Mindfulness Programs Summer 2014
We have many Mindfulness programs, retreats, and workshops coming up throughout Southern California. We’ve offered them in a variety of formats and locations to meet your needs and interests. We also have more workplace programs so please inquire about a specialized program for your business! To deepen or kick start your practice; please consider our annual residential Mindfulness and Yoga retreat in July! Here are our current programs (and those of our colleagues) in chronological order:
May 17th- Saturday; All Day Mindfulness Retreat “True Happiness” Rancho Mirage, Ca
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 conditional on external circumstances. Please register in advance, retreat is offered by donation.
May 18th George Mumford comes to Insight LA Santa Monica
This daylong workshop will explore and discuss how the practice of Mindfulness can enhance performance. Drawing on his vast experience and success working with professional athletes, coaches, corporate leaders and high functioning professionals in high stress/ high stakes work environments, learn some of the specific techniques that George has developed to take your capacity to the next level. This workshop will include meditation, discourse, discussion and question and answer segments. Learn more and register here
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). This workshop will focus on professional care givers (everyone is welcome),and include some didactic research components.
May 25th: Facing Impermanence with an Open Heart On Sunday the 25th, we’ll have a daylong retreat at Against the Stream in Santa Monica; Register on this link. You can come to one or both- the 24th and the 25th!
July 18-20 Three Day Residential Mindfulness Meditation and Yoga RetreatSave 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 friends 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
Daring to be…..not busy
Take the “double your meditation time challenge” with my friend Dr. Christiane Wolf, Director of MBSR programs at insight LA, by signing up here, you’ll receive daily reminders and support for the month of May.
In order to accept this invitation, you might ask yourself, first, why? Why should I double my meditation time? The best way to find the answer to that, is try it. As Christiane’s graphic shows, you may move out of your comfort zone and perhaps find a new level. Level of what? Perhaps you’ll find a deeper confidence in yourself; for example: “Hey my mind was screaming at me the whole time to get up and do something, and I didn’t! And because I didn’t react to my mind, a whole new relationship between me and my mind began to happen. I don’t have to be run by my thoughts. Thoughts that often drive me to constant activity, and not always activities that are true to my core values”. This is one of many possibilities. If we stop our meditation too soon, we may miss the opportunity to find out who we are, beyond our “doing mode”.
Have you noticed lately that when you ask someone how they are the response is often “I’m so busy!” Or if someone asks me how I am they don’t even wait for me to answer, they preempt my answer with; “You must be so busy!”. I always find this gives me pause. I wonder for a moment, am I? Am I so busy? I don’t feel busy. I’m doing things, and then spending time non-doing (another term for meditating). I find these intentional periods of non-doing change the quality and perception of my “doing”. And so it doesn’t feel “busy”. Not that there is anything wrong with being busy. For me the more important question is- what am I busy doing? And how do I feel? How does my “doing- affect those around me? Here is another reason you might want to accept this invitation; in order to double your meditation time, you might have to let go of something else. This is a valuable practice all on it’s own. What would you be willing to let go of? Is there something that takes your time that doesn’t feed your soul? Spend some extra time non-doing and then let me know how it affects your life.
Join us in July if you need some support!
The Huffington Post is all about mindfulness:
They now have a whole section devoted to the latest Mindfulness research, including this fascinating study that shows that meditation may influence the way the brain processes emotions — even when you’re not actually practicing it, a new study in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience suggests.
Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital, the University of Arizona, Boston University, the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies and Emory University found that meditation changes the way the amygdala brain region responds to emotional stimuli — but that this effect on emotional processing takes place even when a person is not in a state of meditation. The amygdala is a brain region involved in emotion and memory processing.
“This is the first time that meditation training has been shown to affect emotional processing in the brain outside of a meditative state,” study researcher Gaëlle Desbordes, of Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston University’s Center for Computation Neuroscience and Neural Technology, said in a statement. Read more here
They also collected 20 reasons that Science says: Mindfulness Meditation benefits Mental and Physical health. Here’s the list!
Talk of the month: Buddhist teacher Gil Fronsdal talks about a whole new take on suffering….and ease.Listen here This 8 minute talk may change your whole outlook.
Weekly meditation groups:
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!
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
UCSD Center for Mindfulness has Mindfulness programs for teens, adults, professional trainings, and the only Center currently offering the 8 week Mindful Self- Compassion program.
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!
Does your Mindfulness practice need a boost? Or do you need to get started?
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.
Talk of the month: Buddhist teacher Gil Fronsdal talks about a whole new take on suffering….and ease. Listen here
Did you know that there is a wonderful magazine called Mindful?
In The April issue, actor Sandra Oh talks about her own practice – she often sits at Insight LA.
With both on -line a print versions. They will donate 10% of your subscription to the