It is said that our world has changed more in the past 20 years than it had in the previous 200. This rapidly changing, information-overload world often feels uncertain. And that creates anxiety for our slow-to-evolve, wired-for-survival brains that seek the comfort of certainty. Anxiety is part of the human emotion spectrum that, with continued practice, becomes a mental habit. In this workshop we will explore how to unhook ourselves from the anxiety habit loop and substitute more nurturing and supportive emotions.  This presentation includes lecture, experiential exercises, guided meditations, interactive discussion, and practices to produce more rewarding behaviors.

The truth of change is never more evident than during life's inevitable transitions. The average adult will experience one life disrupter every one to two years. Learning to work with change through mindfulness perspectives and practices can assist in navigating change with greater ease and wisdom. Participants will learn specific mindfulness techniques to work with the ongoing change in their daily lives, as well as exercises to help reframe unexpected events in productive ways

It's part of our cultural ethos to work hard, but doing so doesn't always make us more productive. In this informative and experiential webinar, participants will learn how rest and recovery enhance productivity. Participants will learn the science behind the most effective work methods and how mindfulness can enhance their focus, creativity, and productivity at work and in daily life.

Have you ever experienced ruminating thoughts of inadequacy, of not being enough or of being fundamentally flawed to the point that those thoughts become core beliefs? If we begin paying attention to our inner narratives, we may become aware of the multiple ways we express “not enough.” Not enough time. Not enough sleep. Not enough money. Not enough…fill in the blank. The big truth is we are fundamentally worthy, good and, dare say, more than enough.  In this workshop we will explore how to wake up from our “trance of unworthiness.”  This presentation includes lecture, experiential exercises, guided mindfulness practice and interactive discussion helping us move from not-enoughness into enough.

Examine the foundations of mindfulness and the key qualities that can assist in identifying and managing emotions, triggers and traps. This presentation uses experiential exercises, guided mindfulness practice and interactive discussion to build greater emotional awareness and cultivate calm. Understanding and integrating mindfulness enhances personal, professional and community well-being.

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*Please bring a piece of paper and a crayon, colored pencil or marker to class.

Learn about the stress cycle, personal signs of stress and develop strategies to respond (versus react) more productively. This presentation uses experiential exercises, guided mindfulness practice and interactive discussion outlining ways to manage unskillful thought and behavior patterns; let things be and transform stress.

Learn to build resilience in order to adapt in the face of challenge and adversity moving toward optimized performance. This presentation uses experiential exercises, guided mindfulness practice and interactive discussion. Understanding the depleting factors in our life and learning how we can mitigate their harmful effects assists in maximizing human potential.

Have you ever noticed the tendency to be kinder to others than to yourself?  You are not alone. We all have a built-in negativity bias and an inner critique than is often unsupportive of even our best efforts. This class uses experiential exercises, guided mindfulness practice and interactive discussion to cultivate inner acceptance and inner strength, toward a more supportive and kind relationship with oneself.

Difficult emotions can come in all shapes and sizes from chronic nagging ones to acute emotional storms to trauma rooted ones. To be a human being is to be an emotional being. There is no way around that fact, but there is a way in, around and through difficult emotions. This class offers experiential exercises, guided mindfulness practices and interactive discussion to skillfully navigate the rough waters of emotions and build a skill set for emotional regulation.

We all have biases, preferring comfort over pain and hydration over thirst.  But we also have biases below the surface, often unnamed or even completely unconscious.  Using a mindful lens to illuminate our hidden biases can be liberating and healing. This presentation includes experiential exercises, guided mindfulness practice and interactive discussion to learn to uncover our biases with curiosity, cultivate perspective-taking and release of our unexamined conditioning.

Reexamine the nature of food and your relationship to it through the cultivation of mindful awareness of emotions. This presentation uses experiential exercises, guided mindfulness practice and interactive discussion. Explore how to develop a non-judgmental and compassionate approach to eating and your relationship with food.
 

*Please bring a delicious, bite-size snack with you. The instructor will guide you to eat it during class. An individually-wrapped piece of chocolate, a pretzel or a raisin are examples of a snack you might bring.

Have you ever thought about what thoughts are and where they come from?  Sometimes we think on purpose, such as when we are trying to solve a problem. But more often thoughts are unbidden, and pop into our head.  Some of those pop-ins are wholesome, and some are limiting.  When we take time to investigate the thinking mind, we come to see that we can’t believe everything it thinks. This presentation includes lecture, experiential exercises, guided mindfulness practice and interactive discussion, helping untangle and free ourselves from the mind that thinks.

