Category: 2023 Events

Unfortunately we have cancelled this offering due to lack of enrolment.
Please watch our website for future offerings.

SIT in Mindfulness

This Six week Introductory Training (SIT) in Mindfulness will teach you to develop a focused and embodied attention, self awareness, emotional intelligence, and greater sense of ease and well being. You will learn a variety of mindfulness meditations and practical ways to integrate mindfulness into daily activities at work, home and in relationships.

The course will include the following:

• Training in meditation, developing awareness of breath, body, feelings and thoughts.
• Managing stress and learning how to shift from reaction to response.
• Recognizing and letting go of unhelpful habitual thoughts and mind states.
• Exploring, understanding and working with a range of emotional experience.

The SIT course is designed for beginners to mindfulness or those who would like a refresher in its basic principles and techniques.

Each two-hour class will have a mix of the following components:

• Guided meditation
• Talk on weekly themes
• Practice check-ins
• Question and Responses
• Experiential practices or exercises
• Small group practices (dyads, triads, mindful listening and speaking), or alternative journaling activities
• Suggested home practices

Dates and times

Thursdays, February 16, 23, March 2, 9, 16, 23, 2023
7-9 pm

Location

This is an in-person program, although we will pivot to online if necessary.
Address will be sent out as part of the registration confirmation.

Course fees

Administration fee:
The administration fee paid at the time of registration helps cover the administrative costs for SIMC.

Teacher dana/donation:
The registration fee does not include teacher support – there will be an opportunity to offer dana to the teacher. See dana information below.

Registration

The course has been cancelled due to lack of enrolment.

Course Teacher

Andrea Grzesina is a MTI Certified Teacher, having completed the Mindfulness Training Institute’s Certified Mindfulness Teacher Training with Mark Coleman and Martin Aylward in July 2021. A life-long learner and lover of the Dharma, Andrea has taken several training programs, including the Intensive Practice Program through the UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center and several courses in Social Meditation Facilitation with Vince Fakhoury Horn and the Buddhist Geeks Sangha. She has been practicing meditation and mindfulness since 2014, and contributes to SIMC as a local dharma leader, a member of the planning committee, volunteer, retreat manager, cookie baker, and other duties as required.

Some words about the practice of dana

We often have queries about what might be an appropriate range for any financial dana offering to the teachers, that you might wish to make. Before we consider this, it is really important to know that the teaching of dana is a liberation teaching, because it is an intentional opportunity to practice generosity, which can directly erode the habit in the mind of grasping. The Buddha invites us to tune into the joy of dana, the joy of giving, before, during and after… so please, see this as a joy and liberation practice!

One of the gifts of dana is that it is optional, and if people decide to give in this way, they can give according to their means. And at the same time, asking about a range is a reasonable question… in Asia, folks often have an idea of how much is needed to support a teacher’s “requisites”, but in the west, we don’t have the same kind of guidelines, and folks in the west can be left a little bit out at sea in this area.

Offering guidance can be sensitive, as everyone’s circumstances are different. That said, in order to support the teachings, we offer these guidelines as a place to start, and those who wish to give in this way can move up or down on the scale, according to their means.

One guideline is to give the amount that brings you joy, knowing that your dana is supporting the Dharma to carry on (while being aware of not breaking the bank 🙂). One may also seek guidance by looking at the fees that are charged for similar events of workshops in our culture. Movies now cost $15 or more; yoga classes often $15/hour; in addition, workshop leaders are often compensated in recognition of the time it takes to prepare materials, the presentation, as well as their expertise.

Perhaps a helpful starting point for our sessions would be $25 – $35 per class. (This would be a range of something like $150 – $210 for the course). Please feel free to offer less than this in order to ensure your participation, knowing that your presence and any financial contribution are valued. Please feel free to offer more, if you are able, and it brings you joy to support others and the program in this precious way. Feel free to offer monthly or once or twice during the course – whatever works for you. And, please know that we are very grateful for both the dana of your presence in the program, and your financial dana; both danas contribute to our capacity to continue teaching. You can feel that your support is supporting the Dharma. Thank you.

Details how to offer your generosity to support Andrea and our community will be provided soon.

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This course has been developed by the Mindfulness Training Institute.

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We aspire always to nurture community and connection. Committed to being truly inclusive, we welcome people of all social identities, including all ethnicities, classes, sexual orientations, gender identities, ages, abilities and cultures.