On Monday June 21st, the BC Children’s Hospital Centre for Mindfulness celebrated its second birthday!

The Centre for Mindfulness is a community of health professionals who aspire to bring mindfulness and compassion into our work with children and adolescents, parents and caregivers, and each other as colleagues and educators. Our vision is to create a “mindful hospital” that will nurture more compassionate care, and have a ripple effect throughout British Columbia and beyond.

In order to celebrate our first two years of community building and mindful teaching, practice, and research activities that we have supported, we organized a mindful walk (small and physically distanced in accordance with public health guidance) around the campus of BC Children’s and Women’s Hospital. Walking meditation is a mindfulness in motion, and is a lovely practice outdoors and in community. We invited Mindfulness Council members and guests to walk just with the intention of being present with ourselves and each other as we walked. We breathed together, enjoying each moment. We savored our togetherness as a community. We felt the sunshine of the warm summer day. We offered a quiet smile to colleagues and families as we passed by. We closed by honoring National Indigenous Peoples Day, and held a mindful moment underneath the trees behind the Healthy Minds building. 

Many of us enjoy practicing mindful walking, either slowly, or quickly when necessary, as we go though our day to day work at the hospital. When we are fully present with each step, we are less likely to get caught in rumination and stress on the difficulties we may have just experienced, or the challenge(s) that lie ahead in our next encounter. We arrive at our destination more refreshed and present. We know from experience and research that our true presence is an essential element in the quality of our care and quality of our caring. Our Breathr App (developed in partnership with the Kelty Mental Health Resource Centre) has a guided walking meditation, or you can walk mindfully with no guidance if you prefer. We invite you to give it a try!

The Centre for Mindfulness has been supported through the generosity of donors through the BC Children’s Hospital Foundation. If you’d like to receive information on our staff drop-in mindfulness sessions and/or our quarterly newsletter, please email Frances at mindfulness@cw.bc.ca.