Mo Mindful

Being a certified mindfulness instructor, a school teacher, a singer-songwriter and a comedy performer makes Mo an ideal conduit to introduce mindfulness to young people in a playful and memorable way.

Mindfulness can be fun. We can laugh ourselves into the present moment and be momentarily free from the mind’s chatter.

One of the interesting aspects of her performance includes using a loop pedal which records layers of sounds in real time. This is an interactive part of the performance where Mo invites percussive or vocal contributions from students in the audience. This creates a background soundscape that continually loops as she tells a funny story about our inner voices that chatter away seemingly on a loop. She then demonstrates the power of replacing this cacophony with a more pleasant “loop” of positive self-talk.

Mo started out her creative career as a visual artist after studying both in Canada and Australia earning her a M.Art. However, it was not until she had moved to Ireland in her mid-thirties that she faced her performance anxiety to turn her songwriting hobby into a full time pursuit. She credits mindful meditation with empowering her to overcome stage fright, and she went on to help others face their fear to get up on stage for the first time or even, as in one case, help an actress return to the stage after 30 years of crippling performance anxiety.

In 2016, inspired after a 10 day mindfulness to change her life and pursue a profession that would give back to the community Mo became a teacher with an alternative certification program and was soon hired in one of the roughest schools in Austin. As the Life Skills teacher working with a wide range of physical, emotional and intellectual disabilities she credits her mindfulness practice with being able to cope with the extreme pressure and physical danger and turned it into a cherished and life changing experience.

She and her Life Skills students wrote and illustrated a book called “The Eye of the Hurricane”. Mo created the music video with the students who helped direct it. The below video is the result.