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This epistolary dialogue between teachers involved with different, but complementary, contemplative practices—mindfulness-based group programs and reading groups (in which people come together to read literary poems or stories)—explores how such practices build community and imbue participants with the potential to act in caring and just ways in other contexts. Through narratives of group experiences and presentations of physiological and neurophysiological evidence, the two correspondents delineate three pedagogical strategies to achieve the desired ends: (1) looking beyond individualism, (2) attending to intensity, and (3) living with the text. Number one notes that students come to a group with expectations for individual progress and satisfaction, which, paradoxically, are most available within and because the atmosphere of group setting holds, supports, and offers each participant opportunities in which each can be fully with and in their experience, or, to put it another way, to touch the “really real.” Number two notes that the more often the group touches the really real, there is formed a more emotionally open human community, to which students belong, and together may move more towards justice and caring. Number three, living with the text, suggests the routes toward such community, which are essential to the contemplative dimension of academic teaching: profound spoken dialogue arising from meditation practice may become unique texts for the group, and literary texts read aloud and responded to also serve to intensify the atmosphere of the moment and quicken an ethical way of knowing that may become available later, in other communities.
We have a treasure within us. We were born with it. Reclaiming it costs us a lot. Some would say, everything. “Everything” has everything to do with leaving behind much of the small, comfortable self all of us have constructed and that, often enough, now functions as our jailer.
"This master-class-in-a-book is designed to guide teachers of mindfulness-based interventions (MBI) in continuing to develop more competence while raising global standards of practice and pedagogy. Starting with the central yet elusive concept of stewardship, it then expands upon the core components of MBI pedagogy. A series of reflective essays by MBI teachers from around the world foregrounds differences and challenges in meeting participants "where they are." Such reflections are both inspiring and thought-provoking for teachers --wherever they are. The book also provides practical guidance and tools for adjusting teaching style and content for special populations, from chronic pain patients to trauma survivors, from health care professionals to clergy, and including many others. Detailed scripts and practices, ready to adopt and adapt, offer opportunities to explore new directions in the classroom, and to continue the life-long development of the teacher. Included in the coverage: Deepening teachers' skills of guidance of meditation practices Insights into the essential practice of inquiry and dialogue with participants New practices that allow participants to explore mindfulness together in a spoken encounter How to keep up with, review, and make clear to participants the range of scientific evidence supporting the MBIs The breadth of practical insights and hands-on strategies makes Resources for Teaching Mindfulness a unique developmental asset for a wide range of practitioners around the world. Among those who will benefit are physicians and other medical practitioners, health and clinical psychologists, marriage and family therapists, nurses, clinical social workers, physical and occupational therapists, health educators, and organizational development specialists." "A deep, supportive, and challenging dive into the art of teaching mindfulness, including the science of it, in the form of MBSR and other mindfulness-based interventions. Highly experienced contributors offer a cornucopia of inspiring, instrumental, and non-instrumental perspectives on the multi-dimensional topology of the classroom in vastly different contexts and cultures. Of particular note is the intimacy of one's own embodied sharing and exploring of the practice with others as the instructor -- with the welcome mat for what arrives within us and between us firmly rolled out in not-knowing, coupled with deep listening, creativity, imagination, daring, and caring." Jon Kabat-Zinn, Founder of MBSR, Author of Full Catastrophe Living and Coming to Our Senses.
The applications and use of mindfulness-based interventions in medicine, mental health care, and education have been expanding as rapidly as the empirical evidence base that is validating and recommending them. This growth has created a powerful demand for professionals who can effectively deliver these interventions, and for the training of new professionals who can enter the fold.
The applications and use of mindfulness-based interventions in medicine, mental health care, and education have been expanding as rapidly as the empirical evidence base that is validating and recommending them. This growth has created a powerful demand for professionals who can effectively deliver these interventions, and for the training of new professionals who can enter the fold.Ironically, while the scientific literature on mindfulness has surged, little attention has been paid to the critical who and how of mindfulness pedagogy. Teaching Mindfulness is the first in-depth treatment of the person and skills of the mindfulness teacher. It is intended as a practical guide to the landscape of teaching, to help those with a new or growing interest in mindfulness-based interventions to develop both the personal authenticity and the practical know-how that can make teaching mindfulness a highly rewarding and effective way of working with others. The detail of theory and praxis it contains can also help seasoned mindfulness practitioners and teachers to articulate and understand more clearly their own pedagogical approaches.
