168. Just Stare at the Wall: A Former Marine's Mission to Bring Meditation to Prisons and Senior Living with Mark Blacknell

TW mentions of suicide

What does meditation look like when you strip away the incense, the apps, and the spiritual jargon? In this episode, I sit down with Mark Blacknell, a former Marine turned ordained Soto Zen meditation guide and author of Stare at the Wall, to talk about the no-frills practice he's built his life around.

Mark works with two populations many wellness conversations overlook entirely: incarcerated individuals, including correspondence with someone on Florida's death row, and seniors in assisted living and memory care communities. We talk about why a practice as simple as sitting and staring at a wall can reach people in solitary confinement and people living with memory loss just as powerfully as it reaches anyone else, and why Mark believes simplicity, not complexity, is what makes a meditation practice actually stick.

www.stareatthewall.org

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