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Playful Mindfulness 1: Cultivating Connected Presence and Response-Ability

PLAYFUL MINDFULNESS 1: CULTIVATING CONNECTED PRESENCE AND REPONSE-ABILITY

The fast-paced demands of our current world often leave us breathless and frustrated. Mindfulnesspaying attention to the present moment with curiosity and kindnesshelps us slow down, take a breath, and befriend the inner resources that lead to discovery, delight, and a life well-lived. Integrating insights and exercises from Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) with those from improvisational theater, this course will help you forge new neural pathways and develop a more connected personal presence.

While mindfulness training sometimes takes on a somber or even pious tone (this is serious stuff!), in this course we choose a different track, learning to play attention through traditional methods and also through humor, games, and exercises drawn from improvisational theater. As a collaborative art form, improv offers the benefits of shared adventures that deepen enjoyment of lifes good times and provide a buoy in rough waters.

Our topics will include our relationship to failure, paying attention, cultivating curiosity and kindness, the mind as storyteller, mindfulness in motion, and moving from reactivity to response. Learning modes will include formal mindfulness practices, informal practices that integrate these skills into daily life, and shared inquiry using safe small and large discussions to draw wisdom from the whole group.

Though this class is not graded, students are expected to commit to at least twenty minutes of daily practice at home for the duration of the course.

Quarter: Spring
Day(s): Tuesday
Duration: 6 weeks
Location: Woodside Village Church, 3154 Woodside Rd., Woodside, CA 94062 (just off I-280)
Date(s): Tuesday eves, April 2 through May 7, 2019
Time: 6:45 pm 9:00 pm
Tuition: $397 before March 1, 2019, $497 after February 28, 2019. ($347 if you also register for the Playful Mindfulness 2 class that follows directly after this one. See https://playfulmindfulness22019.bpt.me/ to register for that course as well!)

Any cancellations or refunds before March 1 must be requested per direct conversation with and approval from event organizer and will incur a reasonable fee. After that, refunds only available if the course is full and we are able to find a replacement.
Limit: 30

Since completing his graduate work at Stanford (MBA) and Harvard (Masters of Theology), Ted DesMaisons has studied, performed, and taught improvisation internationally, including with Patricia Ryan Madson, the Stanford Improvisors, and BATS Improv of San Francisco. He is the founder and principal of ANIMA Learning and a trained Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) instructor. Ted also serves as the US Partner for the UK-based Mindfulness in Schools Project and is a registered Patsy Rodenburg Trainer.