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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 systems’ state, how much we suffer from psychological issues, and it could very well determine how long we live and the quality of that life.

Without training our attention, it is easy for it to get hijacked, perhaps swept away by the 24-hour news cycle, the seduction of Netflix and social media, or any of the myriad distractions created by the advertising industry. We can become addicted to paying attention to negative thinking, spinning out in catastrophe-zing, comparing, self-judgment, or dissociation. 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 by instead of realizing and moving towards what is most vital for our attention to experience.

In this training you will learn:
1. The 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.
2. How what we pay attention to affects our “state.” We are always in a state; for example a state of anxiety or peace or calm or excited ness or angry or happy or sad etc. 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.”
3. 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.
4. What trauma is and how to work with it.
5. How cultivating resilience is really a training in mindfulness and strategic use of awareness.

Recordings of each class will be available to participants during the course.

Schedule: Saturdays, October 31st – December 12th, 2020, 10:00am – 12:00pm*

*Day-long retreat will take place December 12 and run 10am-4pm.

Cost:

This event will be offered at three rate options to support meaningful access at different economic levels. If you are able to invest in social justice work and support our efforts to make this series and other events accessible, please consider the SUPPORTING rate. If you need financial support to access this offering, purchase at the SUPPORTED rate. Otherwise, SUSTAINING is the market value rate that includes consideration for the instructor’s compensation and hosting expenses.

$325 – Supported
$375 – Sustaining
$425 – Supporting

Note: Our series require a minimum of five registered participants, by five days before the start date; if you are considering joining please register early.

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

 

About the instructor: Brent Morton

Brent MortonBrent 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.

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