Mindfulness Is...

Mindfulness training dates back more than 2000 years, but in recent time, Jon Kabat-Zinn, a molecular biologist, is most well-known for creating Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, and teaching mindfulness skills in a secular manner.  The training of mindfulness involves learning how to purposefully place our attention in the present moment to whatever is happening, and learning how to have kindness and compassion for whatever emerges.  As we learn mindfulness skills, we become more in charge of our minds rather than our minds being in charge of us. 

"Learning to concentrate is like focusing the mind's lens -- it allows us to see clearly whatever we turn our attention to.  Once this skill is developed, we can use it to examine whatever might be happening at the moment", Susan M. Pollak

Fall 2020 Course Offerings

​Mental Health Mondays -- 12:30-1:10pm
This is a freely given offering every Monday, each week a different topic related to mindfulness and mental health.  A guided practice and space for reflection and discussion create opportunity for connection and community.  
Sponsored by Copper Beech Institute, go to this link to sign up for Zoom sign-in


Getting Through The Holidays:  Mindful Communication For Family Relationships -- November 22nd, 2-5pm
The holidays bring family together, which for some, can be a recipe for a pressure cooker. Before we know it, we’ve spoken from a place of reactivity versus intentional response.
Throughout this afternoon, we’ll explore what contributes to family communication being difficult, especially during the holidays. Together, we use mindfulness to learn and practice how to use “right speech” when activated by the stress and excitement of the season, how to repair interactions gone wrong, and how to be transparent with family in what we’re seeking within relationship.

Program offered through Copper Beech Institute, Follow this link to register.

Silent All-Day Retreat For MBSR Graduates - November 1, 10-4pm*
Sometimes we need to step back in order to move forward. For thousands of years, the practice of silent retreat has been valued across wisdom traditions as a time to step back, take inner care, and reawaken our deepest knowing. In deep silence we can be in-tune with our inner wisdom. Despite the outer “sounds of the world” also known as distractions, there are also distractions within us in different forms such as, negative thoughts, stress, anxiety, feelings that can feel overwhelming, and may keep us from knowing and connecting to our true self.
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Silence is a way to renew ourselves physically, mentally, and spiritually. The whole day will be carefully guided and crafted to give you as relaxing and transformative an experience possible. Many past participants refer to it as the ideal vacation for body, mind, and spirit.

We invite all levels of meditation and contemplative practitioners to join us on this journey of reconnecting mind, body, and heart through a variety of meditation practices. There may be some outdoor practice so dressing in layers is recommended. Also please bring a journal and a bagged lunch. In today's speedy world, we are all in need of kindness to ourselves.

​*Register through this link.

Befriending Ourselves -- An 8-Week Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Course --  Beginning September 29th, 4-6pm via Zoom
This 8-week course will introduce participants to various ways to enter into the doorways of mindfulness meditation using breath, sound, body sensations, walking, eating, etc. The class is participatory in nature, and there will be guided home practice included as part of the learning invitation. Stress physiology, habitual reactions, perceptions, communication, pleasant and unpleasant experiences, and how they relate to our experience of stress, will also be explored. A one-day retreat is also offered as part of this learning experience.

​*Register through this link.

Individual Mindfulness Training

Perhaps you want to learn how to begin a mindfulness practice and you prefer one-to-one work versus a group setting.  Or perhaps you've already taken a group class and are coming up with questions around your own practice, and you're looking for a place to reflect on those questions.  Individual sessions are 50 minutes long, and scheduling is flexible without any minimum amount of sessions required.

*Call for appointments