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Mindful Resources Mindful Resources Often, after finishing a course in Mindfulness, a person will want to continue their Mindful journey with a sense of community or "sangha". It's useful to explore different offerings and see which suit you best. This list, as with all of the lists on this website, will be updated over time. These are Mindful Resources that have been helpful to me and others. The Mindful Resources listed here are: Online Meditation Groups in the US and Mindful-Oriented Organizations ​ ​ Online Meditation Groups Chicago Shambhala Tuesday Night Meditations I co-lead this group, alternating different Tuesday evenings with Barbara, who is a senior Shambhala Teacher. Barbara and I offer guided meditations. I usually base my guidance on meditations by Tara Brach and Jon Kabat-Zinn. It's different every week. Shambhala is a worldwide Tibetan Buddhism founded by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche (1939 - 1987). Our Tuesday night online group is offers a variety of guidance from different meditation traditions. Register to receive the Zoom link at: the Chicago Shambhala Website ​ Insight Meditation Center Based in Massachusetts, this organization was founded by Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kornfield and Joseph Goldstein in the Theravada Buddhist tradition. Check out their website dharma.org to see what upcoming online classes or meditation sessions they offer. There are other offshoot centers throughout the US that offer meditation books, book groups, etc. ​ Ft. Myers Meditation Kadampa Buddhist Center I have visited the Ft. Myers Kadampa Buddhist Center in person for years,when on vacation. I've been impressed by the friendly vibe of this small mediation community. They've had different meditation leaders over the years, so you'll want to see how you feel about whoever the current meditation leader of the group is. I don't know much about this particular "branch" of Tibetan Buddhism, I find them welcoming, calming, and that their offerings are easy to understand. Their meditation hall has a variety of gold statues and their meetings or "services" have some charming rituals, such as singing along to a recorded poem or hymn-like piece of music. Be open-minded to enjoy their offerings. As for me, I have been grateful they are there. They seem to be offering more online meditation classes or sessions these days. Their home page is: Ft. Myers Kadampa Center EverydayZen The Everyday Zen Foundation hosts daily online silent sitting meditation. At their Home Page, scroll down until you see Everyday Zen Daily Sitting, 7:30am - 8:00am Pacific Time. It's a nice way to start the morning with online silent meditation in community. They begin with a very brief chanting, then sit together for the half hour. Their home page is here: Everyday Zen ​ The San Francisco Zen Center Founded by Suzuki Roshi, author of the book Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, they offer a variety of programs from dharma talks to classes. They host online sitting meditation (zazen) at early morning hours (California time) and evening, on Zoom,at this website page: Online Zendo. ​ New York Zen Center They offer a variety of talks and meditations online. Their website is: NY Zen Center ​ Sunday Sangha Jon Kabat-Zinn's son Will Kabat-Zinn hosts an online meditation group whose link appears on the website for Sunday Sangha. ​ UC San Diego -- Continuing Practice I received my MBSR teacher training through the UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness, which has excellent teachers and teacher training. They offer mid-day (California time, remember) online meditation sessions. I have attended a few over the years. I would not say that these sessions develop a sense of sangha, but are more for someone who simply wants to meditate online with other people with guidance from an experienced MBSR meditation teacher. UC San Diego Mindfulness Center Continuing Practice ​ More online meditation group listings to come. Please check back. ​ ​ Mindful-Oriented Organizations The Omega Institute for Holistic Studies in Rhinebeck, New York, is a well-established and very respected organization hosting high-quality workshops, meditation retreats and other programs. Look at their upcoming events and you might even find a workshop with Jon Kabat-Zinn, so check out their listing of upcoming programs here.. They host "Rest and Rejuvenation" retreats for individuals to stay there that might be just what the doctor ordered! I hope to do an individual retreat there on my own someday.... ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Mindful Resources listing: Gratitude Even when things aren't going our way, can we be grateful for something? Perhaps for just being able to breathe. Or for the ways people have helped you in life. Or for the beauty in the sky, or an animal or person. Open up to feeling gratitude. See what arises. What does it feel like to experience gratitude? Notice what gratitude feels like. Basic Meditation Take a seat, with an upright posture, if your body can do so. Close the eyes, or leave them open in a soft, downward gaze. Allow your attention to rest on the physical sensations of breathing. With a light touch, if you drift away, notice this and, being kind to yourself, return your attention to the body breathing. Notice how it feels. No need to alter or control the breath. Your body knows how to breath. Rest with the body breathing. Allow thoughts to be on the margins of your attention. No need to think and no need to accomplish anything. Resting with the body breathing.

Mindfulness Teacher Training So you're ready to become trained to teach Mindfulness to other people. Where do you start? There are many different teachers and organizations offering different types of Mindfulness Teacher Training, from becoming Qualified or Certified to teach MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction) to MSC (Mindful Self Compassion) to earning a Certificate in teaching Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness and the list goes on. It can be difficult to assess all the different teacher trainings you'll find by doing an online search. Click below to find the Mindfulness Teacher Training programs in the United States and Canada that I'm either personally aware of or have heard good things about from multiple sources. Mindfulness Teaching Training Programs My Story This is your About page. This space is a great opportunity to give a full background on who you are, what you do and what your site has to offer. Your users are genuinely interested in learning more about you, so don’t be afraid to share personal anecdotes to create a more friendly quality. Every website has a story, and your visitors want to hear yours. This space is a great opportunity to provide any personal details you want to share with your followers. Include interesting anecdotes and facts to keep readers engaged. Double click on the text box to start editing your content and make sure to add all the relevant details you want site visitors to know. If you’re a business, talk about how you started and share your professional journey. Explain your core values, your commitment to customers and how you stand out from the crowd. Add a photo, gallery or video for even more engagement.

