Question

The students are to pick mindfulness activities, I choose meditation 1.) Brainstorm and research the life a popular politician, well-known actress/actor, bestselling author, historical figure, professional athlete, famous CEO, etc. Be sure to investigate the person’s personality, work ethic, hobbies, relationships, public behavior, and choices. 2.) Research different mindfulness practices that might help this person. 3.) Discuss why you chose these specific mindful activities. 4.) Connect how these practices could apply to the person's life. 5.) Design a plan on how you could encourage these practices in the person’s life. 6.) Support your findings in a Prezi, Powerpoint, presentation with readings, research, and APA citations.

Answer 1

I selected the life of Michael Jackson, who was having very exceptional and outstanding qualities in music. He was born on 29th August 1958 in Indiana. His singing and dancing abilities were amazingly outstanding since childhood itself. He was a real musical prodigy and the dominant voice in their Jacksons 5 musical band as young as 5 years. In 1982, he made 'Thriller' which became the biggest selling album of all time. His talents as a singer and dancer were peerless and his moonwalk performance was incomparable. He was known as the 'King of Pop'. He made so many best selling musical albums and held 39 Guinness World Records, 13 Grammy Awards, 16 World Music Awards, Grammy Legend Award, Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and numerous other awards for his charity works and humanitarian endeavors.

Despite all these successes in his career, his personal life was miserable. He was an introverted and nervous child who was lacking self-confidence. He hated his father and mentioned many negative things about his father in many TV interviews. His physical appearance changed drastically from the 1990s. He showed many eccentric behaviors and had many scandals including child molestation.

He had two brief marriages, the first wife was Lisa Marie Presley and the second wife was Debbie Rowe who was the mother of Michael Jackson's two kids. His third kid was from a surrogate mother.

At the age of 51, he died in Los Angels, California from drug intoxication which was administered by his doctor for his chronic problem of insomnia. He was suffering from sleeplessness and was taking anesthetic drugs to get the desired sleep and rest but unfortunately, he lost his life on those drugs.

Meditation, Yoga, Pranayama, etc are wonderful mindfulness techniques which could have been used for Michael Jackson instead of drugs. Meditation is an excellent way to connect our body, mind, and soul. It has been proved scientifically through MRI studies that practicing meditation for 8 weeks can help to shrink the amygdala or the primal region of the brain which is associated with the fight-or-flight response. Pre-frontal cortex which is associated with higher functions like awareness, decision making, and concentration will become thicker through meditation.

Michael Jackson was suffering from many psychological traumas which could be healed with proper meditation. Meditation can bring self-awareness and can help to connect our life-energy with the ultimate energy of the universe. Michael Jackson had suppressed his pains and traumas of his childhood without healing it. Meditation would have helped him to heal those traumas and to bring his awareness to a new level where he could forgive and forget all those experiences and can deal with his life in a calm and peaceful way. Meditation would have helped him to control his stress, reduce his anxiety and also to find a meaningful purpose to his life. He could get proper rest and sleep after meditation. Meditation can improve mental, physical and emotional well-being. He could have achieved inner balance and emotional maturity through meditation. He could have experience inner tranquility and blissfulness through meditation. Meditation would have helped him to rejuvenate and refresh every day. He could get rid of any addictions through the proper practice of meditation every day.