Programs

Mindfulness for Youth

Mindfulness practices are priceless gifts proactive parents and schools can give children/teens, planting the seeds to grow in health, success, and happiness! They facilitate an enhancement in children’s capacity to learn, and support their psychological, physiological, and social development. In addition, they equip children with the essential internal skills needed to cope with the tensions of daily expectations and challenges stemming from the school, home, and social contexts.

Mindfulness practices for youth include guided play/meditation, arts&crafts, and yoga-based activities designed to increase children’s awareness of their present moment experience of thoughts, sensations, emotions, and behaviours with non-judgment/acceptance. They learn to disengage from being emotionally reactive and impulsive or dissociating and repressing.

Research suggests that anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem can negatively influence children’s school performance by disrupting their cognitive capacity and thus hindering their learning. Children thus need proven evidence-based methods and strategies that will empower them to successfully navigate their world now and throughout their lives. They need to spend time in programs that teach them to develop their emotional intelligence and not just focus on academics and athletics. The characteristics of emotional intelligence include, self-management of attention, sustained concentration, emotional self-regulation, and social-emotional resiliency.

Mindfulness training also enhances children’s relationships as they gain a greater capacity for empathy, pro-social behaviour, and compassion. Research therefore suggests that mindfulness-based training can have a significant impact on a child’s academic performance, psychological/emotional well being, behavior, and social skills.

My mindfulness for youth program teaches children/teens to:

Name their emotions and practice emotional calming
Name their physical and emotional responses to situations
Name their triggers to emotional upheaval
Learn basic relaxation and meditation techniques
Shift and sustain focus
Stop negative repetitive thoughts which promote anxiety
Experience the clearness of mind that comes with meditative calm
Develop body awareness and how to use their bodies in a healthy way
Manage stress through breath awareness and healthy movement
Be confident by nourishing their self worth through authentic self-expression
Feel a sense of belonging and connection by being part of a healthy non- competitive group that is fostered by cooperation and compassion
Be present versus tuning out through the constant use of electronic devices
Develop vital bodies with enhanced strength, stamina, balance, coordination, and flexibility.

I have also designed workshops for kids/teens focusing on mindfulness and topics such as, test anxiety, ADHD, non violent communication (NVC), self esteem, and relationships.

Mindfulness at Work

“Mindfulness should no longer be considered a ‘nice-to-have’ for executives. It’s a ‘must-have’: a way to keep our brains healthy, to support self-regulation and effective decision making capabilities, and to protect ourselves from toxic stress.”

–Harvard Business Review

The Facts:

The most successful companies worldwide — like Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Deutsche Bank, General Mills and Disney — are touting the benefits of their mindfulness programs:
- Enhanced innovation
- Decreased levels of employee stress
- Improved focus and clarity
- Improved listening and decision-making skills
- Improvements in employee job satisfaction
- Improved overall happiness and wellbeing
- Improved leadership skills
- Increased energy and focus
- Improved quality in productivity
- Expanded cooperation and teamwork
- Lower medical costs
- Decrease of absenteeism

In 2005 a study conducted with scientists from MIT and Harvard, revealed that the brain thickens in the area of the pre frontal cortex due to mindfulness practices, and the pre frontal cortex is in charge of our executive functioning, such as planning. complex cognitive behavior, decision making, working towards goals, attention, problem solving, error-monitoring, social cognition, and working memory.

Research proves that even short bursts of mindfulness-meditation practiced during the day helps people overcome a wide-variety of health-related issues such as stress, high blood pressure, heart disease, and substance abuse.

Researchers from the University of Washington found that accuracy rates, ability to multitask, and ability to handle stress significantly improve in those who meditate in the morning most days.

Cost-Benefits:

There is hard data on the incredible return on investment organizations around the world are experiencing as a result of introducing mindfulness programs into their workplace:

Aetna, an insurance company with over 50 000 employees reported that stress levels dropped by 28% and reported sleep quality improved 20%. They also calculated the savings to the company, finding that, on average, mindfulness participants gained 62 minutes of productivity a week, which is an estimated $3,000-per-employee increase in productivity for the company each year. Even more impressive, these numbers don’t reflect the positive impacts on turnover, rehiring costs, retraining costs, customer service, or client-facing sales.

