From Monastery To Mindful Government

A couch, a non-alcoholic hazy IPA, and a confession: leaving the monastery wasn’t just about tacos and rules—it was about hugging family again and answering a call to serve a world on edge. What followed is a surprising arc from Spirit Rock to healthcare to a teacher training program that’s now helping seed mindfulness across the Environmental Protection Agency and beyond.

We walk through the real reasons mindfulness belongs inside complex institutions: not as a perk, but as a skills-based response to stress, climate anxiety, and high-stakes decision-making. You’ll hear how EPA leaders enrolled in our certification, why they’re inviting more colleagues, and what a mindful federal initiative could look like across agencies like the Forest Service, Housing, and even the military. The science is clear—reduced stress and anxiety, better communication, stronger resilience—and the stories show how a short practice can change a meeting, a policy conversation, or a homecoming after work.

This is a grounded look at scaling compassion without losing integrity. We talk about attention as a shared resource, how training trainers multiplies impact, and why adopting mindfulness at work naturally shifts habits at home: how we speak, what we buy and eat, and how we show up for people we love. If you care about mental health, leadership, and a more humane approach to public service, you’ll find both practical tools and a dose of hope.

If this resonates, subscribe, share the episode with someone who needs it, and leave a review with one way you’ll plant a mindful seed this week. Your practice can be the spark that lights the next room.

Chapters

• 0:00 Casual Check-In And Setup
• 0:59 Life As A Monk And Its Limits
• 2:26 Choosing Climate Action And Mindful Work
• 3:30 Training Teachers To Multiply Impact
• 3:58 EPA Embraces Mindfulness
• 5:43 Mindfulness Goes Mainstream
• 6:46 Gratitude And Federal Momentum
• 8:52 Mindfulness Beyond Work
• 9:26 Hope, Thanks, And Community Invitation
• 11:04 Farewell And Ways To Engage

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Hey everybody, hope you're doing well. I'm Sean from Mindfulness Exercises. I just got out of a long shower and crashed out here on the couch. Opened up my favorite beer that I like. It's a hazy IPA from Athletic Brewing Company, but it doesn't have any alcohol in it. I like the experience of beer, but I don't like getting buzzed or drunk anymore. I used to before I didn't. So anyway, I just wanted to share some news with you that I still can't quite wrap my head around fully. You know, a lot of people ask me why I left the monastery. So I was a Buddhist monk for a couple years, and I left the monastery for a couple reasons. One was to be able to hug my mom and my sister again, because as a monk I wasn't allowed to like touch women, and I just felt like I wanted to be able to hug my mom and my sister and you know spend holidays with family. And I also wanted to be able to eat hard-shelled tacos. I know that sounds funny, but as a monk, in the tradition I was in, which was in the same tradition as Jack Cornfield and a lot of other teachers, you can't eat things by taking a bite out of something while you're holding it with your hands. So you can't like hold a taco or a burger or something and take a bite out of it while you're using your hands. You have to like cut it first, and then whatever can fit on your fork or spoon or in your fingers, you have to be able to fit in your mouth in kind of a neat, tidy, elegant way, but you can't like bite something and and then put the rest of it down. Anyway, I digress. I like tacos. But but the the I guess the bigger reason why I left the monastery is because I felt like with the state of our planet, we needed help with climate change, really. I mean, there's a lot of growing anxiety and depression and stress and stuff around, you know, addiction, and there's so many challenges in the world, obviously. You know, politics, nuclear war. There's no shortage of challenges, but climate change just felt so important to me to be able to support in some way. And I kind of felt like teaching mindfulness was a way to help people to live with more consciousness, kindness, empathy for animals and wildlife. Maybe we could tailor what we consume that's a little bit kinder for the planet. And so, you know, I worked at Spirit Rock for five years, learning how to integrate and apply mindfulness to daily life. I worked in healthcare for a couple years, and you know, now I lead this mindfulness teacher training program that certifies people to teach mindfulness, hoping that by teaching people how to teach, that'll make big waves around the world. And so I got this email a couple weeks ago from a senior leader at the Environmental Protection Agency, and she and a few of her colleagues are actually in my mindfulness meditation teacher training program where we certify people to teach mindfulness, and they're liking it and loving it, and they are sharing mindfulness trainings throughout the EPA, which has thousands of people across the country in it, and and they want to sign up like 15 or 20 more people in the next round in hopes to further spread it around the EPA and also to plant seeds for a mindful Fed, like a federal nationwide mindfulness program for like every federal agency of the US. And just on a personal level, it's I mean, it's surprising that the the federal government would be open to something like this because you know, twenty years ago, not many companies were even exploring this or schools. But in the last twenty years we've seen this sea change, pun not intended, where now it's much more mainstream. The science is clear that mindfulness helps reduce stress and anxiety, fosters more empathic and compassionate communication, and just restores our well-being and our mental health and our physical health, and is really helpful for senior leaders, for management, for people sort of on the front lines. And so I guess it's surprising to me, you know, if you had told me that 20 years ago, but but it's just a an indication that this is the real deal, that mindfulness actually makes a big difference in organizations and companies and nonprofits and institutions. Like you see it in the military, you know, we've had several Navy SEALs in our certification program. You know, the places you might least expect it. And it's beautiful and inspiring to me. You know, and I I just feel really grateful to be involved in this in a very small way, but it feels really good because you know, again, when I left the monastery, I could never have dreamed that I would be helping people to help others in the federal government like this, with the Forest Service and the Navy, Housing Department. No, there's so many agencies interested now in these trainings that are kind of tied in with the this EPA, this mindful EPA program. And so it's kind of come full circle in a way, and I feel like it's sweet to like celebrate that, you know, and just continue my pledge to helping as many people as I can practice mindfulness and integrate it into more aspects of their life, you know, whether it's in the workplace or not. And obviously, when people learn mindfulness in the workplace, you don't leave it at the workplace. It's not like you put your mindfulness in your top cubby in your desk or put it under a paperweight or something. You bring it home because it's it's in you. You know, it's in your body and your heart. And the more mindful we are at work, the more we can practice being mindful at home, with our spouse, with our kids, with our loved ones, with how we make decisions around what we buy, what we eat, how we talk to people. So, so yeah, so I just wanted to share that news. I feel really happy about it. I think it's a sign of like hope and optimism for our future as a country, as a planet, as a species. There's so many people doing so many good things in the world. You know, mindfulness, meditation teachers, and beyond. So, you know, whatever role you're playing in the world, whether you're a mindfulness teacher or not, you know, if you're making a positive difference in some way, thank you. We need more people doing good things, and and there are many, many people already doing good things. But I think there's a lot of signs of hope and optimism. Yeah, and let's continue planting these seeds for goodness. So, so yeah, those are my thoughts. I hope you're having a good day. Thanks for sticking with me here. I know this is a long video, but I guess I had a lot to share. Feel free to leave a comment below on what you think about this. You know, what good are you doing in the world? I think it'd be inspiring for other people to see what you're up to. You know, whether it's making people smile in some way, or if you're a therapist or a teacher, maybe you're doing business, doing something that feels worthwhile and fulfilling, let me know. Let us know. Also, if you're interested in teaching mindfulness or getting certified to teach meditation, I'll put a link down below for that as well. If you have any questions, feel free to let me know. All right, well, cheers everybody. Take good care, and I'll see you again later. Bye.