Mindfulness Monthly
Welcome to Mindfulness Monthlies at Lifeline!
Mindfulness Monthlies are a great way to touch into different aspects and practices of Mindfulness. Each month, we will hold a 60-minute session that touches topics like Settling your Mind, Building your Reservoir of Kindness, Awakening to Joy.
You may drop in the day of the session without pre-registering, however, registration is helpful and if you pre-register, you’ll be sent a calendar invite for ease!
June Session:
Breath as an Anchor for Regulation & Focus
What is the one thing you have with you at all times that can help calm your nerves, create a place of pause and even help settle your racing thoughts? If you thought “my breath” - you are right!
We breathe in and out 20,000 times per day and we are often unaware of most of those breaths. When we learn to bring our attention to our breath and/or intentionally slow and deepen our breathing, we activate our parasympathetic nervous system, which can help relax our body and mind in times of stress, anger, grief or overwhelm.
June’s Mindfulness Monthly will be focused on the simple, but profound, power of the breath to help regulate your emotions and build focus and concentration. Often, the breath is used as a focus for meditation (and we’ll touch upon that). However, it can also be a really effective on-the-spot technique to avoid the spiral of reactivity that accompanies stress, anger, worry and rumination.
Date: Monday, June 26, 2023
Time: 1:00 - 2:00 EST
Location: Conference Room C
July Session
Awakening Through our Senses
Have you been driving, found yourself at your location and don’t remember the details of the drive? For many of us, we can walk through our day lost in thought and miss the life that is happening right in front of us.
In mindfulness, we can touch into the richness of the present moment through our senses .
When we smell something, notice a sensation of touch, hear the sounds around us - we are immediately in the present moment and AWAKE.
Isn’t it interesting? Our senses are available to us 24 hours a day and we often aren’t aware of smells, sounds, sensations, views. In this session, we will begin by exploring why this topic is one of the most foundational elements of mindfulness (as well as one of the simplest!) and then we’ll do a few exercises to awaken our senses and notice what happens.
Date: Tuesday, July 18 2023
Time: 1:00 - 2:00 EST
Location: Conference Room C
Kindness Practice
August Session
“Cultivating closeness and warmth for others automatically puts the mind at ease. It is the ultimate source of success in life.” -His Holiness the Dalai Lama XI
Relationships are the source of much joy in our lives - as well as much stress. The conversations and thoughts that keep us preoccupied during the day and up at night often have to do with fear of conflict, frustration and impatience with others (with our colleagues, family and friends).
In this session, we will explore the age-old practice of lovingkindness. Practicing loving-kindness meditation can improve a lifelong negative behavioral pattern. It holds an immense power to reinstate positive energy and your well-being. Also improves your focus and shifts your attention to productivity and growth at work
It’s indeed possible to work under pressure and stress and to still feel compassionate towards others. But how can we find compassion when our brain tells us to do the exact opposite? Join us for the August Mindfulness Monthly!
Date: Tuesday, August 22, 2023
Time: 1:00 - 2:00 EST
Location: Conference Room C
September Session
Pausing the Hamster Wheel of Rumination
Worry is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but gets you nowhere..
Do you ever find yourself gripped in a hamster wheel of “what if’s” Why did I do that? What’s going to happen now? How will I handle that? A spinning and proliferating flurry of regrets, worries, plan-making?
While normal, it can often be quite painful and stressful.
Prior to my practice of mindfulness and meditation, when this would happen, I tried everything! I tried arguing with myself (“stop that”), I tried rationalizing (this isn’t helpful, will that really happen?). Or sometimes, I would simply try to check out and distract myself from the spinning and churning brain.
But those attempts were rarely successful and oftentimes, took me even deeper into the thought. I was trying to stop a thought with a thought.
With practice, I learned a new way. I learned the power of redirecting my attention.
In this month’s Mindfulness Monthly, we’ll begin to learn practices that can help you build a skill of noticing and redirecting your attention.
Date: Tuesday, September 12, 2023
Time: 1:00 - 2:00 EST
Location: Conference Room C
October Session
Mindful Moments
We often think mindfulness is something new we add to the list - because isn’t that the way that most “improvement activities” work? We schedule it. It’s typically on the “to do” list to begin at some moment in the future. One of the refreshing aspects of this practice is the ability to do it right now, in whatever activity you are currently doing. There is no “be mindful in the future” - we just have this moment right now.
If you're reading, notice you are reading. If you are typing, notice the feel of the keyboard when your fingers strike it. If you are thinking, notice you are thinking.
In this session, I will introduce a few “micro practices” - some of which you may know, some of which you may not. The focus will be on integrating. How can these practices, for each of you, give you a moment of pause, a moment of space, a moment of collection when otherwise you may be caught up in your thoughts.
Date: Tuesday, October 24, 2023
Time: 1:00 - 2:00 EST
Location: Conference Room C
November Session
Cultivating the Good through Gratitude & Appreciation
Our brains are highly plastic (meaning they can be shaped). What we do, we do more of…if we worry, worry becomes our natural state. If we judge, judging becomes a natural state.
You combine that fact, with the physiology that we are wired to see the negative, and it becomes really critical that we practice different ways of being.
The good news is that we can train our brain to operate from new states. States of gratitude, patience, awe and wonder.
When we routinely imbed practices of gratitude and appreciation into our day, we become more prone to gratitude being a state we naturally move into.
This has positive implications for our health, our emotional state and our relationships
Date: Monday, November 20, 2023
Time: 1:00 - 2:00 EST
Location: Conference Room C
December Session
Mindful Listening
As leaders, as parents, as caring individuals - often the greatest gift we can give someone is the full power of our attention.
Our ability to listen deeply has a big impact on our influence, as well as our ability to respond compassionately and wisely. When we fully listen to understand, rather than look for an opening in which we can respond, we open up a new way of presence in our everyday lives. In this session, we will practice listening in a different way. No experience is necessary, just bring a sense of curiosity and interest.
Date: Tuesday, December 19, 2023
Time: 1:00 - 2:00 EST
Location: Conference Room C