Mindfulness an essential ‘parachute’ for politicians – former British MP

Chris Ruane, who nursed a North Wales constituency diligently for Labour for 18 years, stood in an election count centre in the early hours last May and watched a political career disappear, all for the want of 238 votes.

Today, Ruane, who displayed an ever-present interest in Irish matters during his time in the House of Commons, is developing a new career, advising colleagues still inside the political tent on ways of protecting their soul, if not their seat.

He began his preparation for a life after politics long before he left the Commons, offering classes on meditation, or “mindfulness” to MPs, officials and peers. Such was the demand, the classes quickly booked out.

Mindfulness conference

“There was enormous demand for the classes,” says Ruane, who is speaking at a conference on mindfulness at the National University of Ireland, Galway tomorrow.

More than 100 MPs came, but not new Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, al though Ruane believes Corbyn is already “naturally mindful”.

“Anyone who can take the sort of media brick-bats he took in such a calm way is very resilient,” he says.

He learned the value of meditation in another cauldron of noise, mayhem and unruly conduct: when he was assigned a class of 39 nine-to-10-year-olds during his time as a primary school teacher. He introduced the valued form of meditation to fellow Commons politicians, working with Labour peer and economist Prof Richard Layard, who has spoken about its merits at Davos, and with Oxford University’s Prof Mark Williams and Chris Cullen.

The shock of defeat in the Vale of Clwyd constituency was not eliminated by meditation, but it was eased. He had, he says, been able to “soften the landing by being mindful about it all”.

Politicians facing elections, including increasingly nervous TDs, should “prepare their parachutes well before they need them”, he says. “There is no such thing as a ‘safe seat’.”

Meditation should be taught in schools, not just to politicians, he says.

A recent British survey showed a third of 15-to-25-year-olds suffer one or more psychiatric conditions, while use of antidepressants increased by 500 per cent between 1991-2001.

“I bet if you asked the same question in the Dáil here, you would see a similar alarming increase,” he says.

“The sad thing is that we have had freely available mindfulness on the National Health Service for the last 11 years, but there has been virtually no take-up.”

Wellbeing measured

British prime minister David Cameron is interested in the concept: “[He] ensured that the Office of National Statistics began to measure wellbeing, as he recognised that we really are more than just money . . .”

Left with more time on his hands since his defeat, Ruane now has enough time to advocate the merits of mindfulness with politicians in other jurisdictions. He has trained members of the Dutch parliament and the Welsh Assembly.

Even US marines now receive mindfulness as part of precombat training. Soon his classes will be available in Australia. In one Australian university, medical training includes a mindful module to reduce anxiety among medical staff, he says.