B. Crymble

In the last two decades, scientists have begun to study the relationship between mindfulness and temporal experience. However, studies have yet to put an agentic lens on this relationship to show how one can practice mindfulness as a means to shape one’s holistic experience of time. Temporal metacognition, a new concept in time literature, explains one’s agentic ability to self-consciously regulate temporal focus on the past, present, and future. In this paper we ask the following question: How does a person shape his or her own temporal experience with mindfulness? Conducted ethnographically over a seven-month period, this study takes a fresh look at time studies and provides rich and illuminating evidence about unwesternized time. Our findings indicate that mindfulness practice is fundamentally a specific type of temporal agency, which both enhances and is enhanced by temporal metacognitive skills. Therefore, mindfulness is a practice of temporal agency which cultivates temporal metacognition, allowing individuals to consciously create desirable forms of temporal experience. This study is both timely and pertinent as humanity strives to uncover ancient cultural wisdoms for human and sustainable development before they are lost to Western modernity and the oppressive force of the clock’s pendulum.

BACKGROUND

My name is Bonnie Brown Crymble (B.B. Crymble). I am an interdisciplinary qualitative scientist studying the intersection of mindfulness, temporality, and human consciousness. For my first ethnographic study, for my PhD dissertation, I lived in a small rural Buddhist village in the mountains of Sri Lanka to study the effect of mindfulness on temporality and cognition in a context where mindfulness has been socio-culturally embedded for centuries, drawing on the indigenous knowledge of its practitioners. I strive to create knowledge for our world that helps humanity come into Oneness with itself, unity with our planet, and self-realization of each individual through increased human consciousness.

EDUCATION

Ph.D. in Sustainability in Management Sciences, 2023-2027

ESADE Business School, Barcelona, Spain

Dissertation Papers:

Mindfully Shaping Time: The Cultivation of Temporal Metacognition in Rural Buddhist Sri Lanka

Mindfulness as a Temporal Moral Code for Presence and Flow

Sharing Time: Temporal Structuring for Community Development in Rural Buddhist Sri Lanka

M.Sc. of Research in Management Sciences, 2022-2023

ESADE Business School, Barcelona, Spain

Sustainable HRM: an Exploration of Consequences on Employee Well-being

M.Sc. in Sustainability and Innovation in Business, 2021-2022

EADA Business School, Barcelona, Spain

Making Fundacion Ana Bella Financially Sustainable

B.Sc. in Business Administration, 2016-2019

Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, U.S.A.

Concentration in Supply Chain Management

AWARDS

FI Grant - Joan Oró - Catalan Government - 25.636,00 Euros - March 2024 - Awarded for Qualitative Research in Temporal Experience and Sustainable Development

PRESENTATIONS

18-20 June 2025 - Mindfulness as Temporal Agency in Rural Buddhist Sri Lanka - 41st Annual Qualitative Analysis Conference in Quebec City, Canada - Theme: The Temporality of Lived Experience and Everyday Lives - Delta Hotel Marriott, Quebec City, Canada

28 May 2026 - Mindfully Shaping Time: The Cultivation of Temporal Metacognition in Rural Buddhist Sri Lanka - (ISI) Advanced Research Seminar

29 May 2026 -  Mindfully Shaping Time: The Cultivation of Temporal Metacognition in Rural Buddhist Sri Lanka - Mind & Life Europe: Summer Research Institute 2026 - Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona, Spain