The Mindfulness Institute.ca

From our friends at Whole Family Health - offered by donation!

The risks of meditation - important for all of us who meditate to be aware of, especially those of us who offer this practice to others. If you find yourself overwhelmed or numb or dissociated (outside your window of tolerance), remember you always have the choice to step away from the practice. Here are some options: - Open your eyes... - Stand up, feel your feet on the ground - Walk around, attending to your feet on the floor - Take slow, in-breaths, with longer exhales - Drink a glass of water or make tea - Wrap yourself in a blanket - Name five things you can see, hear, and feel (physically); describe them in as much detail as possible - Splash water on your face and hands or hold ice in each hand - Ask for support - Only return to the practice if and when you feel ready Recognizing we are outside our window of tolerance and taking care of our own needs isn't just a wise, compassionate choice. It is also the practice in action: we're aware of what's here and doing what's called for now. The invitation is to be gentle with yourself.

Our friends at Whole Family Health are offering their next MBSR program by donation!

Summer registration is open! Are you a teacher, healthcare or other professional interested in mindfulness? Join Dr. Priscilla Koop and Hannah Marsh for Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Professionals, June 30 - August 25. Together with other professionals, learn to mobilize your deep inner resources to facilitate learning, growth, healing, and enhance self-care. This 8-week online program follows the well-researched MBSR curriculum developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn.

The average person has approximately 50,000 thoughts a day. The nature of our mind can at times resemble an out of control thought generator, often pulled into ...our inner narrative, that analyzes, judges, looks for problems (and spends considerable mental energy trying to fix" them), labels everything and people, including ourselves. Reality can get buried under this mental chatter, and the story our mind tells us about what’s happening and reality often don’t line up. You might have also noticed that the mind gets pulled in, and seduced by, our own thinking, yet it’s hard to solve problems that are created by thinking with more thinking. When we sit in meditation, we train the mind not to get caught up in the story of our mental activity, but simply to observe thoughts and emotions come and go like clouds in the sky, or images moving across a TV screen. In other words, we are invited to notice the process of thinking (and emotions) without getting caught up in their content. When we do this, we create space that allows us to see reality and the nature of our own mind more clearly, and we can choose more wisely what thoughts to follow and which ones to let go of. So, when we "leave muddy water alone we are choosing not to get caught up in the story, or mental proliferation; we are often then left with clear view of reality, or "clear water" as the quote suggests. Feel free to explore this 7-minute Awareness of Thought meditation on @InsightTimer at: https://insighttimer.com//7-minute-mindfulness-of-thought- . . #Insighttimer #omwellness #clarity #mindfulness #meditation #awareness #thoughts #emotions #mentalchatter #papanca #monkeymind

Join us for our next Online MBSR Program for healthcare and business professionals! One more week before the early bird deadline!

Our drop-in classes are continuing online! The next one is Mindfulness & Creativity, this Sunday.

This looks like a wonderful meditation retreat with Heather Martin, offered online by our friends at Edmonton Insight Meditation, Sept. 18-19.

Are you a teacher, healthcare or business professional interested in mindfulness? Join us for our Online Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program in September! Learn more and register at the link below.

From our friends at Whole Family Health: In Chinese Medicine, the heart is the monarch of the body. Within the heart, dwells the Shen. There is no direct English translation for the word Shen. It refers to mind but also spirit. Heart and mind are seen as one. Close your eyes and point to yourself.... What are you pointing at? I'm going to guess you're pointing at your heart. Now close your eyes and point to your mind. What are you pointing at? I'm going to guess you're pointing at your head. Somewhere along the line, we have separated the mind and the heart. In both Chinese and Vietnamese, the word for Mindfulness is Niam or Niem respectively. The Chinese character for Niam is composed of a top part meaning now and the bottom part meaning heart or mind. Mindfulness is about being rooted in the present moment, mind & heart unified in concentrated awareness and open, kind curiosity. Some people say that they’re not good at Mindfulness because they can’t stop their minds. But it’s not about stopping the mind or letting go of negative thoughts either. The human brain generates about 70,000 thoughts per day. It’s designed to think and we can’t stop it. Mindfulness helps us to develop a different relationship with our thoughts though. So that they don’t hijack us. Our tendency is to see ‘letting go’ as casting something away. Getting rid of something or some thought or feeling or behaviour that doesn’t serve us. But transformation is not something that we do. It’s something that happens when we create the conditions for it. So letting go is not really an action. It’s a non-action- a combination of stopping, resting, relaxing and allowing. It’s not so much about casting anything away, it’s about being with what is here, whatever it may be. It’s about being with what is arising with equanimity, without judgment. Studies show that Mindfulness brings peace and relief from our stress. Peace is not a destination, it’s a way. It’s a practice and takes some training. Wanna learn? Check out our upcoming evidence-based Online Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction Course. It starts tomorrow! For more info: https://www.wholefamilyhealth.ca/online-mindfulness-based-/ Amazing art @sinemerkas #breathe

Just a few more days to register for online Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction with our friends at Whole Family Health!

Feeling stressed? Learn to work more skillfully with stress and develop a sustainable mindfulness practice in this internationally acclaimed program. Offered by our friends at Whole Family Health.

An Online MBSR Program offered by our friends at Whole Family Health! Open to Canadian residents and co-facilitated by Dr. Alda Ngo and Hannah Marsh.

A wonderful drop-in mindfulness class - via Zoom!

Missing our mindfulness classes? Mindfulness & Creativity with Hannah Marsh is continuing via Zoom. The next class is Sunday, May 31. We hope to see you there!

An online meditation retreat co-hosted by our friends, Edmonton's Happy Hearts Mindfulness Community and the Saskatoon Insight Meditation Community.

We've been here before.

Missing our drop-in classes? Here's a great resource from Tara Brach with guided meditations to create your own class, or even a meditation retreat at home.