In spite of a nearly decade-long hiatus from film, since The Banger Sisters in 2002, famous humanitarian actress Goldie Hawn is still finding ways to put that infectious smile of hers to good use. She appeared on ABC’s Nightline to speak about The Hawn Foundation, which she founded shortly after the attacks of September 11, 2001. During her hiatus from film, the green celebrity actress Goldie Hawn has spent the last 10 years working on her MindUP program, helping kids to become more positive, happy, and successful.
Her new book 10 Mindful Minutes, which hit bookshelves September 27, 2011, is a culmination of 10 years of study into cognitive functions and what makes the mind tick. In the book, the star celeb aims to tackle feelings of depression, hopelessness, sadness, uncertainty and other negative feelings — feelings she’s struggled with herself — using techniques practiced among a host of disciplines. While the humanitarian actress turned happiness guru admits that meditation and spirituality are part of what she’s discovered to be helpful, the star celeb says the real proof is in the science.
Finding out that an estimated 1 in 3 American children are medicated in order to be successful now in school and/or to alleviate feelings of hopelessness and depression upset the celeb terribly. For that reason, she claims she stopped focusing on making movies and instead pledged her time be spent visiting as many kids as she could in American classrooms to teach the “proven” scientific techniques of her happiness-inducing Mind UP program.
Bottom line, Mind Up is a sort of meditation. Goldie Hawn tells ABC:
“It’s not anything magical. It’s all biological and neurological,” Hawn told Nightline anchor Cynthia McFadden. “So let’s just take a breath and take a break. Teachers need it. Kids need it.”
She calls the break a “brain break.”
“You go inward for a while. It’s important to do that … it helps relax your brain and strengthen your brain,” she said. “It gives great context into behavior, emotions, ways of forgiving themselves by understanding their brain, reactivity, stress, how to reduce our stress, how to recognize it.”
The Academy Award winning actress of Cactus Flower (1969), Goldie Hawn, now 65, is also famous for her roles in Private Benjamin (1980), Overboard (1987), and The First Wives Club (1996). But lately the star celeb has taken her trademark giggle into the classroom, brightening eyes and lifting spirits of kids and teachers alike. This giggly star celeb isn’t fooling around. She’s serious business with a smile. And it works. She cites a 63 percent rise in optimism in the classroom and a 35 percent drop in aggression on the playground as proof that the techniques work.
Goldie Hawn is a practicing Buddhist since 1972, though it’s only a small part of her studies for the MindUP program. She remains in a 28-year relationship with actor Kurt Russell, and together they have raised three children, including actress Kate Hudson. She also has four grandchildren. In addition to founding The Hawn Foundation, she has supported multiple humanitarian charities, including FilmAid International, Playing for Good, and The Starkey Hearing Foundation.
Asked if she has any plans to make more movies, she was iffy. She said that there are no plans for a sequel to The First Wives Club, but she did hint that she might get involved in a film project with her co-stars from that movie. Fans can only hope.