My Year Of Living Mindfully Review: One Woman, One Year, Six Labs

My Year Of Living Mindfully: the short version

At 24, Shannon Harvey was told she probably had lupus, an autoimmune disease with no known cure. Years later, still in pain and sleeping badly, she asked a simple question: what is the mind’s version of a 30 minute walk? My Year Of Living Mindfully (2020) is her answer. She meditated every day for a year while six labs tracked her brain, blood, genes and stress hormones. It is the most honest film about mindfulness and health we have seen.

My Year Of Living Mindfully in short form

• What it is: an Australian feature documentary, 1 hour 38 minutes.
• The experiment: one woman, daily meditation, a course and a silent retreat.
• Her results: wellbeing up sharply, insomnia gone, illness still there.
• The science: many researchers interviewed, with the doubts kept in.
• Where to watch: rent on YouTube Movies or Apple TV.
• Our verdict: strong, fair and worth your evening.

What is My Year Of Living Mindfully about?

Shannon Harvey is an Australian health journalist and a mother of two. After her diagnosis she spent a lot of money on treatments that did not help. Then she turned to the science.

She started at 20 minutes of meditation a day. Then she did an eight week MBSR course (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, the programme built by Jon Kabat-Zinn) at 45 minutes a day, and a ten day silent retreat. By the end of the film she had done more than 450 hours of practice, and she kept going.

Along the way she interviews scientists, teachers and people using mindfulness in hard places, from chronic pain clinics to refugee programmes.

Key highlights

• Wellbeing. Her wellbeing score rose from just below average to well above. She says this is the result that matters most.
• Sleep. Her insomnia cleared. A doctor in the film explains why: she learnt to catch the worry thought at bedtime and not feed it.
• The brain. An MRI showed growth in her right hippocampus, a part of the brain involved in managing emotions.
• The illness. It did not go away. After the silent retreat she had no symptoms for over a month, but her blood tests were too noisy to show a clear trend.

Her own conclusion, paraphrased: mindfulness did not cure her illness, but it changed her relationship to it.

The science it draws on

This is where the film shines, because it shows both the promise and the doubts. These points are as the film presents them.

• Depression coming back. An eight week mindfulness course (MBCT, mindfulness based cognitive therapy) has been found to match medication for preventing depression from returning. The best known trial is Kuyken and colleagues in The Lancet, 2015.
• Stress recovery. In a speech stress test, people trained in mindfulness still felt the stress, but recovered faster.
• Smoking. Judson Brewer’s mindfulness programme had about five times the quit rate of a standard treatment four months later (a 2011 randomised trial).
• Inflammation genes. Experienced meditators turned down genes that drive inflammation after a single day of intensive practice. The scientists say it is too early to know if that matters for health.
• Older brains. At 50, long-term meditators’ brains looked about seven and a half years younger. The catch, which the film states: we cannot tell whether meditation caused it.

The cautions the film keeps in. Her own gene and telomere results were not statistically significant, and three lab methods gave three different telomere answers. Researchers warn that mindfulness has been oversold, and that intense retreats can be hard on some people. One person’s year proves nothing on its own, and she says so.

Key stories in the film

Floss one tooth. A teacher’s tip for the days you can’t be bothered: just commit to sitting down. Nobody flosses one tooth, so once you’re there, you do the whole thing.

Vidyamala Burch. Her spine was broken twice, at 16 and 23. Meditation, she says, was never going to fix her spine, but it healed how she responds to life. She went on to found Breathworks, which teaches mindfulness for pain.

A minute in the bathroom. Before a big talk, Shannon hides in a bathroom for a mindful minute, feeling slightly silly. It is gentle, funny and true to life.

How it fits what we teach at Flametree

This is a mindfulness film, not a yoga film, and its studies are mindfulness studies. We do not claim yoga would give the same results.

In our view, though, they point the same way. Iyengar yoga is the style developed by Mr BKS Iyengar. In the 20th century he did more than anyone to set down traditional Indian yoga, through his books and his teaching, and he pioneered the use of props. It is sometimes called modern classical yoga, and it’s the style we teach at Flametree.

In an Iyengar class your attention is held in the pose: the feet, the length of the spine, the breath. Pranayama (yogic breathing) does the same with the breath. That is mindfulness through a different doorway, and for many people the body is an easier way in than sitting still. Read more in our notes on calming the nervous system and yoga for better sleep.

Where to watch My Year Of Living Mindfully in Australia

We rented it on YouTube Movies in Australia in October 2026, with English captions. Apple TV also lists it to rent or buy, and the film’s own shop is on Shannon Harvey’s website. Check the price before you pay, as it changes.

Try yoga with us

New to Flametree? Your first 2 classes are free, and you can choose 2 free ebooks. Cutting Stress With Yoga is the natural partner to this film. Get your 2 free classes and 2 free ebooks.

For the studio, check the beginner timetable and just come along. For a LIVE online class, click the class time you want and we email you the link to join.

More reviews: Films About Yoga And Breathwork.

Questions about My Year Of Living Mindfully

Did meditation cure Shannon Harvey’s lupus?

No, and the film says so plainly. Her wellbeing rose sharply and her insomnia cleared, but the autoimmune illness was still there at the end.

Is My Year Of Living Mindfully based on science?

Yes. It interviews many researchers and describes published studies, but her own lab results are one person’s data, and the film is honest that they prove nothing alone.

Where can I watch My Year Of Living Mindfully in Australia?

We rented it on YouTube Movies in October 2026. Apple TV also lists it, and it is sold through Shannon Harvey’s website.

Where can I learn meditation or pranayama in Darwin?

Flametree teaches Iyengar yoga and pranayama in Darwin at Woolner and Coolalinga, and LIVE online. New students get their first 2 classes free.

Flametree Yoga Studio teaches Iyengar yoga in Darwin, at Woolner and Coolalinga, and LIVE online anywhere.

General information only, not medical advice. Talk to your yoga teacher, yoga therapist, and your doctor if you wish, before changing what you do.

Sources and further reading

• My Year Of Living Mindfully (2020), Shannon Harvey, watched with captions on YouTube Movies Australia, October 2026.
• Kuyken W and colleagues, mindfulness based cognitive therapy versus maintenance antidepressants (PREVENT trial), The Lancet, 2015.
• Shannon Harvey, official site