.
You can read more about her biography here.
Her first book, The Inner Work of Racial Justice: Healing Ourselves and Transforming Our Communities Through Mindfulness, was published in September 2019 by TarcherPerigee, a member of the Penguin Random House Group. Order your copy now.
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Show Notes:
- What is your relationship with Jon Kabat-Zinn? What values do you both share?
- If someone is new to mindfulness – how do you describe mindfulness in a layman language?
- Rhonda’s personal mindfulness practice.
- How do you deal with difficult conversations and how do you resolve conflicts?
- Where do you feel in your body during the times of conflict?
- May I ask you about your emotional triggers during the times of conflicts?
- What activities give you joy in life?
- Are you comfortable to talk about race and racism from your own personal experience and it could be from your childhood days?
- In the preparation of this conversation, I heard that you were born in North Carolina and you experience a childhood of significant trauma and challenge. Can you expand on that?
- In the context of healing, when did you start working on yourself?
- What steps did you take to work on your relationship around men and other areas of your life to deal with your fear?
- Do you remember some of those books you read in your twenties?
- Going back into your twenties, you started doing counseling and therapy. What changes did you observe in yourself after that process got started?
- Is there a difference between counseling and therapy?
- What are you most excited about in the upcoming years of your life?
- And, much more
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