Hello! 
This class will be a weekly, ongoing meeting in which we will foster a meditative practice allowing us to live more flexibly and with equanimity. Each week, we will learn new ways of contemplation and reflection as we grow deeper in our practice of mindful awareness; we will explore a different type of meditation in each meeting as my intention is to introduce students to a number of different forms. This way, they can learn what they like and don't like as well as what works or doesn't work for them. I have outlined an initial schedule below.

*Note, each week will start with a review of basic principles as we ease into the session. Thus, there will not be any prerequisite skills for particular weeks and students can be assured they will arrive at any meeting able to participate fully. Also note that this is not an exhaustive list or schedule and variations may be altered or switched out as we go along and move into a natural rotation of topics. 

Week of October 3: Eyes-closed, focusing attention on the breath

Week of October 10 - Incorporating awareness of sounds and physical sensations into basic breath-focus meditation

Week of October 17 -- Body-scan meditation

Week of October 24 --Eyes-open, focusing attention on the breath

Week of October 31 -- Focusing attention on the breath and surroundings accompanied by small lecture on "awareness" and "consciousness" to introduce advanced way of thinking about breath- and surroundings-focused meditation

Week of November 7 -- Loving-kindness meditation (both eyes-closed and eyes-open variations)

Week of November 14 -- Self-compassion and meditation

Week of November 21 -- Creative and every-day approaches to mindfulness and meditation

Ideally, students would commit to 3-4 sessions in order to better understand several different meditation practices and mindfulness principles, and to build up a consistent practice and skill. That said, while they share some common themes and ideas the lessons do not strictly build on each other from week to week, and each session will stand on its own. Students may therefore "drop-in" consistently each week or whenever their schedules allow. We will work through the meditations listed above, and then subsequent meetings will cycle back through them and others that will be introduced over time, to allow a deepening of our understanding and practice. New additions will be listed in the class discussion page. 

One purpose of meditation is to become more clearly aware of our thoughts and feelings by paying careful attention to them. It takes time to grow this mindful awareness, and some days are more challenging than others. Thus, whether one is practicing for the first time or the hundredth, there is always something to gain as we can never refine our abilities enough. Meditation has extremely high "replayability," to borrow a video game term. It is not something we simply learn and master in one go. 

Our meetings will typically begin with 5-10 minutes of social conversation to foster a laid-back atmosphere in which students can feel at ease and connected with one another, and this will be followed with 20 minutes of generally quiet, guided meditative practice. As shown in the above schedule, sometimes this format may be altered to include a brief informational lecture before we begin our practice for the day. Note that while we will explore different avenues of meditation, this is not therapy or "skills training." Neither will it be religious or overtly spiritual. Mindfulness and meditation will be taught in the context of established scientific knowledge.