There are many aspects of our lives that become routinized leading to mindless, autopilot engagement separating us from our moment to moment lived experience. The power of ritual invites us to wake up from our routines, transforming them into the magic of life itself.  Ritual brings an awake aware mind to our lived experiences.  It is used in ceremonies such as weddings and graduations, in athletics and tea drinking and when applied to the seemingly mundane aspects of our lives it can bring deep profound meaning. This presentation includes lecture, experiential exercises, guided mindfulness practice and interactive discussion, encouraging transformation from routine to ritual.

Look around, watch the news, read the paper, scroll social media – it doesn’t take long to see that our world is hungry for kindness.  Look inside too – how kindly do you treat yourself? Are the words used towards self during the day kind or critical? Is the physical fitness path practiced kind or driven?  Is the diet plan being adhered to kind or depriving?  Kindness is a heart quality that can be both contagion and cure. Join us in this workshop that sows kindness in the soil of our hearts, yielding a bounty of kindness for the world to enjoy. This presentation includes lecture, experiential exercises, guided meditations, interactive discussion, and take-home kindness inspired practices to begin today.

Leo Tolstoy wrote a beautiful piece on the power of intention setting by asking three questions: When is the best time? What is the most important? What is the right thing to do? Setting intentions is about seeing the situational uniqueness of each moment, aligning with our values, accessing our dreams and detaching from outcomes. Intentions guide us towards Being in the world rather than simply Doing in the world. This presentation includes lecture, experiential exercises, guided mindfulness practice and interactive discussion that can assist in living with the intentionality of being.  

Our neural biology is wired with a negativity bias.  Left unchecked this becomes the default operating system of the brain leading us to scan for the things that are going wrong. Yet we do have a way out of this spin cycle of negativity. Research indicates that cultivating gratitude and appreciation intentionally can rewire our brains leading us to greater happiness and contentment, stronger relationships and improved health and well-being.  This presentation includes lecture, experiential exercises, guided mindfulness practice and interactive discussion that lead to the cultivation of gratitude and the quieting of our negativity bias.

Our families are laboratories teaching us how to move and interact in the world of relationships. With our current stay-at-home routines, we are all spending a lot of time in the lab right now! Learn how the mindfulness skills of non-judgmental presence and emotional recognition and regulation can uplift your family unit. This presentation uses experiential exercises, guided mindfulness practice and interactive discussion. This class is most appropriate for parents of children ages 4- 12. Anyone in your family is welcome to join in!

Our attention has been considered by some to be one of our most precious resources, the most powerful tool of the human spirit; yet how often do we pay attention to what we are paying attention to? When our attention is scattered across the many things that are pulling at it, think social media, advertisements, television, phones, kids, partners… it can lead to exhaustion and dissatisfaction.  Mindfulness offers practices that help us reclaim the precious resource of our attention.  This presentation includes lecture, experiential exercises, guided mindfulness practice and interactive discussion, helping to skillfully reclaim and direct our attention.

These words can feel as hard to say and hear as the other big F word.  Forgiveness is not necessarily easy work, but it is essential work in order to live in a full and authentic way.  The mind can easily become enslaved by grudges and shame. Forgiveness unshackles us; it invites us to let go of the hot coal we have been holding, empty the cup of poison we have been drinking.  This presentation includes lecture, experiential exercises, guided mindfulness practice and interactive discussion, leading toward peace within.

We are living in the midst of what most of us can agree are unprecedented hard times.  Yet even in the midst of challenging circumstances Happiness and Joy are accessible and perhaps even the medicine that is needed to see us through to the other side. This presentation includes experiential exercises, guided mindfulness practice and interactive discussion that lead us to unearthing Happiness and Joy that are the buried treasure in our own heart.

Many of us believe that the only way to get through the daily to-do-list is to do more than one thing at a time.  But research indicates that multi-tasking actually takes longer, generates more errors and increases stress levels.  Learn how and why this is so in this interactive presentation that includes guided mindfulness practices encouraging a simplification of your life one task at a time.

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*Please bring a paperclip (any size or type) to class.

As relational beings communication is essential yet it is all too common to experience a wide variety of communication break downs. Learning to listen more mindfully and respond more thoughtfully, preserving the integrity of all parties, is a key to healthy relationships. This presentation includes experiential exercises, guided mindfulness practice and interactive discussion to create awareness of communication cues fostering wise speech.

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*Please bring a piece of paper (any size or color) to class.