Mindfulness Matters Week

Rowan Silverberg

This interactive session will introduce mindful movement, a gentle, accessible approach to yoga that encourages people to tune into what they are feeling as they move and make choices based on their present moment experience. Basic seated, standing, and supine poses will be presented with variations to accommodate the uniqueness of each person's relationship with their body.

Suzanne Rusnak

In this brief introduction participants will get a basic understanding of the tenets of mindfulness, how it works to benefit us, and ways to practice in daily life.

Julie Schlemmer, BS, E-RYT 500, Yoga Therapist, Reiki Master, Health Coach

Explore how a consistent practice of mindfulness can help reduce feelings of anxiety and stress in the physical body. By learning to quiet the mind and live in the present moment, the body, too, will quiet, become calmer, more relaxed and able to experience the joy of living. This session will introduce the practice of mindfulness meditation, the importance and significance of working with the breath, and how the body shifts and releases tension with subtle movements.

Laurie Cunningham, Phd. LISW & John Cunningham, Insight Meditation Teacher

Our state of mind can affect the ability to parent effectively. Interaction with children/adolescents may be rooted in anger, frustration or other emotions rather than on what is needed to parent effectively in the moment. The practice of mindfulness teaches us to be aware of these feelings within ourselves and gives us the capacity to not be driven by them. Mindfulness creates a space where we meet our children's/adolescents' needs in a more skillful and appropriate manner and to be at peace with the complex task of parenting. This session will cover the foundations of mindfulness as applied to parenting covering basic principles as well as share resources, a short practice, and concluding with Q & A.

A pioneer in the introduction of mindfulness into higher education and other sectors of
society as well as a prolific author on the topic, Mirabai Bush will share the recent history of mindfulness on campuses as well as its benefits to students, faculty, and staff. As a founder of the Contemplative Practice Fellowships, she has witnessed the development of mindfulness pedagogies in disciplines from physics to poetry to computer technology. Her talk will include the role of supplemental contemplative practices, the need to adapt teaching of mindfulness in the educational setting, examples of effective programs, and the relationship of mindfulness to current academic and social concerns, including distance learning, racial justice, chronic distraction, and questions of identity