The Power of Being a Mindful Advocate

How mindfulness can advance social causes.

Both Prince Ea and Kerri Kelly are Wanderlust Festival presenters. Don’t miss them and many other inspiring movers and shakers at a 2016 festival! For more information, click here.


If you were stopped on the street and asked what causes you were most passionate about within the realm of mindfulness, which would come to mind? Would you have an answer at all?

While we may practice mindfulness toward our own private journey through life, perhaps we should be applying it to other aspects as well. The good that can come from applying mindfulness to our lives is immeasurable—even organizations and companies are seeing the benefits, with more and more offering mindfulness training to their employees. We must continue to broaden the scope of mindfulness for the greater good—both on a societal and personal level.

So consider this a call to action: Pay it forward. Help others tap into mindfulness in the places where it’s needed most; bring mindfulness to the causes you’re instinctively drawn to.

Taking Action With Kerri Kelly

Action: It’s what life is all about, right? Finding what we believe in, setting our intentions, and living in harmony with our values. We act: We strive to be aware and present with every step we take, every thought we have, and in every action we carry out. Awareness of all of these things in culmination with their outcomes—that’s mindfulness. By bringing this action, this mindfulness, to social causes that we value, we can have a greater impact.

Kerri Kelly is the founder of CTZNWELL, a movement to mobilize the wellbeing community into a powerful force for change. In the video above she reflects on the cause that’s most driving her, saying it is “the cause that inspires us to get up, to get in the game, and to act.”

This notion spurred me to reflect on a quote I’d read by Evan Esar: “You can’t do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth.” To me, these words embody that urge, that desire for purpose harbored inside us all that drives us throughout our lives—to do something—to leave an impact.

Practicing Mindfulness With Prince Ea

Practicing mindfulness can certainly seem like a big undertaking for those who don’t truly understand the concept, or how to integrate it into their lives. As Prince Ea explains in the video above, translating mindfulness into content that people—particularly the younger generation—can relate to and comprehend allows the practice to become instantly more attainable.

As an artist, activist, and founder of Make SMART Cool (an initiative to promote positive social change), Prince Ea has used his influence to make an impact. A particular cause that he supports is bringing mindfulness to youth. Teaching mindfulness to children and teens sets a precedent for the way they will shape their thoughts, behaviors, and actions for the rest of their lives. The impact of this is evident as voiced by research, teachers, and advocates for the cause.

Beyond teaching mindfulness to the young, there are countless social causes and movements that have mindfulness as an integral part of their values. One such example is the Zero Waste movement which, in essence, is asking consumers to be mindful of their habits and the excessive amounts of waste they produce, in order to help keep our planet clean and healthy.

By bringing mindfulness to people and social causes in a way that’s engaging, actionable, and approachable, we are able to garner the best response to what could be an unfamiliar practice for some. So what causes are you most passionate about within the realm of mindfulness? Pay it forward, take action, and be mindful.

Kerri Kelly is the founder of CTZNWELL, a movement to mobilize the wellbeing community into a powerful force for change.

Prince Ea is an artist, activist, and founder of  Make SMART Cool, an initiative to promote positive social change.

Maggie Peikon bio2Maggie Peikon is a New York native, writer, and sufferer of insatiable wanderlust. An avid endorphin seeker she has a constant need to be moving, seeking adventure in all she does. She is a lover of travel, daydreaming, fitness, thunderstorms, and her dog, Finley. Despite the fact that she has to take medication daily due to a thyroidectomy, Maggie still believes that laughter will always be the best medicine. Follow her musings on Instagram and Twitter.