Grant Rix has been studying and practising meditation all his adult life and has completed numerous retreats, including graduating from a unique three-year study and meditation programme that took place at the Wangapeka Retreat Centre during the mid-00’s under the guidance of his principal teacher, Tarchin Hearn. Other teachers Grant has studied and retreated with include the Ven. Namgyal Rinpoche, Lama Mark Webber, and Sonia Moriceau.
Having completed traditional foundational practices and continuing with studies of Mahāmudrā and the four foundations of mindfulness, Grant has a sound understanding of methods common to Buddha Dharma as well as modern secular approaches to mindfulness practice and research.
Over the past decade, he has become a leader in secular mindfulness training and delivery in New Zealand and created New Zealand’s own evidence-based, curriculum aligned, mindfulness in schools programme, Pause Breathe Smile, while working for the Mental Health Foundation of NZ. Pause Breathe Smile is now being delivered to more than 80,000 children in over 270 schools nationwide. Currently, Grant serves as the Chairperson for the Pause Breathe Smile Trust and is employed as the Director of Mindfulness Training and Development for the Trust.
He has presented regularly at conferences in New Zealand and internationally and has been involved in researching the benefits of secular mindfulness practice, particularly for students at primary, intermediate and tertiary levels of education.
Grant first began teaching public courses in 2005 at the suggestion of his principal teacher Tarchin Hearn. In the spirit of natural awakening, he is interested in the many ways that the wisdom innate to all of us flows forth from each person given the right causes and conditions and he is clear about the differences between Buddhist and secular approaches to mindfulness practice with a view that both can be of great benefit to people dependent on their different dispositions, backgrounds, and beliefs.
Publications
Krägeloh C, Medvedev O, Taylor T, Wrapson W, Rix G, Sumich A,Wang G, Csako R, Anstiss D, Ranta J, Patel N, Siegert R (2018) A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial for a Videoconference-Delivered Mindfulness-Based Group Intervention in a Nonclinical Setting Springer US. View
Devcich D A, Rix G, Bernay R & Graham E (2017). Effectiveness of a mindfulness-based program on school children’s self-reported well-being: A pilot study comparing effects with an emotional literacy program. Journal of Applied School Psychology
Rix, G. (2017). Mindful Aotearoa: Promoting the Benefits of Mindfulness Grounded in Local Context and Understanding in Ditrich, Wiles & Lovegrove (Eds.), Mindfulness and Education: Research and Practice (pp.103-124). Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K.: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Bernay R, Esther Graham, Daniel A. Devcich, Grant Rix & Christine M. Rubie-Davies (2016): Pause, breathe, smile: a mixed-methods study of student wellbeing following participation in an eight-week, locally developed mindfulness program in three New Zealand schools, Advances in School Mental Health Promotion, DOI:10.1080/1754730X.2016.1154474.
Rix, Grant, and Ross Bernay. 2014. “A Study of the Effects of Mindfulness in Five Primary Schools in New Zealand.” New Zealand Journal of Teachers’ Work 11(2): 201-220.
Rix, Grant, Ross Bernay, and Daniel A. Devcich. 2014. “Mindfulness as a core strategy for promoting mental health and increasing positive (flourishing) states of well-being.” Proceedings of the New Zealand Population Health Congress 2014: 228-230.