Mindfulness is the art of paying attention strategically. What we pay attention to and how we pay attention very well could be the most important thing we have control over in our lives. Where we place our attention has a powerful effect on our nervous system, affects how much we suffer from psychological issues, and it could very well determine how long we live and the quality of that life.

Mindfulness is a vivid awareness of whatever appears in one’s mind or body—thoughts, sensations, moods—without grasping at the pleasant or recoiling from the unpleasant. Though simple in its description, in practice, it is as complicated as being human.

Training in mindfulness meditation is training in reclaiming our agency around the most essential aspect of our being human: our consciousness. Homo sapiens means that we know that we know. Without training, we may be destined to have our awareness hijacked instead of realizing and moving towards what is most vital for our attention to experience.

8 Limbs now offers two individual Mindfulness Courses to explore the art and science of mindfulness thoughtfully and systematically. These classes are offered online via Zoom and additional content and recordings are hosted on Teachable.

Each course includes:
✓ Six weekly live (online) class meetings
✓ Full-day retreat
✓ Recordings of classes for duration of course
✓ In-depth workbook with daily reflections and teachings
✓ Supplemental video recordings of teachings, and guided audio meditations

Mindfulness Foundations

Winter Session
Mondays 6:30-8:30pm: February 22-March 29
with day-long retreat Sunday, April 4,* 10am-4pm

Spring Session
Saturdays 10am-12pm: April 3-May 8
with day-long retreat Saturday, May 22, 10am-4pm

This training is designed for folks new to mindfulness or meditation in general and will address:
✓ The Buddha’s four foundations of mindfulness, or the four main things to place your awareness on for the purposes of truth, freedom, and happiness.
✓ The exploration of body sensations, emotions, cognitions, and phenomena with the tool of mindfulness.
✓ Negativity bias: How negatively charged aspects of our awareness tend to grab our attention, and how to break the habit of letting our attention “vortex” in these negative experiences.
✓ How what we pay attention to affects our “state.” Learn how to “shift” your state by controlling your attention and stabilize a positive state while avoiding negative states. Learn the difference between this technique and the psychological pathos of “repression.”
✓ How cultivating resilience is really a training in mindfulness and strategic use of awareness.
✓ Relevant teachings from Western psychology and neuroscience, including the Flow-State science and a basic understanding of Operant Conditioning.
*If you are unable to attend this day-long retreat due to Easter, you may make up this retreat on May 22.

Intermediate Mindfulness

Winter Session
Saturdays 10am-12pm: January 30-March 6
with day-long retreat Saturday, March 13, 10am-4pm

Spring Session
Mondays, 6:30-8:30pm, April 5-May 10
with day-long retreat Saturday, May 15, 10am-4pm

This course is for practitioners with experience in meditation and/or Mindfulness and will address:
✓ Commonalities between modern research in neuroscience, evolution, and psychology and the 2500-year-old wisdom tradition of Mindfulness.
✓ How the autonomic nervous system and stress response (fight, flight, freeze, social engagement) maps in alignment with the Buddhist teachings on the three root causes of stress (desire, aversion, confusion).
✓ Polyvagal Theory, the study of the stress response (fight, flight, freeze, and social engagement).
✓ Ancient as well as modern techniques to shift the physiological state from stress to ease and engagement, using the tool of Metta meditation (the cultivation of states of kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity)
✓ Exploration of various intermediate level Buddhist maps, including the law of impermanence, the seven factors of awakening, and the four noble truths
For those with experience in Mindfulness and meditation, these two courses may be taken in any order and/or at the same time.

Cost: $325-$425

Once they have completed a full course, participants may repeat courses a 20% discount off the Sustaining rate. Please email info@8limbsyoga.com. If these three tiers still make this course out of reach, please contact us at access8@8limbsyoga.com with “Mindfulness” in the subject line.

Notes:
Be sure to scroll down as several Mindfulness Courses are listed on the same link.
Our series require a minimum of five registered participants, by five days before the start date; if you are considering joining please register early.

Teacher Training
These courses can be taken as part of a four-part Mindfulness Teacher Training. This training has two additional modules for trainees only. Learn more here.

Cancellation Policy: Refunds of 90% up to five days prior to start of series. No refunds allowable after that time.

Want to learn how and why to be kinder to yourself? Check out our upcoming Mindful Self-Compassion Course starting April 2.

About the instructor: Brent Morton

Brent Morton has been meditating in the mindfulness tradition starting in 2007. He has trained extensively in the Theravada Buddhist (mindfulness) tradition, spending over a year in silent retreat and practicing in Burma, Thailand, and India. He completed a four-year mindfulness teacher training with Jack Kornfield through Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Marin, California, in 2016. He has taught meditation trainings, retreats, and teacher training since 2014. Brent moved to Kauai last year after living and teaching in the Seattle area for most of his life.