Thinking about mindfulness: Where does emotion come from? | Erin Woo | TEDxAmoskeagMillyardWomen

Teacher and mindfulness advocate, Erin Woo, asks us to consider the way we experience emotions. Drawing a distinction between things we know (with our brains) and things we feel, she suggests that it’s not an accident that we commonly use “feeling” words to describe emotions. Indeed, scientists have begun to identify ways in which our feelings and sensations impact our emotions and vice versa.

With care and passion, Woo makes the case for mindfulness. She argues that only by acknowledging the distinction between thought and emotion can we begin to understand our world and our place in it. By practicing mindfulness, which draws us out of our traditional, thinking selves, we can come in contact with a wellspring of knowledge and wisdom lying just below the surface.

Erin Woo has a master’s in education, is a certified champion of the Mindfulness in Schools Project (MiSP) and the director at a Montessori preschool in Bethlehem, NH. A practitioner of mindfulness for nearly a decade, Woo developed her approach through experience while attending numerous retreats, workshops and classes. Woo says that, “Mindfulness has been a transformative process that has changed my life in powerful and important ways.” Learn more about Erin Woo at http://bit.ly/1TvMIqP.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx