Meditation & Song Workshop inquiries: mindfulsongworkshop@gmail.com

 

I have been practicing mindfulness meditation for several years and have been certified as a meditation teacher from the Tibet Houses' Mindfulness Teacher Training Program with David Nichtern.

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Prior to exploring meditation I assumed the "goal" of meditation was to eliminate thinking and achieve bliss. I just made that up, but that's what I thought. I had the sense that that would never happen: eliminate thinking. When I came to mindfulness practice, the first idea that I heard that was radical to me was, that we were neither trying to squash or eliminate thinking, nor getting on its roller coaster ride. We were instead adopting an attitude of friendliness toward our own minds, and noticing what arises without judgment. How gentle can I be as I redirect my attention back to my breath? That gave me pause and made me realize the aggression and unfriendliness with which I spoke to myself. It's in the noticing and returning that I learn to speak to myself with kindness (and by extension you). Can I give myself permission to be human? Might I be playful about it? How would I speak to a child?

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The other radical idea to me is that there is no goal to this practice. Just sitting and placing my attention on my breath, and when thoughts arise, labeling them "thinking", without judgment, and returning to the breath. The practice is just sitting, breathing, noticing and returning. Not transcending, avoiding or eliminating. Be here, not somewhere else. This. I can do.

 

However, the results of this mindfulness practice are an increase in my capacity for compassion toward myself and others, creating space between my thoughts and reactions, a sense of calm and well being, and mostly, for this triple Capricorn, a playfulness, curiosity and a presence that I can bring into everyday life.

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Mindfulness/Awareness practice offerings include:

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• One-On-One Guidance

• Small Group Guidance

• Workplace/Business (wellness, focus/productivity, team building)

• Songwriting Workshops will integrate music and mindfulness. Small groups (4 or 5 participants) will focus on developing basic songwriting skills. We will using the materials students bring into the workshop to discuss basic principles of songwriting, with my guidance and peer encouragement. Ideal for beginners, but also great if you're stuck, clogged or need some support. Mindfulness meditation training will be offered as a small, but important, element of the process to help expand creative capacity, focus, but mostly to notice the kind of thinking, self judgment, self doubt and negativity that can often plague the Creative; the thinking that can stop us from sitting down at a piano, typewriter or easel. The benefits from Mindfulness/Awareness practice, that I've experienced, by looking at this thinking with an attitude of friendliness and non-judgment, are expansiveness, joy, self-compassion, more ease and above all, playfulness - all brought into the creative process. A path to creativity through self acceptance, or a path to self acceptance through creativity. Aka become your favorite songwriter. **Click on menu above for more info!

• Do you teach a creative discipline? (writing, drawing?) Enhance your students' experience and expand their capacity and focus by offering mindfulness meditation as a practice to support their creativity.