Mindful Websites List of Mindful Websites Please check out the websites of the Mindfulness teachers listed on the page: Major Figures in Mindfulness. I direct you to them first. Following that, the websites listed below offer a variety of useful perspectives and approaches to Mindfulness. I am not affiliated with any of them but offer this list as a resource. As an independent teacher of MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction), I enjoy all traditions of Mindfulness and Buddhist-based meditation practices. In my life, I have found texts and practices from a variety of traditions, from Tibetan Buddhism, to Zen and Insight Meditation to be extremely helpful. It's a matter of finding the approach that speaks to you best. ​ ​ Wisdom2.0 -- This website hosts interesting summit meetings and ongoing community meetings. Soren, the founder of this website, helped encourage Jon Kabat-Zinn to conduct his online retreat during the 2020 Pandemic, for which I am extremely grateful. You can get on Soren's mailing list to get emails about upcoming conferences and gatherings. They include interesting speakers. ​ MidAmerica Dharma -- Offering Insight Meditation to the Heartland. I have attended helpful online programs they produced. They are an Insight Meditation organization (Insight Meditation was started by Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kornfield & Joseph Goldstein, headquartered in Massachusetts.) ​ Shambhala Online -- The website lists classes and other programs for people interested in meditation in the TIbetan tradition, although not all classes are about Buddhism or Tibetan wisdom. I've attended programs over the years that I benefited from, so I recommend taking a look to see if any upcoming programs interest you. They offer Sunday Gatherings, which I haven't yet attended. I find over the years that Shambhala's senior teachers are knowledgeable and usually well focused on the topic (which is not true of all teachers out there). I recommend checking out the website for upcoming programs, although program can sometimes be pricey. ​ Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness -- David Treleavan created a program called Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness (TSM), for which he offers online programs through his website. While last time I checked, the online (not live) program cost over a thousand dollars, I wanted to mention that David is considered the leader or even "discoverer" of Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness as a practice of its own or, you might say, a category of Mindful practice that deserves recognition for meeting the needs of many people who struggle with trauma in their Mindful practices. ​ ​ More websites will be added. Please check back. ​ ​ ​ ​ 2024 Read More ​ ​ Submit Thanks for submitting!

"Mindfulness requires effort and discipline for the simple reason that the forces that work against our being mindful, namely, our habitual unawareness and automaticity, are exceedingly tenacious. They are so strong and so much out of our consciousness that an inner commitment and a certain kind of work are necessary just to keep up our attempts to capture our moments in awareness and sustain mindfulness. But it is an intrinsically satisfying work because it puts us in touch with many aspects of our lives that are habitually overlooked and lost to us. ​ It is also enlightening and liberating work. It is enlightening in that it literally allows us to see more clearly, and therefore come to understand more deeply, areas in our lives that we were out of touch with or unwilling to look at. This may include encountering deep emotions--such as grief, sadness, woundedness, anger and fear--that we might not ordinarily allow ourselves to hold in awareness or express consciously. Mindfulness can also help us to appreciate feelings such as joy, peacefulness, and happiness which often go by fleetingly and unacknowledged. It is liberating in that it leads us to new ways of being in our own skin and in the world, which can free us from the ruts we so often fall into. It is empowering as well, because paying attention in this way opens channels to deep reservoirs of creativity, intelligence, imagination, clarity, determination, choice, and wisdom within us." ​ Jon Kabat-Zinn from his book Wherever You Go There You Are (1994) (pages 8-9) ​ ​ Sharon Salzberg in her book Real Love says: ​ "I saw I couldn't flourish as a human being as long as I saw myself as the passive recipient of love. (There's an awful lot of waiting in that position, and then damage control when it doesn't work out, and also numbness.) But I could certainly flourish as love's embodiment. ... I believe that there is only one kind of love---real love ---trying to come alive in us despite our limiting assumptions, the distortions of our culture, and the habits of fear, self-condemnation, and isolation that we tend to acquire just by living a life. All of us have the capacity to experience real love. When we see love from this expanded perspective, we can find it in the smallest moments of connection: with a clerk in the grocery store, a child, a pet, a walk in the woods. We can find it within ourselves." ​ Sharon Salzberg from her book Real Love: The Art of Mindful Connection (2017) (pages 3-4) ​ Jon Kabat-Zinn writes: ​ "Cultivating mindfulness can lead to the discovery of deep realms of well-being, calmness, clarity, and insight within yourself. It is as if you were to come upon a new territory, previously unknown to you or only vaguely suspected, which contains a veritable wellspring of positive energy for self-understanding and healing. Moreover, it is easy to familiarize yourself with this territory and learn to inhabit it more frequently. The path to it in any moment lies no further than your own body and mind and your own breathing. This domain of pure being, of wakefulness, is always accessible to you. It is always here, independent of your problems." ​ From Kabat-Zinn's book Full Catastrophe Living ( 2013) page lxi ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ COMING SOON: Helpful Quotes by Subject: ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Quotes by Subject