SAP, the largest software company in world with a couple hundred employees, have seen a 200 percent return on investment, following 6 months, they did a study and saw correlations between mindfulness and engagement, productivity, stress, focus, increase in creativity, relationships, collaboration, and communication versus control groups.

How a Mindfulness Program can benefit your organization:

“Every workplace needs people who are present, attentive, motivated and engaged.”

Overview

Mindfulness practices are a form of mental fitness. They are practices that anyone can utilize to optimize their brain in ways that improve their health, focus, clarity, relaxation, productivity, and joy. There are thousands of research articles demonstrating the efficacy of mindfulness in reducing stress, anxiety, depression, and improving overall wellbeing. Mindfulness can be cultivated through training programs that offer practices that have been scientifically proven to “train our attention muscle,” allowing us to approach everyday situations with greater focus and ease, and to strengthen our resilience in the face of constant change

Program Components

The program is tailored to align with your organizations’ principles, values, and strategic goals. This is an innovative and scientifically proven mindfulness-based at work program, with an array of learning experiences to meet the uniqueness and complexities of your organization. It is open to people of all or no religious background.

The program teaches simple mindfulness practices of training and engaging with your mind in a particular way, which aid in the development and expansion of the following specific mental, emotional, and behavioural capacities:

Acute Focus and Sustained Attention
Meaning/Purpose
Clarity/Decision-making/Creativity/Innovation
Problem Solving/Conflict Resolution
Stress management
Emotional Intelligence
Ethical Communication/Teamwork
Effective Leadership

Mindfulness for Adults

“Enhancing the quality of your life and those around you”

Mindfulness: is an ancient and scientifically proven range of techniques for reducing stress, improving concentration, and enhancing one’s health, and well-being. Specifically, it is learning to direct our attention to our mind, body, and emotions in the present moment, with open-minded acceptance.

Mindfulness training offers people the opportunity to step into the power of self-awareness, which leads to the ability to heal and cope with difficult emotions and states of mind, to discover one’s wisdom and clarity, and to cultivate a compassionate and kind relationship with oneself, which is carried out in one’s relationship with others.

Neuroscience research indicates that mindfulness training alters the structure and function of the brain in ways that appear to be linked to improved concentration, enhanced capacity to manage emotions, and the ability to skillfully respond.

Some benefits include:

Improved physical health and well-being
Ability to cope with stress and experience more calm/relaxation
Stronger interpersonal relationships
Ability to manage emotional and physical pain
Better concentration and clarity
Emotional/mental wellbeing
Enhanced self-confidence/communication skills

My Mindfulness for Adults Program includes topics on: Self-Development, Anger, Grief, Non-Violent Communication (NVC), Relationships, and Stress & Anxiety. I also teach workshops on a variety of topics including the above.

The format of my sessions begin with an experiential exploration of mindfulness including, what exactly is mindfulness, the practice of meditation in its true and genuine form, and how we can incorporate mindfulness and its virtues such as patience, acceptance, and compassion into our lives and all our relationships. It includes a presentation of the teachings, guided meditations, experiential exercises, and discussion.

Please Note: This program/workshop is for anyone interested in meditation and is open to people of all or no religious background. It is for anyone looking to enrich their personal or spiritual path.

Mindful Parenting

“According to new research, children who experience mindful parenting are less likely to use drugs or get depression or anxiety.”

By Jill Suttie |UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center

“Neuroscience research indicates that mindfulness training alters the structure and function of the brain in ways that appear to be linked to improved concentration, enhanced capacity to manage emotions, and the ability to skillfully respond.”

“A recent study assessed the effects of a child-parent mindfulness course involving a shared mindfulness practice and individual tasks at home and they found increases in parents’ neural activity in areas relating to self-awareness, emotional perception, and emotional processing, and improved child-parent relationship.”

Please note: This program can also be curtailed for teachers, and caregivers.

