The Hows and Whys of Mindfulness & Meditation – starting January 12th
Sundays, January 12th – February 9th
11:15 am – 12:30 pm
Hallman Room 302
Many of us seek out meditation and mindfulness practices to help us move through the challenges of each life stage. We may begin a meditation practice for relief from a too busy life and its associated stress, for relief from mental health challenges, or for help in coping with ill health. We may also seek greater engagement with life and cooperation with others, and a deepening of our spiritual life.
The practices of mindfulness and meditation as they have now developed in our Western culture include many different dimensions, each of which has the potential to transform us in a different way. As we grow in our practice, we learn to find our way through all of them as we adapt our practice to our own life situation.
This 5-week course is a progressive guided journey into the various practices included under the umbrella term of “mindfulness meditation”. Each session includes short lectures followed by communal practices. The classes will be presented in-person (with possibility of joining the live stream).
The course emphasizes a Western science point of view on meditation and consciousness, pointing out the bridges to Buddhist and other spiritual practices and traditions. In spiritual traditions, mindfulness meditation is a way of cultivating wisdom and moving away from the limitation of a separate sense of self. On a practical level, mindfulness meditation is a way to improve concentration and clarity of mind, to cultivate resilience in response to daily life stressors, and to enhance wellbeing through emotional regulation.
The class will first cover the practices of attention-training that serve as the basis for all other practices. We then move into ways to deepen our awareness of all aspects of our experience: body sensations, feelings, emotions, and thoughts. Finally, resourcing practices such as loving-kindness, compassion, equanimity and gratitude together with visualization practices are introduced.
Christiane Baud, PhD, MA has been a member of First Unitarian Church Dallas since 2002. She is a Mindfulness Meditation teacher who completed a 2-year training with Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach. She has had a meditation practice for 18 years, including Zen and Mindfulness. She teaches meditation in various venues in Dallas, TX, including inside the county jail and the Dallas Center for Mindfulness and Compassion. Christiane’s doctoral work and early career started in neurobiology laboratories studying the molecular basis and biological roles of bioelectricity. Over the next 20 years she pursued a career in the pharmaceutical industry developing and managing clinical trials. She recently completed a Master program in Transpersonal Psychology at Sofia University in Palo Alto with a focus on the neuroscience of mind and consciousness. She equally values contemplative approaches and scientific knowledge, and the interplay that emerges when the two are combined.
