To pass Justin McDaniel's "monk class," University of Pennsylvania students must ditch their phones — and voices — for 30 days. The class's stringent rules, modeled after actual monk practices, aren't meant to socially isolate the students. "We exercise to build muscle and endurance, but we don't practice emotions," McDaniel, a humanities professor who practiced as a monk for nearly a year at age 21, tells CNBC Make It. The monk class is supposed to be like "shock therapy," a crash course to jolt students into mindfulness: Spending a month with fewer distractions helps students become more aware of their physical surroundings and emotions, he says. In the class, McDaniel teaches that doing one thing at a time is the best way to stay present.

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Persons: Justin McDaniel's, —, McDaniel, epiphanies Organizations: University of Pennsylvania, CNBC, Twitter, of Bath, Social Networking, Netflix, Stanford University