A Mindful Approach to Critical Thinking

We live in the era of constant partial attention. Simultaneously, we may be listening to music, checking our text messages, thinking about dinner plans, and talking with a friend. There may be advantages to multi-tasking, there may be disadvantages to multi-tasking.

On the other end of the spectrum, we find mindfulness (a practice with roots in Eastern tradition that has also taken root in Western psychology). Jon Kabat-Zinn defines mindfulness as “paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally.”

The practice of paying full attention in a sustained, directed manner is a useful approach to critical thinking. For, critical thinking is the opposite of snap judgment; critical thinking involves patience and time; critical thinking involves paying attention to different possibilities.

As you may know, the process of critical thinking includes: 1) viewing a problem or situation from multiple perspectives, 2) analyzing the strength of evidence offered by each perspective, and 3) forming conclusions that take into account such an analysis.

Whereas partial attention often leads to snap decisions, expedient action, and unexamined judgment, mindful attention creates the space to step back and fully observe each possible perspective.

Yes, I know - critical thinking takes time. And it takes effort. And it requires your full attention.

Yes, I know - life circumstance often makes short supply of these assets.

But if you want to be a powerful critical thinker - with consequent benefits in college, work, and life - you need to make space for the process. You need to stop the four things you are doing and focus on just one.

Some strategies for a mindful approach to critical thinking:

- First things first, stop everything else and focus squarely on the problem or situation. Take a deep breath to center yourself on the task of understanding the problem or situation.

- Second, explore your biases and experiences that lead you to see things a certain way. How does your culture, your value judgments, your political persuasions, your upbringing, your former teachers influence the way the problem or situation looks to your eyes?

- Third, observe the problem or situation from another person's shoes or another place. How does it look differently?

- And now you are in a position to move from non-judgmental observation to thoughtful judgment. What solutions or explanations are enlivened by a deeper, more attentive observing of the situation or problem?