Mindfulness Foundations Series – A 7 Week FALL Course
You may have heard the word “Mindfulness” or “Meditation” as there’s much research coming out on why this practice is highly beneficial for our overall well-being. In this 7-week course, you will learn the basics, benefits, & science of Mindfulness and how you can realistically bring this into your everyday life.
This evidence-based meditation technique has proven positive outcomes! Some of those include: how we respond to our emotions, manage fear or anxiety provoking situations with greater ease, recover from difficult situations more quickly, feel that we have the capacity to achieve what we set out to accomplish, focus and for longer periods of time, and become more open to our creative potential.
Each week you will learn a fundamental practice of Mindfulness that you can practice within your daily activities, everything from being mindful of our emotions and the way that we communicate with others, to the way we move physically, to the way we eat and consume. This course will give you an understanding of how the body (the respiratory system, nervous system and energetic body) responds to the practice of Mindfulness. You will gain strategies and tools for beginning or reinvigorating a lifelong practice of meditation.
***A large binder of the information, the practices, studies, homework & journal prompts is included in price.
***You will receive a certificate upon completing this course.
***Everyone welcome!
REGISTER ON MINDBODYWEEK 1: AWARENESS
In this foundational practice we will learn to cultivate awareness. Mindfulness can teach us how we relate to ourselves and to the world around us. Here, we learn what causes us to react rather than respond thoughtfully to our internal and external experiences.
WEEK 2: BREATH
This week’s practice will hone in on our connection to breath and how it directly affects our autonomic nervous system. We will learn diaphragmatic breathing and gain a greater awareness of how to use the breath as an anchor for our busy minds.
WEEK 3: BODY
This week we learn to embody the practice of Mindfulness, bringing our awareness to a larger container by noticing what is present for us in the moment. We bring our attention into our body, using the body as a focal point of cultivating attention. Bringing greater awareness to our body may help us to understand differently our experiences of sensations and emotions from what we created for ourselves as behavioral patterns from early childhood experiences.
WEEK 4: EMOTIONS
Mindfulness of emotions is another place we can become present to in our Mindfulness practice. Learning from the nervous system that we can notice emotions as they first arise, gives us opportunity to not let emotions “take over”. With practice, it can allow us to respond to these overwhelming emotions differently.
WEEK 5: HEARTFULNESS
Studies are now showing that anyone can learn to cultivate compassion. In this week’s practice we learn to create an open pathway between the brain to the heart. This helps us to cultivate empathy, gratitude, and compassion for ourselves and for others. Learn how the heart and brain have a measurable field of energy that expands beyond the body. What we do, say, and feel impacts others more than we may realize.
WEEK 6: COMMUNICATION
This week will focus on listening skills. How we communicate with ourselves and with others can be challenging, right!? Certainly, this is so in our current age of technology. How we choose to communicate mindfully can work in our favor to avoid simple miscommunications. This week we will engage in a deeper silence in order to be present with others, which is imperative to good listening.
WEEK 7: MINDFUL EATING
We end our course with mindful eating. Here we celebrate both the pitfalls of mindless eating, eating to avoid emotions and the wonder of food, it’s purpose, and strategies for how to create a healthy relationship to food. Becoming present in our interactions with food throughout the day, give us many opportunities to practice mindfulness. In this course we have opportunity to practice mindful eating and time for a longer formal group meditation practice.
This course is taught by Lauren Knutson. Lauren is a lifelong meditator who co-authored the Mindful Being Mindfulness & Stress Management curriculum. Lauren has taught yoga and mindfulness in local communities for the past 20+ years. Currently, Lauren provides professional development training for educators, mentoring for teachers using mindfulness in the classrooms, Mindfulness for Kids classes, private classes for mindfulness and yoga. Lauren began her career in wellness in 1997 as a massage therapist. Lauren continues to practice Thai Massage at Massage East and at her home.
Course Dates:
Sept. 23rd – Nov. 4th
This class meets ONCE a week.
MONDAYS 7-8:15pm
*Held inside of SOL, a beautiful & spacious studio!
Must reserve your spot on Mindbody ahead of time.
REGISTER ON MINDBODYPricing:
$279 for Members
$299 for Guests
***No prior experience required in yoga or meditation.
If you have questions or troubles signing up, please contact Megan Reed, SOL’s Studio Manager at [email protected].
