All times shown are US Eastern:
| Dates | Times | Theme |
|---|---|---|
| Sunday, May 112025 | 6:45-8:45PM | Loving-Kindness as a Formal Practice As an ongoing practice of honoring your own heart, and strengthening wholesome qualities of caring and so on, when you register for the May session, you can use this 14-minute “loving-kindness” audio to practice this month (download it to keep, as the link may change at some point). Please use your own good knowing for how often to practice with the audio, and also feel free to adjust the guidance as you listen for it to best suit you and your life—or to practice loving-kindness formally without audio. We’ll continue to practice loving-kindness formally together when we meet. By making loving-kindness a formal practice, it may become easier for us to recognize when loving and kind feelings arise spontaneously, and also may help us recognize opportunities to tune in to our good heart during the day instead of simply “getting through" the day. Please come prepared to share— When we gather, we’ll share about our experience of the guided practice/s this month, including possible obstacles, challenges, discoveries, and so on. We’ll also share about any other exploration this month you might engage in on your own around a “loving-kind heart” beyond the formal practice. Optional: You could read this article by Jon Kabat-Zinn about Loving-Kindness Meditation, and practice also with his 40-minute audio guidance, included in the article. |
| Sunday, April 132025 | 6:45-8:45PM | Mindfulness of Feeling Tones: Pleasant, Unpleasant, NeutralDuring your 8-week course, you may have been invited to keep a Pleasant and Unpleasant Events calendar. Let’s expand this invitation to include exploring a 3rd category of “feeling tone” that we humans experience: Neutral. NOTE: Neutral in the practice of mindfulness is not the absence of feeling; it is more that the feeling isn’t overtly “pleasant” (a happy, contented feeling) or “unpleasant” (a feeling of suffering). To best prepare, you could keep a “PUN” calendar (Pleasant, Unpleasant, Neutral) for at least a few days this month: jotting brief notes about pleasantness that was experienced that day, about unpleasantness, and, yes, about neutral. Treat this as an exploration for yourself. There’s not just one way to keep notes about P, U, and N. You might use this calendar, or feel free to keep notes in any way that serves you. Please come ready to share what you discovered from this exploration, as we focus more fully on mindfulness of feeling tones. |
| Sunday, March 92025 | 6:45-8:45PM | Listening & SpeakingDuring your 8-week course, you may have been invited to listen to another person/other people and to speak from direct experience.During our March session, we will continue to explore listening and speaking through both intra- and inter-personal mindfulness. This means that we will notice our “inner” listening and speaking, and also try on inter-personal mindfulness by listening and speaking with others in our group.Please come ready to speak and listen in the presence of another meditator, supporting them to do the same. Also, bring writing material, such as paper and pen. |
| Sunday, February 92025 | 6:45-8:45PM | Mountain MeditationThis practice is often introduced at the retreat class during an 8-week mindfulness course. During February’s gathering of mindfulness grads, we’ll explore how/why we might benefit from “meditating like a mountain." What does the practice of mountain hold, if anything, for you? Please come with notes for how “mountain-ness” might connect with mindfulness practice (you’re also welcome to re-interpret “mountain” to something else in nature, such as “lake,” "meadow,” or so on). And if you’re already practicing “mountain,” we’d love to hear you share about that. And of course we’ll practice Mountain Meditation. |
| Sunday, January 122025 | 6:45-8:45PM | Body ScanningWe will focus on body scanning meditation, exploring opportunities and drawbacks that lying down to practice offers. Each registrant will receive a link to a brief body scan audio for continued practice. |
| Sunday, December 82024 | 6:45-8:45PM | Loving-Kindness MeditationDuring December’s session, we will focus on practicing kindness and compassion using phrases during “Loving-Kindness” meditation. We will also do an exercise to begin to discover phrases for ourselves that feel authentic. |
| Sunday, November 102024 | 6:45-8:45PM | 4 Foundations of MindfulnessYou do not need to be Buddhist or even like Buddhism to practice mindfulness. Yet some foundations of mindfulness are also present in Buddhism. Understanding some Buddhist underpinnings might help us better understand what we’re engaging in when we practice mindfulness.During November’s session, you will learn about, or be reminded of, the 4 Foundations of Mindfulness—4 “categories” that make up our human experience. We will explore how these foundations can help us meet the moment, particularly difficult emotions. And of course we’ll practice together and be in the good company of each other. |
| Sunday, October 132024 | 6:45-8:45PM | Self-CompassionOur focus will be on understanding self-compassion and how we can begin to practice it when we are struggling in our lives. This is a slow process that should be practiced with ease.We will: ▪ Discuss components of self-compassion ▪ Be introduced to an informal practice to apply self-compassion in moments of stress throughout the dayBefore the next session, please ask yourself the following questions (you might journal about this, if you choose, and bring the journaling to our gathering): ▪ What does self-compassion mean to me? ▪ How do you practice self-compassion? ▪ When do you know if you need self-compassion? ▪ What stops you from practicing self-compassion? |
| Sunday, September 82024 | 6:45-8:45PM | Establishing & Re-establishing PracticeWe will begin to get to know each other as this community establishes itself. Our focus will be on— Practice… ▪ Why? ▪ What? ▪ How? ▪ When? ▪ Where? …in service of experiencing all of Who you are. |