Unfortunately we have cancelled this offering due to lack of enrolment.
Please watch our website for future offerings.
This six-week introduction to mindfulness course will teach skills to develop a focused and embodied attention, self awareness, emotional intelligence, and greater sense of ease and well being. The course will include 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 intro 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
Tuesdays, October 29-December 3, 2023
7-9 pm
Location
The Studio at Oshun House, Saskatoon
Course fee
Administration fee:
The administration fee paid at the time of registration helps cover the administrative costs for SIMC. This is offered on a sliding scale.
Teacher dana/donation:
The registration fee does not include teacher support – there will be an opportunity to offer dana to the teachers. See dana information below.
Registration
Cancelled.
Course Teacher
Andrea Grzesina is a certified mindfulness teacher with the Mindfulness Training Institute, having trained under Mark Coleman and Martin Aylward in 2021. Jeanne Corrigal has been her teacher and mentor for many years. She was invited into the 2024-25 Buddhist Geeks Teacher Training with Vince Fakhoury Horn and Emily West Horn. Andrea’s passion for the Dharma and continuous learning led her to complete the Intensive Practice Program at UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center, various Social Meditation Facilitation courses, along with many dharma study programs. She is also a dedicated practitioner since 2014, and contributes to SIMC as a local dharma leader, planning committee member, volunteer, retreat manager, and occasional cookie baker.
Guest Teacher
Jeanne Corrigal is the guiding teacher for the Saskatoon Insight Meditation Community, and a graduate of the 2017-2021 IMS teacher training program. She has trained primarily in the Burmese lineage of Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw, with a great affinity for the Thai Forest Tradition of Ajahn Buddhadasa and for the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh. She is a certified MBSR teacher, is certified with Indigenous Focusing Oriented Trauma Therapy (IFOT), and she has trained with Mindful Schools and Somatic Experiencing. She has taught with Mindfulness Magazine, Lion’s Roar and Tricycle’s online programs, and teaches across North America. She is Metis, and one of her first teachers in loving presence was Cree Elder Jim Settee.
This course outline has been adapted from the Six-week Introductory Training in Mindfulness, developed by the Mindfulness Training Institute.
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 teachings 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 $30 – $40 per class. (This would be a range of something like $180 – $240 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. And, please know that we are very grateful for both the dana of your presence in the course, and your financial dana; both contribute to our capacity to continue teaching. You can feel that your support is supporting the Dharma. Thank you.
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.
