The Birth of a Course

About 2 ½ years ago I created The 8 Week Mindful Awareness Course. I have taught this course a total of 8 times since.

 For inquiring minds that ask “ Why 8 Weeks?”

I had been reading the latest research and watching trends.  Current wisdom was that in 8 weeks, as it turns out, we could change the actual physical brain for the better.

 In 2011, Harvard researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital found that participating in an eight-week mindfulness meditation program appeared to make measurable changes in brain regions associated with memory, sense of self, empathy, and stress.

 Read more literature here:

Eight weeks to a better brain

It stood to reason I would follow trend and wisdom and voila, the 8-week course was born and implemented.

 My goals for the 8 Week Course were to impact participants in the following:

1.     Facilitate the creation of new, good and life-altering habits

2.     Help Participants create a daily meditation practice

3.     Help participants consider breaking unhealthy habits, particularly in the realm of coping with stress, internal chaos, and external chaos.

4.     Facilitating self-compassion and, its ultimate cohort compassion for others, and topped by the whipped topping of loving-kindness.

 Lofty aspirations…yes!

Do I feel the 8-week program approached meeting these goals, absolutely!

The one hole, the crack, the gap…after teaching this with at least a small bit of longevity was that while new and amazing habits were created particularly in stress responses, the actual sustainable daily meditation practice that is required to change the physical structures of the brain was not happening as a general rule. Now I am on a mission to fill the gap. 

Hence the unfolding of a new course creation of mine as of 1 ½ years ago.. a daily meditation course, plum full of daily journaling prompts, daily audio lessons, daily audio meditations, current and compelling research, and articles of interest.

 I have had the pleasure of teaching offering this course in the context of private and semi-private groups and I have also sold this course as a stand-alone product that can be carried out by the individual in their own space and time.

 What I have not done to date is offer the online daily course in conjunction with an immersive 6-week group course.

Participants in The 8 week Mindful Awareness Course really gain from the group effect and inspiration with systematic instruction to broader concepts and practices with the narrowed down focused daily implementation.

 Though historically I did give out “required” daily homework, participants mostly registered it loosely. I would venture to guess that approximately 25% of the participants continue to have a sustained meditation practice following the course.

 It stuck for these folks! I am very proud of them, happy for them, their existence, and their brains.  They may very likely be ready for deeper study of Mindful Awareness, which could be very exciting. If you were one of them, I would love to hear from you!

 What I am offering today…

–  A Condensed 6-week Immersion coursework

–  Simultaneous daily online (35 days) course, with lifetime access (this is important…         because we want this practice to stick!)

 My goals for the integration of two different courses:

1. I can serve those who truly value and want to work towards a daily practice with no prior skill necessary. Lets rock those brain AND lifestyle changes!!

2. Those who want to commit to the weekly meetings and also commit to the daily habitual changes that are required to attain a skill. The Practice!

 For those of you who are interested in the 6-week course, I would love your participation while I implement these two learning resources with the ultimate goal of a sustainable meditation practice, brain changes, and practical life skill acquisition for a new stress response.   

Keep in mind that sometimes we humans must practice, practicing. In the process of skill acquisition, be it an exercise program, a new way of eating, a new way of thinking, learning a new language, or learning to Salsa dance, it is a rather curvy wondrous, and interesting path. And so it is acquiring the new skill of mediation.  It is rarely a straight line from no practice to a sustainable practice.

 For more information or to register:

Peace In ~ Peace Out

XOXO Elizabeth