Meet Sunny Wight | Co-Founder and Executive Director, Mindfulness First

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sunny Wight and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sunny, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I Co-Founded the non-profit Mindfulness First, and we teach mental health wellness life-skills in K-12 settings. My thought process behind this organization was born out of an stress-induced illness I experienced at age 35. At that time, I utilized trauma understanding, mindfulness and social-emotional techniques to help heal and live a healthier, more balanced life. I kept thinking, ‘why didn’t I learn these skills as a child’? PE has been mandated in schools for over 100 years, but we’ve never been given the skills to manage our mental, emotional world. These thoughts inspired me to help facilitate the ‘missing piece in education’ – mental health education.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Mindfulness First is one of a handful of nonprofits nationwide, pioneering a new field ‘mindfulness in education’. What sets us apart is our focus on accessibility of mental health education for folks regardless of background, identity, resources and disabilities. For example, we work with the AZ State School for the Deaf and the Blind to help adapt and bring calming, self-regulation skills to this low-incidence disability community. We care deeply that all people have access to mental health skills that they can relate to, understand and that work for them. It’s certainly never easy creating a nonprofit, but we have amazing people on our team who are creating impact everyday.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
The Japanese Friendship Garden in Phoenix is my favorite place to visit. It is a truly unique and beautiful setting for mindfulness practice and it just feels good to be there. The garden meticulously adheres to Japanese garden design principles, emphasizing peace, harmony, and nature. It has delightful winding paths, koi ponds (I love feeding the fish!), carefully placed rocks and sculptures, and meticulously maintained landscaping create a calming and visually captivating atmosphere. I also really enjoy all the diverse elements like water features, bridges, pagodas, bonsai trees, and seasonal blooms; it really caters to different sensory experiences and fosters a deeper connection with nature. And more than anything, it’s really quiet and peaceful with enclosed walls, the garden provides a refuge from noise and visual clutter, I find I can truly disconnect and focus inwards.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My Shoutout goes to Kimberly Narde, the Co-Founder of Mindfulness First and my dear friend. Kimberly is someone who helped me during my healing from my stress-induced illness. During that time I learned that Kimberly had the good fortune of learning mindfulness life-skills as a child. I thought that she was an incredible example of how healthy we can be when we learn good mental health skills as a child, and I felt lucky to have her share her mindfulness with me. We both agreed that these skills should be a part of everyone’s education, just like Math, English and PE. If it wasn’t for Kimberly, Mindfulness First would not have just celebrated it’s 10th anniversary because the only way we could do this was together, with each other’s unwavering support. We work together so well, and have weathered the very difficult task of not only opening and sustaining a nonprofit, but also pioneering a very new field for education. Kimberly inspires me to always do better with her kindness, patience and love.

Website: www.mindfulnessfirst.org

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mindfulnessfirst/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mindfulness-first/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mindfulnessfirst