PVLF 2025

Interview with Swati Desai Author of "Get Mindfulness Right"

Swati Desai's Get Mindfulness Right' explores the integration of ancient wisdom and modern mindfulness practices, addressing key gaps in the current discourse.
on Oct 11, 2024

Swati Desai holds dual degrees of a PhD in Management and a Masters in Clinical Social Work both from the University of California at Los Angeles. Way back in 2006, she introduced mindfulness as part of her therapy work as a licensed psychotherapist at the Akasha Center for Integrative Medicine in Los Angeles. As a certified teacher of mindfulness and mindful self-compassion, she has been conducting workshops in India and the US, giving lectures and writing about mindfulness and its power as a tool for psychological well-being. She is the founder of 2meditate.com a global community of mindfulness, compassion and self-compassion practitioners building personal and collective well-being.

Frontlist: Mindfulness has been widely discussed in recent years. What prompted you to write Get Mindfulness Right, and what gaps did you feel were missing in the current discourse that your book addresses?

Swati: I see three gaps! As Mindfulness has become increasingly popular, the gaps have only increased! I wanted to correct that, hence the book!

These are the three gaps:

a) In the process of secularizing Mindfulness, the ancient Indian foundational teachings of Buddha were hardly discussed for fear of sounding religious. That made Mindfulness a mechanical tool for stress reduction and relaxation by paying attention to the present moment. Although it is a crucial part of mindfulness, it takes away the power of mindfulness as a sacred way to handle life’s distress of all types by adding clarity and meaning. It takes away the power of three other aspects of mindfulness: non-attachment, compassion, and core values.

b) The books are either written by secular mindfulness teachers as “workbooks” to solve life’s issues or by Buddhist teachers on specific aspects of Buddhist teachings around Mindfulness. I did not see any book that would give everything – theory, practice, science, ancient foundations, practical advice for our modern problems, and stories of people. This book is a one-stop solution to knowing everything. I wanted to make it very accessible and relatable for everyone who wanted to know about mindfulness – even the practitioners.

c) The third strange thing was that Mindfulness was seen as a Western tool because of the scientific studies conducted in the West, where Mindfulness became the most researched psychological tool for wellbeing. Indians did not know the Indian roots of mindfulness when, in fact, the Indian psyche is so primed to understand and use concepts such as sacred and non-attachment. Although the book applies to everyone regardless of their cultural background or age, I wanted to write a book that would specifically relate to the modern Indian who cannot just depend on religion for guidance during life’s issues.

Frontlist: In the book, you explore the integration of ancient wisdom with modern mindfulness practices. How did you navigate the challenge of merging these two aspects while keeping the content relatable for today’s audience?

Swati: This is a great question with a simple answer. Wisdom applies to life to the ancients and to the moderns. We give the foundational material that comes from the ancient suttas, which adds sanctity and sacredness to the practices we already use in the secular version of mindfulness. The modern practices are validated by science, and when you learn the ancient roots, it only adds a timeless feeling to it. Combination of trust and faith – science and ancient teachings.

For example, modern definition of mindfulness is supposed to create acute awareness of the present moment, non-judgmentally, simply accepting, and just observing which lets us become aware of the importance of enjoying the present moment we have as opposed to getting entangled in the regrets from the past or the worry of the future. Now, look at the ancient sutta (called satipatthana sutta) that introduces mindfulness meditations by using these words:

Mendicants, the four kinds of mindfulness meditation are the path to convergence. They are in order to purify sentient beings, to get past sorrow and crying, to make an end of pain and sadness, to discover the system and to realize extinguishment.

Contemplate your body (or feelings, or mental habits, or core values) diligently, ardently, clearly knowing, constantly letting go of the greed and distress concerning the world.

This adds so much more solemnness to the present moment awareness -- to do it ardently and diligently – and in addition to let go of greed and distress. Which takes away the reasons for our suffering. It gives us clarity to see the stories our brain is constantly making and distorting reality.

