About Us

At the close of 2020, the unprecedented challenges facing educators made it clear to Richard Brady, a renowned educator, author, and longtime meditator, that mindfulness must no longer be seen as an individual practice. He underscored this reality by establishing Minding Our Lives—the continuation of Minding Your Life, the consulting firm Richard founded in 2000 to help educators and schools develop personal and community mindfulness practice.

 Our Mission

  • Introduce educators, students, and school communities to practices for mindful living

  • Help educators find means of incorporating mindfulness practices in their lives at work and at home

  • Help educators develop mindfulness-based curricula

  • Support continuing mindfulness programs for educators, students, and school communities

 About Richard Brady

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Richard Brady, MS, is a practicing meditator, a certified Mindfulness teacher, a retreat leader, and coordinator of the Wake Up Schools Level II Program in North America. In 2001 he was recognized by Thich Nhat Hanh as a teacher in his tradition with a special focus on cultivating mindfulness in young people.  In the same year he founded the Mindfulness in Education Network (MiEN).  Since then, he has regularly presented workshops for educators and consulted with schools.

Richard did his undergraduate work in mathematics at MIT and received an MS in physics from the University of Maryland.  He has been a mathematics teacher in Washington, DC: at Woodrow Wilson High School from 1970 to 1973 and at Sidwell Friends School from 1973 to 2007.

Richard founded the Washington Mindfulness Community in 1989.  He has led mindfulness workshops under the auspices of the Friends Council on Education and Pendle Hill Quaker Center and at the National Association of Independent Schools and the Association of Independent Maryland Schools annual conferences.  Richard has taught mindfulness at Sidwell Friends School and has taught mindfulness to teachers and students at other educational institutions including:  University of Massachusetts, Amherst; The Putney School; and Compass School. and has led retreats for educators in the US, Italy, and Germany.  He is an editor of Tuning In: Mindfulness in Teaching and Learning (Friends Council on Education, 2009) and author of Walking the Teacher’s Path with Mindfulness: Stories for Reflection and Action (Routledge, 2021).

Richard is currently a retreat leader, writer, educational consultant, and coordinator of the Wake Up Schools Level II Program in North America and the Wake Up Schools’ Happy Teacher NA Sangha.