Are you Curious about Mindfulness?

April 12th Saturday 9:30-3:30  Essentials of Mindfulness through the Susan Samueli Center for Integrative Medicine at UC Irvine . This day long workshop is intended for those of you who have heard about MBSR and wanted to experience it, but may not have been able to schedule in the eight weeks. This workshop will cover the core practices and some of the educational components of MBSR. It will be followed by a four week Thursday evening class April 17th-May 8th. Take both or either one! Find more information here.

April 17th–May 8th  Thursday evenings :Essentials of Mindfulness a 4week program to introduce the core practices and concepts of MBSR. Enroll here.

May 13th – July 15th Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction teacher training practicum at Insight LA with Dr. Christiane Wolf and Beth Mulligan. This 10 week program is one of the important steps to becoming an MBSR teacher. Read about the prerequisites and apply here.

A Day of Mindfulness through Insight Community of the Desert; led by Beth Mulligan and Jim Gross. Spend the day with us, practicing meditation and mindful movement exploring what true happiness means, and finding a way to experience a type of happiness that is not conditonal on external circumstances. Please register in advance, retreat is offered by donation.

 May 24th ; Day long workshop at UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center: Learning to Stay with a Tender Heart with Beth Mulligan and Paul D’Alton, PhD. Learn to practice the gifts of Mindfulness and Self Compassion in the face of loss and change. My dear friend, psychologist, mindfulness teacher and palliative care specialist will be here for the weekend from Ireland to teach with me; on Saturday at UCLA (Read more and register here).  Saturday will focus on professional care givers (everyone is welcome),and inculde some didactic research components, while  on Sunday the 25th, we’ll have a retreat format at Against the Stre am. (not posted yet. Save the Date).

July 18-20 Residential Mindfulness Meditation and Yoga Retreat Save the date or enroll now!

Every year one of our greatest joys is to provide this 3 day residential retreat. Join us at the beautiful Frank Lloyd Wright designed Joshua Tree Retreat Center. This retreat is a wonderful way to support, deepen and inspire your practice in a beautiful setting with other people who are  like minded and diverse! We’ll be joined again by Insight LA’S master Mindful Yoga teacher Celeste Brook Young, and musician Noelle Pederson from Resounding Joy Inc. Here are some photos from last year.

     

It’s that time again: Will you help me raise money for cancer research and support those who’s lives have been touched by cancer?

Last year Mindful-Way (you guys) was a silver sponsor, which means we raised a lot of money-thank you! I don’t know about you, but my life has been and is deeply touched by freinds and family with a cancer diagnosis. Sometimes when my loved ones are going through a particularly rough patch, I can feel helpless. That’s where putting money and energy into Relay for Life really helps me, help – not just them but generations to come. Donate easily on the Mindful-Way page here.

Message From Mindful-Way founder Beth Mulligan

In May I’ll be co-facilitating a workshop on using the practices of Mindfulness and Self Compassion in the face of change and loss, at U.C.L A’s Mindful Awareness Research Center (MARC), and the following day at Against the Stream. This came about because my dear friend and fellow mindfulness practitioner and teacher Paul D’Alton is coming over to the western United States from Ireland, and asked if we could teach together. He is a psychologist who specializes in Palliative Care and end of life issues. Learning to Stay with a Tender Heart is the title he chose for our workshop. When he suggested it, my first reaction was; “What does that mean?” and even more interestingly, “Would anyone want to learn to do that?”