Frontlist: The book features diverse case studies, from professionals to mindfulness champions like Shonali Bose and Dr. Kiran Bedi. How did you decide on these individuals, and what was the process like working with them to include their stories?

Swati: The people we chose we knew are all practitioners of mindfulness and had big public life to spread the word. They were all not only very open about their experiences but very generous with their time. One of them, in fact, broke down while narrating their story.

Shonali gave a very intimate interview since I have worked with her when her son passed away in a tragical accident. She is so expressive and talked about all sorts of things through, literally, the middle of night. Importance of honesty about oneself in life, facing pain, living life on one’s own terms, uplifting others by reaching clarity for your own self … and all this with self-compassion.

Frontlist: Writing about mindfulness requires deep reflection and understanding. What was your writing process like, and did practicing mindfulness during this period influence how you approached the writing?

Swati: Absolutely. I have been practicing and teaching for a long time but writing adds so much more clarity that your practice deepens. And the other way round. For example, as I was writing this book, I was finishing a two-year long program to study the ancient Buddhist suttas. And that influenced what I was including in the book. For example, adding the beginning of satipatthana sutta and adding specific core values such as Wise speech, Wise action, and Wise livelihood. I had a chance to think about how to resolve the difficulties one can experience while trying to practice these principles in our modern life. Compassion is misunderstood as weakness, and I had to really go back to the source material and interpret it to ensure that my own powerful experience with compassion was validated in the same way in the source material too.

Frontlist: What was the most rewarding part of writing this book, and was there a particular chapter or topic that proved to be more challenging than others? How did you overcome that?

Swati: The rewarding part of writing this book was making it more relatable and accessible to readers with the help of my co-author Subhashini and OM editor Jyotsna. What was challenging was to know how not to make it too boring (cryptic) but also to give enough depth.

The chapter that was challenging was the one on parenting! Partly because I am not a parenting expert, and I did not want to write the chapter to tell parents what is the best method to raise their child. However, based on my own experience I know that mindfulness helps in balancing self-care and child-first-care in many ways, regardless of your parenting style. I wanted to make sure all those ways were clearly expressed – beyond the cliché that oxygen mask on you before the baby. My co-author is a parent of two young kids and her questions and experiences helped a lot while writing that chapter.

Frontlist: With World Mental Health Day in mind, how can practicing mindfulness, as described in your book, become a vital tool in managing mental health issues, especially in stressful environments?

Swati: Let me just say one thing. Mental health is any issue – acute or chronic – that creates severe distress for you and makes it hard to go through your day. This may be a chronic disorder or an issue that comes up just in that period. It could be having a paranoid schizophrenia or breaking up in a relationship and unable to work properly.

First and foremost, one needs to admit to oneself that the issue on hand is a mental health issue, even when some part of it can be explained by external circumstances. This requires courage and a lot of self-compassion and Mindfulness gives you both. The courage comes by non-attachment to defenses such as “I cannot have such issues. I need to look good to others”, and self-compassion gives the ability to take care of whatever is creating distress. Not self-pity, not victim mentality, but the courage to look at “this is life and right now I am having a very hard time handling this issue”. It becomes possible to seek help from whatever sources you are able to.

Denying the reality and to say “everything is fine” or “I can handle this” is often times detrimental to improving things in your life and it adversely affects the people close to you.

Then there is the other side – from the point of view of someone who is watching a closed one suffering. If anyone you know is suffering from mental health issue, do have compassion for their difficulties even if you feel pushed away from them. If it is severe disorder such as losing touch with reality or not being able to get out of bed or physical self-harming, then you need to take more definite action to get professional help for the patient.

If the person with mental health issue is able to function for most part but you are worried about their self-destructive ways, then accepting their condition as “life” and to keep in mind that everyone needs help to handle life, this combination is more likely help them than anything else. Know that it would be detrimental to “impose” your solution onto them but being gently persistent in inviting them to seek help is a good strategy. Mindfulness teaches you Compassion with boundaries!