Mindfulness in Action
Making Friends with Yourself through Meditation and Everyday Awareness
Taught by Carolyn Rose Gimian
“One of the effects of meditation is that you become more open-minded, and this gives rise to an interest in working with others. In that way, meditation practice can transform your lifestyle and your relationships with other people.”—Chögyam Trungpa
The rewards of mindfulness practice are well proven: reduced stress, improved concentration, and an overall sense of well-being. But those benefits are just the beginning; it can also help us work more effectively with life’s challenges, expanding our appreciation and potential for creative engagement.
In this online course, the practice of meditation will be accompanied by practices for expanding awareness in everyday activities, dissolving the boundary between meditation and everything else we do in our life. This is a course for new meditators, for those who want to deepen their meditation practice, and for mindfulness trainers and teachers. The approach is based on the mindfulness teachings of Chögyam Trungpa, from his book Mindfulness in Action.
The teachings presented in the course will help you:
- Establish a daily meditation practice
- Develop an appreciation for qualities such as tenderness, loneliness, and boredom that may arise on your cushion
- Recognize your obstacles to being present, and make them a part of your path
- Appreciate meditation practice as a celebration of your life force
- Discover how compassion arises naturally from meditation practice
- Work with emotions from a meditative stance
- Experience the shift that occurs when you bring mindfulness into your daily life
What You Will Receive
This course was designed with your needs in mind and contains all of the following:
• Six video talks by Carolyn Rose Gimian—each about 20 minutes to an hour in length—with transcripts and audio versions available
• Meditation instruction and guided meditation videos
• Contemplations and practices to help you integrate the teachings into your daily life
• A list of recommended readings from the book Mindfulness in Action by Chögyam Trungpa (edited by Carolyn Rose Gimian)
• Unlimited access on your computer, mobile device, or tablet—learn at your own pace wherever and whenever works best for you
Course Curriculum
What You Will Learn in Each Lesson
Lesson 1
Making Friends with Yourself
Meditation can help us to look more deeply into ourselves and be more welcoming and loving to ourselves and others. Throughout this course, we will use the practice of meditation to learn how to engage daily life, rather than feeling overwhelmed by its challenges. We will see meditation and mindfulness as an ongoing journey—one that deepens and expands.
We will practice cultivating the steadiness to maintain an open mind in the face of life’s inevitable difficulties. This profound journey begins by getting to know ourselves and befriending all of our quirks—including the aspects of ourselves that we wish were different.
Lesson 2
Gentleness, Boredom, and Aloneness
We often expect meditation to make us calmer and more relaxed—and in many ways it does. But many new meditators are surprised to notice the inner storm of thoughts roiling inside them, among other unpleasant qualities that tend to arise when we begin to work consciously with our minds. In this lesson, Carolyn shares some common hallmarks of meditation practice—including tumultuousness, boredom, loneliness—and eventually, gentleness.
Lesson 3
The Present Moment
When we rest in the present moment, we relinquish our thoughts about what’s happened in the past and what’s coming in the future. When we’re just sitting with ourselves, there’s nothing we need to strategize or control. In this lesson, we’ll begin to glimpse the sense of freedom that comes from letting go and resting in nowness.
Lesson 4
Foundations of Mindfulness
We all have life force—a basic sense of aliveness. Often we witness life force most vividly when someone is born or dies. But our meditation practice can allow us to access our life force—and celebrate it—every day. In this lesson, we’ll explore life force as a foundation of mindfulness, in addition to spontaneous discipline and working with obstacles as part of our path.
Lesson 5
Awareness and Emotions
Working with emotions in meditation can feel like sitting in the eye of a storm. Even with so many intense and complex energies swirling around us, we can learn how to maintain a sense of awareness and appreciation of how our emotions color our environment. In this lesson, we’ll explore the difference between mindfulness and awareness, and discover how they are connected. Introducing the practice of “touch and go” to our meditation will allow us to experience this connection firsthand.
Lesson 6
Working with Others
As we come to the conclusion of this course, we’ll shift our attention toward expanding our practice outward. In this lesson, we’ll reflect on how this journey has or hasn’t changed the way we relate to our daily lives. In addition, we’ll also explore some resources for keeping up our practice with the support of a community.
100% SATISFACTION GUARANTEE
If for any reason you are not completely satisfied, please e-mail us within 30 days, and we will promptly refund your purchase price.
About the Instructor
The compiler and editor of The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa, Carolyn Rose Gimian has been editing the works of Chögyam Trungpa for more than twenty-five years. She is the founding director of the Shambhala Archives, the archival repository for Chögyam Trungpa's work in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
