Exercises / Practices

NOTE: Diana Winston will be hosting a Mindful Leader Expert Workshop, Refine and Expand your Meditation Practice: Practicing Mindfulness Across the Spectrum of Awareness, on June 4th. Click here to learn more. 

By Diana Winston

Awareness is a capacity of the human mind. Awareness is the ability to directly know and to perceive, sense, feel, or be cognizant of experience. We might think of awareness simply as the state of being conscious of something.

Every living being is aware. We usually do…

NOTE: Dr. Elisha Goldstein will be hosting a Mindful Leader Expert Workshop, Moving from Fear to Empowerment, on May 7th. Click here to learn more. 

By Dr. Elisha Goldstein

In the past year of Covid-19 mental wellness for many of us has gone out the window entirely. If you're experiencing that you're not alone. It used to be that 1 in 12 people suffered from symptoms of an anxiety disorder and this last year the CDC found it was 1 in 3. I say this just to give you a sense that you’re not alone…

By Joy Reichart, New Ventures West

When I was a student in the Professional Coaching Course some years ago, I found myself sobbing deeply one morning as my classmates and I listened to “Father and Son” by Yusuf Islam/Cat Stevens. 

I couldn’t explain why this was happening… only that something about the combination of voice, melody, and words touched my soul in a particular way. The song found a spot in me that needed release. 

A decade later I can recognize that the song brought forth for me …

By Amy Rigby

Mindfulness exercises are the gold standard for managing COVID stress for a reason.

By Joy Reichart, New Ventures West

An effective use of the mind

Part of what makes the Integral Coaching methodology effective is its focus on somatics: awareness of what is happening in the body, and physical practices that support clients in building the body of someone who has the qualities or competencies they wish to develop (e.g., receptivity, relationality, humility, power, etc.)

In part we pay so much attention to the body because of the automatic and over-developed nature of cognitio…

View our Free Guide - What is MBSR?

By Cassie Schindler 

Right there, in the foreword of Jon-Kabat Zinn’s powerful book, Mindfulness for All; The Wisdom to Transform the World, he coins the word kindfulness, knowing that someone would pick it up, and expand, rather than exploit, its relevance. I hope to do that with this writing. 

If the name of the 8-week MBSR course began with the word kindfulness instead of mindfulness, would you register? Would you have a clear understanding of that w…

View our Free Guide - What is MBSR?

By Karyn Sandelman

There were many things that attracted me to this particular path when I made the commitment to teach Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) years ago. First was my determination to share mindfulness—the practice that has been a steady, positive force of growth in my life for nearly 25 years. Beyond that, I was (and still am) committed to making mindfulness accessible to as many people as possible. MBSR, with its inclusive approach, …

By Joy Reichart, New Ventures West

Often when we meet someone for the first time, we introduce ourselves by saying what we do, where we live, what we enjoy. Rarely do we speak about the most elusive yet most important aspect of our lives: who we are. 

This is very possibly because we don’t know, not really. This is because each of us is living in a particular Structure of Interpretation: a kind of ‘bubble’ comprising messages about what was acceptable or not in our family and wider culture. As…

View our Free Guide - What is MBSR?

By Janet Solyntjes

The Open Question

For the past few decades, I have been immersed in various teachings, trainings, and pathways that have inspired me to repeatedly ask the question, “Why am I really here?” Outer circumstances and inner stirrings have led to these contemplations. My intention behind this offering is to guide, support, and lead you into various contemplations so that your deepest wisdom can emerge from beneath any storms on the surface …

By Cheri Lovre

The first thing to remember about any crisis is: We’re going to come out of it. 

Right now, after months of living with Covid-19, many people feel disoriented. It’s like we’ve lost our North Star. No one can be sure of the best course to follow. But the North Star is there in the sky. We just can’t see it right now because the lingering fog of uncertainty is still all around us. 

The vaccines that are emerging now will help, but the uncertainty related to COVID will continue fo…