These resources are posted for the Senior 2015 Class, Bodine High School for International Affairs. The audios were recorded live in class and are unedited. Sound quality will vary.
Class Audios
(Click to play or right click on button to download the audio.)
1 Mindfulness: An Introduction
What is Mindfulness? Why practice it? How can it become a powerful tool for self-discovery and inner strength?
DOWNLOAD2 Mind, Thought & Awareness
Is there a difference between the mind, the thoughts that fill our minds, and our awareness of these thoughts? How can it help us to distinguish between them? Creating space between who you are and your thoughts means that you are not defined by every random blip – good or bad – that crosses the screen of your awareness. That means you begin to have some choice over who you define yourself to be.
DOWNLOAD3 Creating Space, Letting Thought Be
DOWNLOAD4 Approaching Our Experience Freshly (The Chocolate Meditation)
We assume we’re familiar with commonplace experiences. But are we? Discover how much more happens in activities we do automatically. Mindfully explore all the sensations, intentions, responses that come into play when we eat chocolate.
DOWNLOAD5 Body Scan
Body scan meditation connects us with our physicality. How are we feeling? Is there injury, stress, dehydration, illness? Connecting with our physicality lands us in the present and helps us know what we’re feeling, sensing, and responding to. Body scan can be used anytime, especially in the evenings before bed to relax and let go of all of the activities of the day.
DOWNLOAD6 Thought Bubbles, Teaching Each Other
Becoming aware of what we’re thinking, confused about, or interested in is one part of cultivating inner strength. Like any strength training, the answer to “How do I do it?” is practice – practice – practice. In this class, you paired up and taught each other, recognizing that in this short time you’ve already begun to learn some fundamental tools. Now it’s time to: practice, practice, practice.
DOWNLOAD7 How the Brain Works
What are the parts of the brain? How do they work together? What are their evolutionary roots? What does this have to do with me? In this class we’ll learn about the “reptilian brain,” when it developed and what it processes for us. We’ll also learn about the limbic and emotional center, and the all-important integrative functions of the pre-frontal cortex.
DOWNLOAD8 The Teenage Brain
What’s happening in the teenage brain? This class explores the growth spurt and changes that are occurring during the teen years. Understanding this helps explain certain responses and impulses, though we still need to be responsible!
DOWNLOAD9 Stress over the last 600 Years
Lots of people talk about stress in relationship to technology and hand-held smart devices that plug us in to infinite information. But if we look over a broader timespan, from modernity in the 1500s to the postmodern era, we can see such dramatic shifts in the social structures that it’s no wonder we feel a little at sea.
Culture continues to evolve. We’ve developed more complex systems over time, which has changed our values, ethics, and social structures. While this increasing subtlety and complexity is by and large a good thing, we also experience the loss of surety and direction provided by better established cultural institutions. We’ll take a close look at some of the major shifts from modernity into our contemporary postmodern experience. Hint: this will explain and contextualize a lot about about our experience of confusion, stress, and uncertainty. And the way forward is ours to chart!
This class includes a long body scan meditation to help with the immediate feelings of overwhelm.
DOWNLOAD10 Mindfulness & Relationships
Why does mindfulness help us with the complicated art and science of forming deeper relationships? An exploration of what gets in the way of fulfilling friendships and connections and what we can do about it.
DOWNLOAD11 Adolescence . . . Oh Yeah, Stress
What are the main stresses in your actual experience? What’s on the table right now? A look at the main sources of stress and how we can learn to work with those issues and work together to support each other.
Special relaxation breath meditation include. [Audio unavailable]
12 Lovingkindness Meditation
DOWNLOAD13 Wrap Up
What did we learn? When can we use it? Can 12 weeks really make a difference? Exploring the journey.
DOWNLOAD(Click to play or right click on button to download the audio.)
Resources & References
Documentaries on the Power of Mindfulness Practice
Doing Time, Doing Vipassana, New Delhi, India
Dhamma Brothers, Alabama Penitentiary
Beyond Limits: A Portal Through Pain
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