Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to attend all 8 classes?

I know this is challenging time of year for everyone, as it runs over a few holidays!  I know that it's likely that you might have to miss a class in the process, and I understand.  That being said, this is definitely NOT a drop in class - and if you sign up, you are committing to attend all 8 classes to the best of your ability.  Because the techniques all work together in a system, it's good to learn everything so that you have quite a bit to work with and take with you - it will make your practice that much more successful!

That being said, weekly sessions will be recorded and emailed to you so you can catch up later!

I'm a very bad meditator.  Does it even make sense for me to take this class?

 Look - I'm not into forcing people to do what they don't want to do - so if you are not interested in meditation, by all means you are absolutely welcome to keep going with no hard feelings!  However, if you're curious and have tried in the past with no success but want to keep trying - that means you sense that there is something here that might be helpful for you!  It also means that the chances are you just haven't found a technique or strategy that works for you yet.  The great thing about the UM system that I'll be teaching is that there are MANY different ways to approach meditating that we'll talk about - including practices for daily life as well as formal practices.  So if you do think it's worth exploring enough to be here and reading this - my suggestion is to give it a shot and see if it works for you!

I've had a hard time sticking with a meditation practice in the past - so I’m not sure this is worth my time.

We'll be going over several ways to practice throughout the day - formally and informally!  Together we can talk through all the options for practice and how you can fit it into your life.  Each technique we talk bout will come with examples of how myself and others apply these techniques to relationships, work, and everyday moments!

I hate following my breath / I have too many thoughts to meditate / I can't visualize anything

These are super common reports and concerns from people getting started! Not to worry - the techniques I'm teaching in this class have nothing to do with any of these things. We will be using the breath to settle in a bit, but the bulk of each of these techniques involved following your experience whatever it happens to be. Is it thinking? Great, that works. Is it visual images? Great, that works too. Is it distraction, spacing out, falling asleep, daydreaming? All those work just as well as your breath to work on building concentration.

This is actually a powerful way to practice - because when we learn to work with these common distractors - we can increase our ability to focus and stay in the flow of our experience no matter what we're doing! When you train exclusively on an object like the breath or a mantra, you're training yourself to only be able to center when in relationship to that object - but in this system we're training to use emotional experience, distraction, and thoughts as tools for greater focus and clarity. Because we are always experiencing these things at any moment, we are always able to access deeper calm and clarity If we train in this way mindfulness is more available in our regular activities!

I'm struggling with depression or another mental health issue, and I heard mindfulness could help me - is that true?

Oh, I hear this - this is exactly what brought me to meditation too! So I will share what was shared with me when I started - which is that meditation is a tool and a skill that is helpful, but it is not a cure or a fix-everything-that's-broken-in-your-life quick fix. We call it a practice because that is what it is - it is a practice and a skill - like a sport or martial art. It needs to be practiced consistently for a month or so before you'll start really seeing the benefits of it clearly. So if you are experiencing an urgent mental health crisis - this might not be the right thing for you right now.

If you are suffering with any serious mental health condition, it is very important to be under the care of a professional psychotherapist or other mental health care provider. This is not a replacement for professional mental health care!

Depression needs to be attacked from several fronts - from the professional side where you meet with a qualified professional on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, with medication if that's appropriate, and with meditation or other mindfulness skills to help support you as tools to manage the day to day ups and downs. When I was struggling in this way, the used the combination of therapy to handle the big stuff, meditation to handle the daily stuff, and art to kick start my imagination - together they were the perfect combo to absolutely transform my life!

I would love to start a mindfulness practice, but I just don't think I have time - my schedule is way too hectic!

Absolutely - this is 100% one of the most common reasons people think they can't get started even if they understand the benefits. Kids, jobs, and other commitments really pull us in so many directions! The good news is, is that you can start with just 10 minutes a day. When you consider that the average time spend on social media alone is about 144 minutes. Think about that! 144 minutes of social media, which we all know can be detrimental to our mental health, depending on how we're engaging! What if you made a commitment in 2021 to replace 10 *or even 20* of those minutes with something that might benefit your mental well-being? I'll teach you techniques you can do while washing the dishes, talking to your kids or your partner, engaging in your work, exercising - I even have one specific technique you can safely use while driving your car or commuting. Replacing 10 minutes of your social media time with a formal practice, and peppering other practice activities throughout your day is the perfect strategy to get started and start seeing some of the benefits. It just requires a system, and a plan!