Parenting can be immensely rewarding and it is one the most challenging, demanding, and stressful jobs on the planet, due to all the stressors parents of this time have to face. Parents often worry about social media, peer pressure, substance abuse, finances, academic success, physical health, mental health and much more. Parenting can be so demanding that it can affect your ability to be patient and use effective discipline, which directly affects the quality of your relationship with your children. Often parents and children report a common experience of frustration, exhaustion, and confusion. It is also one of the most important jobs, because it influences not only the happiness of your family, but also the heart and soul of the next generation.

Mindfulness is a tool that can support you in a scientifically beneficial way, so you can actually feel calm and fulfilled by your role as a parent, as you learn how to attend to yourself and your children with greater understanding and confidence, resulting in a deeper and more meaningful relationship.

Mindful Parenting is the practice of attuning and listening to yourself and your child, with stillness, presence, and compassion. It is being self-aware of the various emotions/thoughts that arise from the parenting relationship, and having the ability to skillfully manage that relationship dynamic by being able to attend to yourself and your children with greater understanding and confidence. Along with the development of these skills, mindful parenting includes being aware of your parenting experience and finding the meaning in this role and the connection within the parent/child relationship. This in turn is carried unto our children and family.

There are large societal forces that impact our lives and the lives of our children, but we have the capacity as an individual to make conscious and intentional choices in how we relate to our circumstances. Charting the parenting path guided by the framework of mindfulness is a profoundly positive and practical alternative to the automatic pilot mode.

There are numerous parenting courses out there and some are useful references, but what they miss is the exploration of the inner experience of parenting, navigating the overwhelming times and unforeseen ordeals, and honoring the deep soul needs of our children as well as our own.

This program is based on the mindfulness teachings of the neuroscientist, Daniel Siegal and mindfulness expert, Jon Kabat-Zinn.

Some benefits of mindful parenting for parent and child include:

Deeper awareness of personal triggers and stress reactions
Resilience when facing various stressors
Having a strong sense of self worth
Improved ability to calm down
Experience more relaxation and joy
Stronger interpersonal relationships, especially within the family
Better attention/concentration and clarity
Enhanced listening/communication skills
Improved overall physical well-being
Resolving problems and conflicts with patience and wisdom
Increased emotional strength and well-being

Please Note: This program is for all parents, of all or no religious or mindfulness background.

Mindfulness for Youth Program Teacher Training

This training draws on mindfulness techniques and psychology mainly from Tibetan Buddhism the Shambhala lineage, combined with current Neuroscience, Psychology, Cognitive Behavioral Theories, Body Based Practices, and Yoga.

The goal of this training is to pass on a program that aids you and your students a deeper understanding of how the mind works and being equipped with practices which enhance the functioning of the mind and body. I created this program as a preventative measure for mental health illness by focusing on teaching lessons that facilitate the growth of emotional intelligence.

My Mindfulness for Youth Program consists of a 10-session format with each session being a minimum of 1- hour to a maximum 1-hour 30 minutes for a maximum of ten people. Each session is filled with scientifically proven mindfulness practices games, and kinesthetic activities, bringing mindfulness to life in a way that is fun, relevant, and engaging. The program comprises several themes, which build on each other sequentially, with the first couple lessons being an intro to mindfulness as well as some education on psychology and neuroscience. Then it focuses on teaching and cultivating the four foundations of mindfulness. Followed by an exploration of how they can incorporate mindfulness practices into their lives and relationships. For example they are taught and actively practice skills in cultivating happiness alongside skills for coping with stress and developing emotional resiliency. There is also a focus on loving kindness, being one of the most important aspects of mindfulness that is science backed due to the effects on self-worth and overall well-being. This can be simply described as cultivating kindness firstly towards ourselves and then towards others. Older children and teens will also be encouraged to practice introspection facilitating a tangible form of identity development by exploring questions such as, “how do I want to be in the world?” and “what truly makes me happy?”

You will receive:

A booklet/manual along
Digital resources such as meditation scripts, lesson plans, mindfulness activities
A Post training one on one guidance and support session
Certificate of Completion

Coure Requirements:

Two shadow sessions (shadowing me and I will shadow u)
Completing the required readings
Daily personal meditation practice of approximately 15 to 30 minutes a day
Weekly yoga practice
Attending the scheduled training dates and times
A completed short assignment to presented to me in a our one on one post session