From Individualistic to Networked Meditation
Are we ready for the move from Introspection to Interspection?
Ten years ago, I was invited, through my role as a Meditation Coach at Reboot.io, by companies like Etsy, DigitalOcean, & Codecademy to share Social Meditation, a uniquely relational form of contemplative practice.
Today, with MindfulCoach.ing, I’m working with high-tech teams at Akamai Technologies & Smartsheet, and I’ve noticed something new: the same practices now hit even harder. Of course, I’ve grown as a teacher over the past decade, but the shift I’m seeing isn’t just about me, I think it reflects a change in global culture itself.
"If there is one word which brings together the multiform new logics which are so rapidly changing the structure of our world, a word which describes the ways in which everything is fracturing so as to reconnect more intensely, it is the term ‘network.’" – Christopher Vitale, Networkologies
As an elder millennial, I was online before I was a teenager. My son, though, is a true digital native, his first months of kindergarten were spent on Zoom during COVID. That generational leap, accelerated by lockdowns, pushed all of us further into a digitally networked way of being.
Now, we’re starting to move beyond seeing individualism, and individuation, as the ultimate stage of development. Instead, we’re beginning to understand ourselves more as nodes in a network—connected within and between each other. This is why I think Social Meditation feels so resonant now.
I hypothesize that the same organizations that build networked technologies, are made up of people who already know, on some level, that identity itself is networked. When they encounter meditation that starts from that assumption, it strikes a deeper chord than simply closing their eyes and turning inward–i.e. introspecting.
Traditional meditation assumes truth is found by looking within. But if we are, more accurately, networked beings, than introspection alone is incomplete. We also need interspection: the ability to pay attention to the experience between and among us.
Through interspection, we notice how our patterns show up in relationship, whether we habitually focus on ourselves or on others, and how we continually shape one another in real time. We discover that we’re not just interior processes, but exterior ones as well. We are a processes of relating.
As Daniel J. Siegel puts it: “Who we are is both within and between: Me plus We equals MWe, the reality of an integrative wholeness of our intraconnected lives.”
With Social Meditation, MWe learn who we are, together.
If you think your organization might be interested in exploring this approach, you can send our brochure site, MindfulCoach.ing, to whoever you think would be best to see it in your organization. If that person is you, you’re welcome to schedule a short demonstration session with me to see what the practice is like, and ask whatever questions you may have.