The scientific evidence for the benefits of mindfulness meditation are interesting to me, but I really have no interest in any kind of religion or new age philosophy

The Unified Mindfulness system, especially the pieces taught in this class, are designed to be entirely secular and accessible to rationalist, pragmatic folks without an interest in engaging in any sort of religious philosophy. The wonderful thing about meditation in general is that it is a tool - or we sometimes say a technology - to engage with the mind. While all these techniques have their origins in a thousand years of contemplative practice, the core system of techniques can be used very effectively outside of those contexts.

However! It is important to work on secular techniques in an ecosystem of a variety techniques that address various quadrants of experience in order to help you integrate your growth. This is what religion is so good at - creating a whole system of techniques and philosophies that can be used to create peak experiences, and then integrate them. Without a healthy integration piece, you can end up either just using the techniques as a way to feel good without actually growing or building resiliency (we call that bypassing - which very common these days!), or you end up having peak experiences which you attach to your ego in an unhealthy way (that’s how we get dangerous and destructive “guru” types!) A healthy practice helps to grow insights, build resiliency, and provides tools for integrating what you’ve learned into your experience.

Much like math, after you get past the basics and into advanced practice - it goes from practical and very logical to more philosophical and abstract - so that is there too to an extent, I won’t claim it’s not!
But there is absolutely no requirement to have any set of beliefs in order to engage and find immense life-altering benefits in the practice without diving into those areas. In fact - you already subscribe to a religious philosophy - these techniques can easily be applied to your current practice too!

I for one think the philosophy is deeply fun and fascinating - but I know it’s not for everyone - and I deeply respect everyone’s individual belief systems.

Meditation just seems like another way to check out, or a selfish kind of navel gazing. Why would I want to do that when the world needs us to be engaged?

This is another great question, and a common critique of meditation practice. The answer is that there are many types of meditation - some are more focused on specific areas of development than others. Some stories along these lines that you might have heard of involve meditation techniques designed to illicit slightly disengaged or disconnected “self” experiences to develop specific insights into buddhist philosophy. As I mentioned in the previous question, as part of a larger ecosystem of techniques (especially those designed specifically to engage relationship), these “no-self” styles of meditation have an integrated place and work together with other techniques to actually INCREASE engagement rather than decrease it.

Unfortunately, in the attempt to secularize meditation practice there are many practices out there that are offering the techniques piecemeal outside of a framework - which leaves out the integration piece. As previously mentioned - some of these practices can lead to a spaced out quality of feeling calm but disconnected. Without tools you can implement to re-connect and re-engage, you can find yourself in a cycle of practice centered around spacing out. This is why working within a system is so important! A system like UM provides you with tools to tackle all the “what ifs” that might come up in your practice. If you feel spacey and disengaged, there’s a way to work with that or pivot your practice to things that help you feel more connected. There is always a backup, and no “one right way” of putting together a practice that works for you.

What is the catch - why are you doing all of this for free?

There’s really no catch - I am doing this an extension of my own personal practice, as a way to be in service to my community and to communities who might not have access to these tools who need them. I often find that because of the world we live in, many meditation teachers have to create a rigid payment structure for this material in order to pay their own bills. I’m lucky in that I have wonderful day job which I’m not leaving anytime soon - so I have the ability to provide this material in a pay it forward sort of way. This particular class and material will always be free. One-on-One sessions will be available on a fully paid, dana (donation), or pay-it-forward basis depending on need and how much time I have available.

Future classes depending on the content and time investment required will likely have a fee, but there will always be options for folks with low resources. I never want to turn anyone away from anything due to a lack of funds.

If there is any catch in this, it is that my time is limited - so I am less available to answer questions and lead calls, classes, or one-on-ones during the standard work week. My schedule might be spotty or intermittent at times as I take care of other life responsibilities. Since I’m doing this work primarily in my off-hours I appreciate your patience, which is what helps me make this work available to everyone!

That being said, getting everything set up with website and other class hosting services definitely isn’t a free endeavor - so I’ll happily accept donations to cover costs. However, I certainly do not expect them!