It challenged me in a very positive way- to look into my own experience, and my attitudes, to question myself. Very quickly I saw that through practice, this is exactly what I have been training to do since I first started meditating, and in fact I practice it all the time. What do I mean by it? I mean turning towards difficulties with openness, kindness and curiosity. Opening my heart even when it feels like the exact opposite of what I initially want to do. The truth is, the longer one practices, the more painful it becomes to close down. Not that it doesn’t still happen, that the impulse to numb out or react isn’t there, but it passes much more quickly. As far as my second question, the answer there was; of course! People are flocking to Mindfulness meditation classes to learn, not only to reduce stress, or feel more peaceful, but to courageously face life, just as it comes, just as it is with the 10,000 joys and the 10,000 sorrows. I’ve been sitting wit h them for many years. People are incredibly brave and resilient and willing.   As you’ll notice this month I’m raising money (with your help) for the American Cancer Society. Right now three of my closest friends have breast cancer, and in the last two years I’ve lost two dear friends to cancer. The gift of staying close to them through the process is; they have been and are my greatest teachers. Suddenly the important things in life- love, human connections, the arts, time in nature (you have your own list); stand up center stage and say “ Pay attention!” they quote Rumi; “The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you, don’t go back to sleep.” And I find such a deep appreciation for things, I might miss. For some reason lately every time I turn the on a burner on the stove, I feel so grateful that I have a stove and a way to cook. I try and use as little as possible, using the woodstove whenever possible to heat water for tea or the bath,. I feel my smallest efforts matter. And so do yours. Thank you for your practice, thank you for your life.

 

Register here!

Hugh and I will be presenting a workshop at the conference on Sunday April 6th.

In the Palm Springs area: Insight Community of the Desert where you can sit with guidance of excellent teachers including Larry Yang and Beth Mulligan every Sunday from 4:30–6:00 PM by donation only. I’ll be teaching April 20th!

  In Los Angeles there are many opportunities at Insight LA it really helps to strengthen one’s practice to sit with a group. Trudy Goodman and friends have created a real treasure trove of practice opportunities as well as bringing other world renowned teachers like herself  Learn more on the events page.

UCLA has weekly sitting groups also through the Mindful Awareness Research center known as M.A.R.C.

Yokoji Zen Mountain Center is open to support your practice. Join the Sunday program every and any week. They have literally weathered the storm and practice there is as strong and steady as the mountain. Thank you Yokoji teachers and residents!! They have also begun the spring three month training period, so there are many more opportunities for silent retreat practice, Talks from the teachers and work practice. Please take advantage of this precious resource. www.zmc.org

Also in the San Diego Area (Encinitas) visit 2nd Street Sangha with multiple offerings and classes led by the wonderful Diana Shimkus!

UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center has classes, workshops and Retreats throughout the year-including on line training. Check out this page for the calendar!

My friend Cayce Howe has just the thing for you!

Cayce asks: “Have you wanted to try meditation but never thought you could do it? Or have you tried it, but don’t practice regularly to reap its valuable benefits? If so, you are not alone. When I began I had doubts and struggled to create a consistent practice. Luckily, with close to 25 years practicing meditation, I have been able to study with amazing, compassionate teachers, that have shared invaluable tools for cultivating an inspired meditation practice. I want to share what I’ve learned with you”. 30 Daily Emails include: Short, inspired reading on topics of mindfulness- Quote of the Day-  Embedded 5-7 minute Guided Meditations These 30 Days are specifically designed to help you experience the true value of meditation and stick with it. Sign up here.

  Read more here. With all the media attention Mindfulness is getting, it’s more important than ever to learn what mindfulness really is. Find an MBSR class in your area or read books by Jon Kabat-Zinn, Jack Kornfield, Daniel Siegel, Susan Smalley, Diana Winston, and Sharon Salzberg, to name just a few.

The Huffington Post Says 2014 will be the year of Mindful Living. Find out why here.

RESEARCH EVIDENCE CONTINUES TO MOUNT Just this past December a new study at the Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, revealed that periods of mindfulness meditation practice (compared with the same amount of time engaged in quiet activities) can alter gene expression in genes that are the current targets of anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs.  (Here’s a link to the scientific article and another in the Huffington Post.)

 

Did you know that there is new magazine called Mindful? 

In The April issue, actor Sanda Oh talks about her own practice – she often sits at Insight LA.

With both on -line a print versions. The will donate 10% of your subscription to the Mindfulness Center of your choice (see their list at the site) Learn more here