Mindfulness is for Everyone

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, there have been few opportunities for mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) facilitators to gather in person to share, learn, and connect. The Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing changed that in April with a workshop to convene MBSR trainers in a spirit of renewal.

The Center brought in Eric Lopez Maya, PhD, director of the Mexican Institute for Mindfulness and an MBSR teacher-trainer, to lead the day-long workshop. Lopez facilitated Mindfulness is for Everyone: An Inquiry into Diversity Within MBSR and Mindfulness, aiming to call attention to diversity, inclusion, and trauma-based approaches to MBSR.

Through a series of small and large group sessions, 20 participants engaged in discussions about working with diverse populations, exploring bias, recognizing trauma in themselves and others, and cultural humility, or being open to other cultures. The group included MBSR facilitators, from the Bakken Center and the community, Mindful Mondays facilitators, mindfulness practitioners, and staff members.

“My hope is that people can really incorporate all of the learning in their personal lives and become more aware of their own bias or cultural biases, and that this personal awareness can transpire into their classrooms,” Lopez says. “By doing that, they will be able to serve their students in a much more effective way.”

Mariann Johnson, a Bakken Center mindfulness and wellbeing instructor, found the workshop to be thought-provoking and invigorating. It opened the door for discussion about how to make the mindfulness community more diverse in terms of teachers, practitioners, and research. “There are cultural differences in different populations of people, and we need to approach our teaching differently as well,” she says.

“It was a very rich day of inquiry and dialogue. It was important to be in dialogue with each other and go in-depth and explore what all of these issues mean to us personally and what it means for us to really show up as instructors in ways we hadn’t done previously,” Johnson adds. “It was an enriching experience for all.”

The Bakken Center held the workshop to help people reconnect after being apart for so long and to open the door to fresh conversations about diversity, says Molly Buss, community relations and event manager. Such conversations are ongoing at the Center.

“How do we create a place where people view that mindfulness is for them? When you don’t see yourself reflected in the leaders in a space, you don’t connect with it or think it’s for you,” Buss says. “That’s something the Center is working on,” including training a more diverse body of mindfulness facilitators and making mindfulness programs more accessible through sliding-scale fees.

The heart of MBSR is inquiry, Johnson says, making the workshop a highly fitting place for people to think, reflect, and learn about incorporating a spirit of diversity and inclusiveness into their practice and teaching.

Join us in exploring how your financial contribution can secure these profound and meaningful opportunities, enabling us to expand our impact and reach even more individuals. Philanthropy plays a crucial role in supporting our dedicated mindfulness facilitator team and removing financial barriers to participation. For more information, contact Virginia Kaczmarek, Development Officer at 612-624-1121, [email protected] or visit z.umn.edu/GiveCSH