Due to neuroplasticity, we know that the brain, just like the rest of the body, continues to change over the lifespan. With regular exercise our bodies remain healthy and flexible, allowing us to more easily and fully participate in activities in our daily lives. Similarly, mindfulness meditation when done regularly improves the fitness of the mind, allowing for greater flexibility in how we respond to events around us and improving our attention, self-awareness, and compassion.

In weightlifting, every time you do a “rep,” you strengthen the muscle you’re working. Likewise, in meditation, you do a “rep” each time your mind drifts away and you bring yourself back to the intended focus, strengthening your “attention muscle.” Your attention becomes calmer and your focus get stronger with regular meditation “reps.” Each time you become drift away, you also see more clearly the thoughts, emotions, and sensations that caused you to become distracted, thus creating greater self-awareness and self-understanding. This new self-understanding allows for the possibility distancing from one’s own mental noise, changing habitual patterns, and developing self-regulation of your internal states and impulses all of which help to develop greater resilience. Greater self-understanding often makes it easier to understand others and this will help to build your empathy and compassion for others.

No… Practicing mindfulness is a way of living found in many cultures. Most religions do include some form of meditation, and mindfulness meditation is a central practice of Buddhism.  Our practice of mindfulness is secular and can be a compliment to many religious traditions.

Mindfulness does not “turn off” thoughts or “make the mind go blank.” Rather, participants notice thoughts and through this practice of noticing, the mind becomes more focused and calm. Whereas some guided relaxation techniques work by distracting people from their difficulties, mindfulness encourages one to look towards struggles as a way to examine them more fully and find new ways to meet those challenges.

No… People with a wide range of abilities can participate and the yoga can be done with various limitations. The form of yoga we practice is gentle and the purpose is to attend to the movement rather than strive to attain a particular posture. Participants are encouraged to let the instructor know if they have physical difficulties so that the instructor can support the participants and modify the practices as needed.

• Chronic Pain
• Heart Disease
• Stress Disorders
• Cancer

General Mills, Target, Ameriprise Financial, Cargill, Inc., Mayo Clinic, United HealthCare, and Medtronic are local companies known to offer mindfulness programs or meditation at work.

Other major employers who have integrated mindfulness into the workplace include:

Abbott Laboratories, Aetna International, American Red Cross, AOL Time Warner, Inc., Apple Computers, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, BASF Bioresearch, Boeing, Cargill, Inc., Chicago Bulls, Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, Comcast, Compusense, Deutsche Bank, DOD, Douwe Egberts, eBay, Facebook, Ford Motor Company, Fortis Bank, Genentech, Google, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Hale and Dorr, Hughes Aircraft, IBM, Kaiser Permanente, Keane Canada Inc., Los Angeles Lakers, Lucent International, McKinsey, NASA, Nortel Networks, Pacific Investment Management Co, Plantronics, Prentice-Hall, Procter and Gamble, Promega Corporation, Purtian Bennett, Raytheon, Reebok, Seattle Seahawks, Starbucks, Sumitomo, Texas Instruments, Toronto City Hall, Toyota, Twitter, Qualcom, Unilever, United Online, Volvo, Xerox and Yahoo!