Mindvalley's "Barcelona Experiment"

Last weekend I watched a documentary made by the team behind online learning platform Mindvalley. Mindvalley's curriculum is dedicated to personal growth and transformation in all areas of life - in a cutting-edge and exciting kind of way. Since watching the film I've been wanting to write about it, because I loved it, but I've been struggling. I think I wanted to write some sort of review, but that wasn't happening, so I'm just going to write and see what comes up!

So. The documentary was called "Barcelona Experiment". (The absence of the word "The" at the beginning is ever so slightly irritating, haha.) It was about the pilot scheme of Mindvalley University, aka Mindvalley U - basically, 300 people of all ages and from all over the world came together in Barcelona for one whole month in the summer of 2017, to learn about things you don't learn in school.

...Things like consciousness and self-awareness. Lifestyle design. How the mind works, and changing your mindset. Learning how to learn. Meditation, mindfulness and yoga (there are reasons why these practices have been around for over two thousand years). Nutrition. How to communicate well. Productivity. Exercise techniques. Creativity. Emotional intelligence. The importance of good habits. Energy work. Self-love and feeling like you are enough. Etc. Things that can help you become the best version of yourself, and live a life that is good for you, the rest of humanity and our planet.

Mindvalley's founder, Vishen Lakhiani, is passionate about education being lifelong, and that the prevailing educational system is outdated and largely redundant. So he brought together a tribe of passionate teachers, thinkers, visionaries, entrepreneurs, scientists, artists, philanthropists, seekers, parents and children, to learn from, with and about each other, in a month of talks, workshops, seminars, social and community events, cultural learning, and connecting.

The film begins with an onscreen quote of Sir Ken Robinson's: "Education is modeled on the interest of industrialisation and the image of it." (If you haven't seen his legendary 2006 TED Talk "Do schools kill creativity?", click that link and go watch it. Like, asap.) Basically, our current education system is based on the interests and needs of the age of the Industrial Revolution, and has barely changed in over 200 years. It's like a factory. It's about linear paths to becoming something like an engineer or a doctor or a secretary. We're told to learn specific information and then go out an work for someone else for the rest of our lives.

People get into large amounts of debt by going to university and, most of the time, don't remember what they 'learned'. Many end up having to go into jobs that are nothing to do with what they studied and certainly nothing to do with what they love, and feel totally unprepared for the world of work. In many cases, formal education is no longer useful. As someone in the documentary said, "The world is rapidly changing and classrooms aren't keeping up." Instead, what people really take away from university are friendships, connections, experiences, and a sense of community.

What Vishen and his team wanted to do was explore a new model of education - one where it's less of a system and more about those topics listed above, community and connection, and helping people figure out what value they want to bring to the world and how to do it. At one point he gives an example of someone wanting to be a doctor. They might think they want to be a doctor, but actually what they really want is to be a healer. You don't have to be a doctor to heal. For a lot of young people in education, there isn't even space to have a conversation about figuring out what you want to do. There's an expectation to figure something out, do something, do anything.

I think the thing I loved best about the project was that kids and teenagers were fully included. They're the future. They're the ones who will inherit the world we're creating. So let them learn - really learn - the knowledge, skills and awareness that'll mean they can have a say in that world, too. At Mindvalley U, children and teens between the ages of 5 and 17 spent their days together, rather than separated in year groups like at school, learning things like mindfulness, yoga, energy work, how the mind works, empowerment, self-confidence, intuition, etc. The focus was on the personal: how they connect to themselves and each other, how they show up in the world, and helping them know they are whole, complete and enough just as they are.

Vishen Lakhiani's hope was that Mindvalley U would be a dynamic city campus - an annual event, held for one month each year, in a different city each time. Barcelona was more successful than they had ever imagined, so Mindvalley U 2018 begins in just a couple of weeks in Tallinn, Estonia - this time with 1000 people.

So the question I'm asking myself now is - what value do I want to bring to the world? The answer that's coming out right now as I type is that I want to show that it's possible to break free. Possible to live a life that you love, that you have created. Possible to change your mindset, re-programme your brain so that you can move past the barriers and self-limiting beliefs you've grown up with. To live not only with purpose but on purpose. That the "life" most people have is just a societal construct, it doesn't have to be that way - it's only the norm because people believe it can't change. I want to have a life that I love, that satisfies my soul, and I want to take the people I care about with me, I want them to be able to do the same. Life is short and precious. I especially want my nephew and little cousins to see - they're all between two and five. Who knows what the world will look like when they're at university age?

I have absolutely no idea how on earth I'm going to do any of that just yet. I know I have a lot of inner work to do. But I do know that I fully intend to apply for Mindvalley U 2019, wherever in the world that may be.


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Currently reading: How to Be A Stoic: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Living - Massimo Pigliucci (non-fiction: philosophy)
Currently listening to: Renegades - X Ambassadors

The Two Wolves

I have a little story for you. A Cherokee one.

A man is sitting with his grandson and says -

"There is a terrible battle going on.

This battle is between two wolves.

One wolf is that of fear, anger, envy, sadness, arrogance, regret, self-pity, guilt, and all negative thoughts.

The other wolf is that of love, joy, peace, kindness, courage, compassion, faith, truth and all positive thoughts.

This fight is going on inside me, inside you, inside every single person."

The grandson thinks about this for a minute, then asks -

"Which wolf wins?"

The grandfather smiles and says -

"Whichever one you feed."

:) x