The applications and use of mindfulness-based interventions in medicine, mental health care, and education have been expanding as rapidly as the empirical evidence base that is validating and recommending them. This growth has created a powerful demand for professionals who can effectively deliver these interventions, and for the training of new professionals who can enter the fold. Ironically, while the scientific literature on mindfulness has surged, little attention has been paid to the critical who and how of mindfulness pedagogy. Teaching Mindfulness is the first in-depth treatment of the person and skills of the mindfulness teacher. It is intended as a practical guide to the landscape of teaching, to help those with a new or growing interest in mindfulness-based interventions to develop both the personal authenticity and the practical know-how that can make teaching mindfulness a highly rewarding and effective way of working with others. The detail of theory and praxis it contains can also help seasoned mindfulness practitioners and teachers to articulate and understand more clearly their own pedagogical approaches. Engagingly written and enriched with vignettes from actual classes and individual sessions, this unique volume:Places the current mindfulness-based interventions in their cultural and historical context to help clarify language use, and the integration of Eastern and Western spiritual and secular traditionsOffers a highly relational understanding of mindfulness practice that supports moment-by-moment work with groups and individualsProvides guidance and materials for a highly experiential exploration of the reader's personal practice, embodiment, and application of mindfulness Describes in detail the four essential skill sets of the mindfulness teacher Proposes a comprehensive, systematic model of the intentions of teaching mindfulness as they are revealed in the mindfulness-based interventionsIncludes sample scripts for a wide range of mindfulness practices, and an extensive resource section for continued personal and career development Essential for today's practitioners and teachers of mindfulness-based interventionsTeaching Mindfulness: A Practical Guide for Clinicians and Educators brings this increasingly important discipline into clearer focus, opening dialogue for physicians, clinical and health psychologists, clinical social workers, marriage and family therapists, professional counselors, nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists, pastoral counselors, spiritual directors, life coaches, organizational development professionals, and teachers and professionals in higher education, in short, everyone with an interest in helping others find their way into the benefits of the present moment.
The three-part structure of this book gives you several points of entry. If you're coming with just a little background to investigate the possibilities of teaching mindfulness, Part I (Charters 1, 2, and 3) may be the place to start. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the contemporary mindfulness-based interventions in medicine and mental healthcare. Chapter 2 places those interventions in the wider historical and cultural context of the meeting of East and West in Western, particularly North American culture, suggesting the ripple effects and the expanding openness to contemplative practices in general and mindfulness in particular. Chapter 3 attempts to offer a pragmatic definition and felt understanding of mindfulness that will be useful for a teacher when inquiring about her practice or the practice of those she is teaching. For those who have ongoing personal practices of mindfulness meditation and are currently teaching or considering stepping out in that way, Part II (Chapters 4 and 5) may make a sensible beginning. Chapter 4 will help you towards a realization of what is required of you in the process of teaching, and what you might wish to explore or develop further in your practice and teaching. Chapter 5 outlines the skills of teaching, explaining how and when they come into play, and offering vignettes of the skills in use with participants. Part III (Chapter 6, 7, and 8) is the most pragmatic way in, for those concerned primarily with curricular and pedagogical questions. The final three chapters focus on the unfolding of the pedagogy of mindfulness (as we understand it at this moment) and its concrete expressions in curricula and guided practice. Chapter 6 provides a schematic of the process of teaching and learning with mindfulnesstion and description of a series of "gestures" of the process of teaching learning, illustrated with interchanges between teaches and participants. Chapter 8 is meant as a resource for teaching, with scripts for audio recordings and step-by-step development of any teacher's own presentations. Wherever you are in your development as a teacher, wherever you start in this book, we trust that you'll find something you can use immediately, something that challenges your assumptions, and something that brings you right to the breath in the present moment - an inspiration to share the gift of teaching mindfulness.
At a recent retreat for mindfulness teachers in Europe, one of my fellow attendees, a man who, if asked, we would identify as “white,” who spoke with a European accent, noted that I was the only “Black woman” in the group of more than 200. “I imagine you’re used to that, though,” he said. I nodded, and we continued on without further reflection on these apparent facts. After all, he was right: in over years of experience within a variety of communities focused on practicing and teaching mindfulness, I have more often than not been one of the few, if not the only Black woman in the room. Within and across a variety of mainstream, Western mindfulness communities, people of color across the spectrum remain significantly underrepresented (Kaleem, 2012).