Mindful Life Guide

My path to mindfulness meditation began as a young child who had a lot to worry about.  I grew into a an adult with more to worry about.  The constant worry, and the distractions I created to run from the worry, began to affect my health.  It also began to affect my outlook on life.  Things weren’t fun anymore.  Life was just a big to do list.   I sought relief and found mindfulness meditation.  I took a 6 week intro class.  For me the first few weeks were difficult.  It was scary to sit with myself. But very soon I began to cherish my 10 minutes a day of freedom from stress and worry.   And then unexpectedly, I began notice other benefits.  I wasn’t as quick to fear or anger.  When confronted with a challenge, I could stop and assess rather than react without thinking.  Slowly, I began to see that life was not just about chores and putting out fires.  There were so many subtle joys to be seen and felt that I had been missing.  This is mostly because I didn’t know how to pay attention.  I used to think that paying attention to something meant worrying about it.  But mindfulness practice is the art of truly paying attention to all of it without any judgment at all.  I’d like to share this art with you in the hopes that you begin to see the richness of you own life.

Here’s a list of my experiences working with others and my mindfulness training.

Teaching classes and working one on one:

• Parent educator teaching S.T.E.P. (Systematic Training for Effective Parenting) with Family Stress Center -Concord, Ca., 1991-1993
• Certified labor coach and postpartum doula as an independent contractor  -Contra Costa County, 1993-1996
• Parent educator for Born Free Maternal Substance Abuse Center -Pittsburg, Ca., 2002
• Volunteer Home visitor with New Born Connection -Walnut Creek, CA., 1993-1996
• Home visitor and parent educator with Welcome Home Baby -Concord, Ca., 2001-2005
• Driver / Companion for seniors with Silver Ride -San Francisco, Ca., 2014
• Independent contractor doing -phone support and one on one instruction for mindfulness practice, 2013 – present.
• Community center intro mindfulness classes (6-week series), Millbrae, Ca., summer 2015-2016.
• Taught Mindful Schools Curriculum to De Anza Community College MPS math students, Cupertino, Ca., 2016 to present.

Mindfulness Trainings and retreats:

• Personal practice and study starting 2008
• 6 – week intro course with Mindful Schools, 2012
• 8 – week intro course with MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction) through Kaiser Permanente, 2012
• 6 – week on-line intro at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, 2013
• 3 – day retreat with Mindful Schools, 2014
• 5 – day retreat with Mathew Brensilver, 2014
• 16 – hours of Mindful Schools K-12 Curriculum Training, 2015
• 2 -7 day retreats for year-long Mindful Schools certification, 2015, 2016
• Day-long on Trauma and Mindfulness with Gene Lushtak at Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society, 2015
• Mindful Schools Certified 2017. Certified Instructors 
• 6 – week online course “Difficult Emotions” with Mindful Schools, 2016
• 8 – week online training “Mindful Communication”, Mindful Schools, 2017
• Mentor for cohort group of Mindful Schools current year-long certification students, 2017.
• 7-day grad retreat, Mindful Schools, June 2018