Move into Mindfulness

Prerequisite: Mindfulness – The Basics

Mindfulness – Beyond the Basics is the second half of the Mind Body Stress Reduction Series where learn to direct our mindfulness skills of holding our attention in the present moment toward our stressors. These stressors may include: life events, pleasent and unpleasant events, thoughts, emotions, reactivity triggers, communication style, relationships, others & community.

• A series manual with weekly emails and assignments
• Guided instruction in mindfulness techniques: Breath Awareness, Body Scan, Sitting Meditation, Mindful Movements, Mindfulness of Physical Sensations, Thoughts and Emotions, Mindful Eating, Mindfulness Listening, and Communication
• Exercises to enhance awareness in everyday life
• Daily home practice suggestions & formal and informal practices

At Washington University, we are building a Momentum for Mindfulness. As we us continue to move forward with our mindfulness practices we will naturally find some obstacles on our path. In this series we will continue to cultivate our practice of daily Mindfulness, building on our foundation of moment to moment awareness skills. We will address the stress challenges that trigger resistance, avoidance, clinging to a particular outcome, and, other habitual tendencies that generate additional stress. As we learn to welcome the challenges, we turn challenges into opportunities for continued practice, and greater levels of engagement in life, health and well-being.

In this 3-part series, participants will use mindfulness practices to uncover implicit biases within themselves to support their work toward positive change.  Our brain focuses on protecting us and can inhibit our ability to lean into the discomfort of acknowledging bias and staying in difficult discussions.  We are better prepared to be partners in the work for positive social change when we:

1. Practice ways to manage our “fight/flight/freeze” response and
2. Understand how our perceptions impact our ability to be change agents. 

These practices can become tools for engaging in difficult conversation and anti-oppression work without shutting down or getting burned out. 

In this 3-part series, we work with the tool of mindfulness to expand our capacity to be present and notice how it supports our work for equity and justice.  We move from not only learning about ourselves and the biases we carry to becoming more able to lean into unpleasantness and cultivate compassion. This is the foundational work needed to build the community and connection that will support healing and restoration needed for transformation.

The 3 sessions include:  lean into unpleasant, cultivate compassion and moving into action in support of one another and healing, connecting and supporting positive change.