Can you spend 30 minutes a week learning mindfulness for free?

Join us for a free online event where you can learn mindfulness in just 30 minutes a week - it's easy and it's good for you!
About this Event

I was one of the first Americans to get covid, and my infection escalated into a medical struggle. I had chronic fatigue; panic attacks; lung collapses; I passed out on the street a couple times, and came close to death a couple times. It turned out that my neurological fight-flee-freeze response refused to calm down, which besides the direct symptoms, triggered a cavalcade of stress, depression, anxiety, and hopelessness. Now known as long covid, it took almost three years to cure, and one of the key elements in my recovery was insight mediation.

Also known as mindfulness or vipassana (“seeing things as they really are”), insight is a dynamic form of meditation that merges relaxation with focus, leading to a state that shrinks call flow; jocks call the zone; and others call hypnotic, hypnagogic, or trance. Medical studies have found that it improves immune function, blood pressure, inflammation, and stress hormone levels, and that it helps in treating addiction and eating disorders. Mindfulness can put you in touch with your intuition and your subconscious; it can reduce the power of negative thoughts and feelings; it can lead to bliss and ecstasy. And anyone can learn how to do it.

I’ve now spent the last three years in accelerated training and am about to graduate from UC Berkeley’s Mindfulness & Meditation Teacher Certification Program. In May, I’ll start teaching meditation to women incarcerated at Rikers, and I’ll be giving free courses online to anyone who wants to give it a go. You, in particular, are invited.

The first four courses will be a bootcamp providing the essentials to using meditation for your own benefit. The second four will explore integrating mindfulness in day-to-day life through the avant-garde techniques of today’s great teachers -- Jack Kornfield, Tara Brach, Shinzen Young, Sam Harris, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Rick Hanson, and Loch Kelly.

We’ll be meeting Wednesdays in May and June at 1PM EST. Each class will include an introduction (around 10 minutes), a guided meditation (around 15 minutes), and a Q+A/general discussion. So, if you can only make it for around half an hour or so, you can still get the meat and potatoes, or if you want to ask in-depth questions or have a big community conversation, we can extend our time for anyone who’s up for it.

If you have any concerns, please just email or message me. Can’t wait! And, here’s my sincere wish that all the wonderful things that this practice has done for me ... will be done for you:

I. Getting to Know You: A Mindfulness Bootcamp

How to Meditate - May 8

Riding the Waterfall of Thoughts and Emotions - May 15

How to Be Your Own Therapist - May 22

Joy - June 5

II. The Wind in the Trees: Mindfulness in Day to Day Life

Finding Presence in Body and Consciousness - June 12

Pleasures of the Mindful Life - June 19

For Those Too Busy to Sit - June 26

Radical Forgiveness - July 2

Wednesdays at 1PM EST

Zoom: