Meet the Team! Our Interview with Mindfulness Teacher & Program Coordinator, CJ Johnson

This month we are excited to highlight one of the members of our teaching team, CJ Johnson. CJ is a Mindfulness Teacher & Program Coordinator, offering our Mindful Studies course at Alliance at Meek High School in Portland, OR.

When did you begin your mindfulness practice?

As a child, I was interested in and exploring mindfulness even though I might not have known to call it that. A little later, my father, who was a championship golfer, shared lessons and techniques with me that were totally about mindfulness applied to golf. Thank you, Dad! I applied those lessons to golf and all my other sports and academics and music and everything I did. As an adult, I also had to learn in a very experiential way that there was something deeper than or beyond always having to strive to perform better. Something already present just in being who we are. Peace In Schools calls it inherent wholeness. I began formal practice in this way with a teacher over twenty years ago, and it's still fresh and new every day.

What is unique about the Peace In School's approach in the classroom?

Since we're partnered with schools as part of their courses offered to students for credit, students can have a more intensive and rich experience over time. That lets us build deeper relationships of presence and interconnection with teens. And that means we can then better assist them in their own self-exploration and inquiry, in their recognition of their own inner wisdom, in their connecting authentically with who they are.

What has teaching taught you?

Humility. And patience. And the importance of connection, timing, and having fun.

Favorite moment with a student?

The moments when ideas of "teacher" and "student" disappear and there's just meeting and connecting on equal ground. There's an aliveness in those moments, when we're just offering awareness in an authentic and natural, kind of effortless way.