A Taste of Mindfulness
This program is a first step on the path to integrating practical, mindfulness-based stress reduction skills into everyday lives. Program participants will engage in a range of mindfulness practices and exercises intended to tap their innate capacity to learn how to:
- identify and reduce stress
- respond rather than react in the midst of complex, highly charged situations;
- enhance concentration, clarity, and creative thinking; and
- improve overall effectiveness in the workplace.
60 Minutes of Mindfulness is a two-phased program:
Phase I is a 60-minute initial workshop followed two to three weeks later by Phase II, a 60-minute follow-up workshop integrating and refining the skills developed in Phase I.
60 Minutes of Mindfulness provides participants with:
- Guided instruction in mindfulness meditation practices
- Gentle stretching and mindful yoga to reduce workday muscle tension
- Practical methods for integrating mindfulness into everyday life
- Brief home assignments between sessions
- Guided meditation CD"s or audio-cassette tapes and written materials
Fees
The fee for 60 Minutes of Mindfulness varies, dependant on the needs of the client/corporation, a typical fee is $400 and travel expenses when applicable. This program is available to up to 25 participants per segment, Several segments can be included in a day to optimize time and resources. ( seperate fee per segment)
A Half-Day of Mindfulness
This half-day workshop (or two 2-hour workshops) introduces participants to the power of mindfulness, or simply put, being more fully present in our lives. Experiencing mindfulness is infinitely more powerful and instructive than talking about it, so the orientation of this workshop is experiential and interactive.
Workshop Activities
Providing participants with a context for mindfulness practice, the workshop begins with an introduction and discussion of the theoretical and historical background of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). This is followed with a series of experiential exercises in mindfulness practices (including sitting and walking meditation, yoga, and body scan) with an orientation toward utilizing them to “handle” stress and enhance one’s life at work and at home. In an interactive format, following each of these exercises, participants will have the opportunity to explore their experience and the potential opportunities for applying mindfulness in their lives. Concluding the workshop, participants are provided with practical suggestions for ways that they may utilize and expand their experience with mindfulness.
A Taste of Mindfulness provides participants with:
- A way of affecting and nurturing deep states of relaxation and stress reduction. The practice of mindfulness brings a deep stillness that is profoundly relaxing and healing.
- An ability to be more responsive and less reactive to a wide range of situations with awareness of the larger range of possibilities. The development of mindfulness brings an inner quietude resulting in a sense of spaciousness—a body-mind equanimity in the face of stimuli that allows room to step back and choose a considered response.
- A capacity to be present, to be fully awake to life. Relationships become richer and connections more powerful when we listen and learn to speak from our direct experience.
- A method for increasing concentration and focus through the daily practice of mindfulness. By bringing attention to the habits of the mind and body, we become better equipped to direct the mind.
- A capacity to enhance creativity through the deliberate cultivation of a spacious, non-striving awareness. Only when we are present and open to unforeseen possibilities can we be creative. Quite literally, there is little possibility of creativity when we are habitually dwelling in conditioned attitudes and modes of thinking.
Fees and Options
The fee for A Taste of Mindfulness varies depending upon the particular situation and needs of the client. A typical half-day workshop is $800, plus travel expenses when applicable.
Mindfulness 8-week Course
This highly experiential and interactive course consists of eight weekly two-hour sessions that include periods of guided instruction in meditation practices, periods of silent exploration, and periods of collective inquiry and dialogue. All sessions cultivate deep, penetrative awareness and insight and the creativity that flows from these qualities of mind.
Course Activities
Sessions 1-4 focus primarily on each participant’s development of physical and mental calmness and stability as necessary precursors to the capacity to respond more effectively to everyday challenges. The course content, homework, and workday mindfulness assignments of the sessions are aimed at assisting participants to cultivate and operationalize their capacity to STOP and SEE. Sessions 1-4 focus on:
- entering and dwelling in stillness and deep relaxation;
- tasting first-hand, non-judgmental, non-reactive awareness;
- practicing an array of mindfulness techniques;
- recognizing when we are feeling stressed;
- becoming increasingly aware of subtle mind-body interactions and their impact on health and well being;
- recovering more rapidly from stressful events.
Sessions 5-8 build on the first four weeks of training and deepen the capacity to apply these skills amidst the inseparable rigor of our personal/professional lives. Focusing on enhancing one’s ability to more clearly UNDERSTAND oneself, others, and situations within an interconnected web of information, and learning to CHOOSE appropriate and effective responses, we experientially explore:
- utilizing moment-to-moment awareness to alter previously unconscious mental habits and patterns and improve our effectiveness in the workplace;
- understanding interpersonal communication styles that either hinder or effectively open avenues of dialogue and teamwork;
- developing greater empathy for ourselves and others;
- refining our capacity to deliberately sustain awareness in complex, emotionally-charged situations;
- recovering, invigorating, and reasserting our innate capacity for vision, leadership, and co-creation with our colleagues; and
- utilizing and effectively bringing mindfulness into the work place both as a tool for stress reduction and as a vehicle for developing greater understanding and collaboration within the organization.
Pre-Program Orientation Meeting
To optimize the success of the program, the program instructor meets with participants prior to the beginning of the program. This one hour pre-program orientation meeting is designed to: help us better understand the program participants, explain the emphasis and structure of the program, provide participants with a direct experience of mindfulness and its applications in their personal and professional lives, and gather initial data that will allow us to compare and provide measures of the effectiveness of the program.
Confidentiality
The instructor/facilitator maintains client and participant confidentiality during and following completion of the program and participants are strongly encouraged to do so as well. Because participants work within the same organization, particular efforts are made to insure that personal information revealed within the context and safety of the program is used as a means of understanding and supporting the growth of each person. Likewise, participant anonymity is insured by presenting all assessment information gathered from individual participants in aggregate form with no individual identifying characteristics.
Follow-up Consultation
Following the conclusion of the program, the instructor will meet with the client to review the effectiveness of the program and to discuss follow-up action as may be appropriate.
Course Duration
Eight weekly two-hour sessions
Course Fee and Options
The Mindfulness 8-week Course fee varies depending upon the particular situation and needs of the client.
Classes are taught in institutions such as hospitals, pain clinics, colleges and schools,prisons, drug and alcohol rehabilitation
prices vary, according to the instituion needs, and expectations. Grants and insurance are becoming possibilities.
Private sessions for learning meditative techniques and beginning the practices of Mindfulness are available. Generally the fee is 50 dollars an hour.
This is available by appointment
These programs are based on the format developed by the Center for Mindfulness/University of Massachusetts, and outlined in Jon Kabat-Zinn's book, Full Catasphore Living.
Deanna has studied with the Omega Institute at Mt. Madonna, and the Center for Mindfulness, in Massachusetts and completed the Teachers Development Intensive, as well as the Beginning professional
training.
She has also studied/sat a 7 day Professional retreat/training with Jon Kabat-Zinn, Christina Feldman, and John Teasdale, at Gaia House in Devon England. As well as continuing the meditative time walking parts of the south coast path in Devon.