Monk Life

Could you live like a monk??

Professor Justin McDonald at the University of Pennsylvania teaches a course on deliberately living. It is fondly called "Monk Class" and has a wait list of 300 people. In this class Professor McDonald asks his students to give up electronics for 30 days. He says this is not to isolate his students but to give them a small glimpse of monk life, to help them learn to live a more mindful life.

In a recent CNBC article McDonald shared three tenants to try if you would like to live a more deliberate life.

First, just as he asks his students to do, he encourages us to try a digital cleanse. Unlike his students he is not asking us to go 30 days but rather 7. 

It was reported that in a small randomized trial, participants who took a week break from screens showed reduced levels of depression and anxiety.

A study published in the Journal of Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking also reported that reduced screen time increases sleep quality and overall well-being.

The second thing McDonald shared was the idea of Single Tasking.

This is the idea that we should not multitask, especially if one of the tasks we included is a screen.

Engaging in one thing at a time is the best way to stay present. It also helps us notice our surroundings and thoughts.

A 2019 study out of Stanford University found that those who divided their time between work and multimedia (such as a streaming app like Netflix) had a shorter attention span and memory.   

If you search back in a past blog you will find a graphic that shows due to smartphone humans now have an attention span shorter than a goldfish. 

McDonald tells us that we should learn to be bored and learn to sit with our feelings. He wants us to know how to sit with loneliness, anger, and sadness. He goes on to say that we need to be able to do this without crowdsourcing our feelings to friends (co-workers, partners, teachers, etc.).

What might it look like if we taught our students to sit with their feelings? As we have reviewed before; feelings are not right or wrong and they are not good or bad. Teaching ourselves and our students to sit with feelings will help them and us learn to handle them better, on our own. 

Lastly, McDonald wants us to "Do Nothing."

McDonald uses a Dutch concept "Niksen" which he shares means "to do nothing" and is used to combat burnout and stress. 

McDonald and his family engage in this practice daily. He has his family take 30 minutes a day to sit or take a walk without watching or listening to anything. They simply take time to sit with themselves and be. It is an intentional practice of doing nothing to be present in the moment with ones thoughts, feelings, and surroundings. 

Engaging in a practice such as this helps one to understand and better navigate their emotions. Take time to be with your own thoughts, rants, heartbeat, and feelings; and do so without judgement. McDonald tells us that we can listen without having to solve, just be with, what is going on in our life and mind. 

Perhaps over the upcoming break you can give yourself the gift of better mental health, increased attention span, and better quality if sleep. Take a week to practice these three "monk life" principals from professor McDonald.

What might you gain from trying? 

Living more intentionally and more mindfully is just a few steps away.