"Maybe the point of our life's journey, our spiritual odyssey, is not conquest or perfection, whether spiritual or worldly, but rather the simple transformation into what we have been all along: flesh-and-blood people in a flesh-and-blood world, feeling what people feel and doing what people do. Returning home to what we are. Could this be enough?" ~ Norman Fischer, from Sailing Home: Using Homer's Odyssey to Navigate Life's Perils and Pitfalls

Class Descriptions

All of the following strategies develop the core skills of attention. Each of them can be practiced for days, weeks, months, years, or decades. No strategy is better or worse than any other. The impact of practicing one strategy influences exploring all of the others. So it doesn't matter which of the strategies you explore. What is important is that you find one or more that works for you.

Think of the core strategies as exercise equipment found in a gym. The application strategies are about taking advantage of real-life opportunities to continue honing the same skills, like parking farther away from the grocery store to sneak in a bit of physical exercise. Most of us don't go to the gym with the goal of being champion treadmill walkers or professional weight lifters. Similarly, we don't practice mindfulness meditation to become expert meditators. We practice to increase the baseline level of satisfaction in our day-to-day lives. These skills give us the tools to create the conditions for this type of contentment to take root and flower with less of our default interference.

Any of these strategies can be shared with groups or individuals (in person or over the phone). They can also be combined to form a series of classes or the components of a workshops or retreats of various lengths. We can also tailor an additional strategy to fit a particular need or interest.

Core Mindfulness Strategies I

Core Mindfulness Strategies II

Practical Application Strategies

Find and Create Rest in the Body and Mind

We tend to cultivate habits of finding and focusing on physical and emotional discomfort while overlooking the presence of restfulness. It can be very useful to learn to identify and enjoy naturally-occurring restful states such as relaxation in the body and the pauses between thoughts -- states that occur spontaneously, but which we haven't practiced detecting and savoring. In the same way that physical exercise can improve strength, flexibility, and endurance, mindfulness strategies can gradually improve the baseline level of contentment in ordinary life.

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Rekindle Warmth Toward Yourself and Others

Can compassion really be learned? Recent research in neuroscience seems to be confirming that it is a skill that can be developed. Learn mindfulness strategies based on these findings that help you begin to realize just how similar we all are beneath the surface and to erode the walls we tend to unintentionally build around ourselves in an effort to feel safe.

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Strengthening Concentration Through Listening to Music

Explore strategies for having a richer and more complete experience of listening. When we turn music into an opportunity to cultivate attention, we also strengthen the ability to hear the musicality within the ordinary sounds we encounter in daily life; with consistent practice over time, we can experience the wonder which sparks the human impulse to create music in the first place.

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Taste Your Food, Feast on Your Life

This class introduces strategies for turning eating into an opportunity for examining how feelings in the body drive compulsive behavior. It also explores ways in which we can get more satisfaction from the subtle pleasant aspects of eating by slowing down and paying attention.

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