Post by Admin on Aug 5, 2017 10:43:56 GMT -5
The flow of mindfulness-related readings continues to grow almost exponentially. Daily searches on google and databases worldwide reveal the growing ways in which mindfulness is being tried in new and diverse ways and populations. One area -- which I feel relates somewhat to us military veterans -- is seen in the recent inclusion of mindfulness principles in the training of law enforcement. While I found quite a few articles, the following two struck me as worth recommending here on mindfulvets.net: One from a retired FBI agent, a PhD., the other from my favorite, Mindful Magazine:
1. Mindful Policing: The Future of Force
With police violence in the news, and public scrutiny on the rise, cities turn to mindfulness to help officers deal with the stress of the job.
By Barry Yeoman | June 14, 2017
You guys ready for a technique?” the trainer asks. “Everybody, sit up straight. Uncross your legs. Just look straight ahead.”
Eric White gathers his 6-foot-8 frame and straightens his back in the conference-room chair. Instead of his usual police uniform, he wears a blue polo shirt and jeans. The trainer, Don Chartrand, is visiting Emeryville, California, to talk with officers here about how to reduce their stress and build resilience with exercises like intentional breathing. “This is not anything weird,” he promises. “This is absolutely science-based.” Cops appreciate evidence, he knows, and so Chartrand has come equipped with PowerPoint graphs and lessons about heart-rate variability, the stress hormone cortisol, and how to keep the autonomous nervous system in balance.
Chartrand reassures the 18 officers that his goal is practical: boosting their performance on the beat. “It’s not about going to your happy place. This is not la-la lightweight nonsense,” he says. “I’m serious: This is blood and guts, sometimes life and death.”
He directs them to place their hands over their hearts. Some comply more eagerly than others. “Use your imagination,” he says. “It’ll sound weird. Pay attention to your breath. And imagine that the breath is flowing into your heart through your hand. Deep breaths. It’s a little odd. Now I want you to imagine that the breath is flowing through the back, the bottom, and the top of your heart, and the sides of your heart. Air is coming into your heart from all sides, 360°.”
....
Later, some of the officers will privately make wisecracks about the exercise. Not Officer Eric White, though. The 51-year-old former professional basketball player, a soft-spoken man with a shaved head, tries to visualize his heart receiving oxygen. And he feels it: a clean breath, carrying his stress away….
READ REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE:
www.mindful.org/mindful-policing-the-future-of-force/
1. Mindful Policing: The Future of Force
With police violence in the news, and public scrutiny on the rise, cities turn to mindfulness to help officers deal with the stress of the job.
By Barry Yeoman | June 14, 2017
You guys ready for a technique?” the trainer asks. “Everybody, sit up straight. Uncross your legs. Just look straight ahead.”
Eric White gathers his 6-foot-8 frame and straightens his back in the conference-room chair. Instead of his usual police uniform, he wears a blue polo shirt and jeans. The trainer, Don Chartrand, is visiting Emeryville, California, to talk with officers here about how to reduce their stress and build resilience with exercises like intentional breathing. “This is not anything weird,” he promises. “This is absolutely science-based.” Cops appreciate evidence, he knows, and so Chartrand has come equipped with PowerPoint graphs and lessons about heart-rate variability, the stress hormone cortisol, and how to keep the autonomous nervous system in balance.
Chartrand reassures the 18 officers that his goal is practical: boosting their performance on the beat. “It’s not about going to your happy place. This is not la-la lightweight nonsense,” he says. “I’m serious: This is blood and guts, sometimes life and death.”
He directs them to place their hands over their hearts. Some comply more eagerly than others. “Use your imagination,” he says. “It’ll sound weird. Pay attention to your breath. And imagine that the breath is flowing into your heart through your hand. Deep breaths. It’s a little odd. Now I want you to imagine that the breath is flowing through the back, the bottom, and the top of your heart, and the sides of your heart. Air is coming into your heart from all sides, 360°.”
....
Later, some of the officers will privately make wisecracks about the exercise. Not Officer Eric White, though. The 51-year-old former professional basketball player, a soft-spoken man with a shaved head, tries to visualize his heart receiving oxygen. And he feels it: a clean breath, carrying his stress away….
READ REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE:
www.mindful.org/mindful-policing-the-future-of-force/
From FBI Website:
2.The Mindful Cop
By Steve Gladis, Ph.D.
Retired FBI Agent and Educator
Promoting Mindfulness
Mindful policing is taught and studied as a useful alternative approach for police resilience and stress reduction. An ongoing collaboration between Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon, and the Hillsboro, Oregon, Police Department on mindfulness and officer resilience received a major grant in 2015 from the National Institutes of Health to continue and document the ongoing joint Mindfulness-Based Resiliency Training program. This research may change training for law enforcement professionals.
One high-profile leader introduced mindfulness not only to her former department, the Madison, Wisconsin, Police Department, but also to the entire criminal justice community in the city. After serving as a law enforcement officer in her agency for 25 years, an assistant attorney general in the Wisconsin Department of Justice, and the head of probation and parole for the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, she now serves as a consultant to other communities on the subject of mindfulness and criminal justice. Her work also includes co-founding the Center for Mindfulness and Justice. She tells a dramatic story about using mindfulness in a domestic dispute and how that revelation changed her approach to such encounters....
Conclusion
Law enforcement officers face challenging situations and consistently must remain calm during stressful events. Smiling, breathing, and listening offer effective means to cope with toxic environments and circumstances. Research shows the positive impact of practicing mindfulness, which should become a significant part of law enforcement training and leadership development. It must become so for the sake of the officers whom we ask to do the toughest job under the most difficult circumstances, as well as for the sake of those with whom they interact every day.
Read whole article (it's short) HERE:
leb.fbi.gov/2017/july/perspective-the-mindful-cop
2.The Mindful Cop
By Steve Gladis, Ph.D.
Retired FBI Agent and Educator
Promoting Mindfulness
Mindful policing is taught and studied as a useful alternative approach for police resilience and stress reduction. An ongoing collaboration between Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon, and the Hillsboro, Oregon, Police Department on mindfulness and officer resilience received a major grant in 2015 from the National Institutes of Health to continue and document the ongoing joint Mindfulness-Based Resiliency Training program. This research may change training for law enforcement professionals.
One high-profile leader introduced mindfulness not only to her former department, the Madison, Wisconsin, Police Department, but also to the entire criminal justice community in the city. After serving as a law enforcement officer in her agency for 25 years, an assistant attorney general in the Wisconsin Department of Justice, and the head of probation and parole for the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, she now serves as a consultant to other communities on the subject of mindfulness and criminal justice. Her work also includes co-founding the Center for Mindfulness and Justice. She tells a dramatic story about using mindfulness in a domestic dispute and how that revelation changed her approach to such encounters....
Conclusion
Law enforcement officers face challenging situations and consistently must remain calm during stressful events. Smiling, breathing, and listening offer effective means to cope with toxic environments and circumstances. Research shows the positive impact of practicing mindfulness, which should become a significant part of law enforcement training and leadership development. It must become so for the sake of the officers whom we ask to do the toughest job under the most difficult circumstances, as well as for the sake of those with whom they interact every day.
Read whole article (it's short) HERE:
leb.fbi.gov/2017/july/perspective-the-mindful-cop