Stan Eisenstein - Mindfulness Meditation

This May 24-27, I am offering The Power of Kindness, a silent weekend retreat. You can attend either in-person at the Seven Oaks Retreat Center in Madison, VA, or online via Zoom. For more information and to register: https://imcw.org/event/?eventId=1503&utm_source=Stan

Kindness, when deeply cultivated, is powerful. When we generate a field of kindness, both within ourselves and outside ourselves, it has the power to heal and transform. Kindness, when sustained, serves to harmonize our environment, making collaboration and cooperation more possible. Kindness fosters a sense of well-being, which is a necessary element for growth. Kindness, however, does not do its work quickly or directly. We need to cultivate patience for kindness to be truly effective. We also need to work toward removing the barriers within ourselves that prevent authentic kindness from flowing through us.

In this retreat, we will be exploring practices designed to cultivate the capacity to transmit kindness in a powerful way. We will practice with meditations that engage words, imagery and body sensations to help fully embody the experience of kindness. Talks will center around the value of kindness, around ways we can remove the barriers to kindness, and around how we can transmit kindness into the world. There will be several periods of silent sitting and walking, as well as two group meetings with a teacher.

Words from past retreat participants:

"Stan's guidance throughout the retreat was unparalleled in the variety of teachings he incorporated and balancing that with periods without guidance to let those teachings do their work. I truly appreciated the way the activities throughout the day flowed into one another and how even the breaks had the spirit of the retreat. I could sense that he was keenly aware of folks' responses to his guidance and would provide additional guidance when necessary. It didn't feel like we were simply going through a set of preplanned events and the retreat had a sense of aliveness to it that was beneficial for me finding clarity about what it means to allow every part of my experience to be as it is and trust that all is unfolding as it should." ~Wouhib

"After the retreat, I feel relieved to have moved through some difficult emotions and patterns that were stored in my body for years. I feel recharged to face the 'real world' with a deeper inner sense of calm. I feel that my experiences were relevant and respected by Stan as our guide; he listened deeply, supported us through it, and offered suggestions for sitting with sadness and grief. Thank you Stan for kindness, wisdom, and truly seeing us for who we are. I feel stronger now than when the weekend began and you charged my personal growth." ~Martha

"For the first time I saw how my meditation practice connects with my emotional life. We were encouraged to feel and process feelings not just notice our breath. My meditation practice will be changed forever." ~Chris

https://imcw.org/event/?eventId=1503&utm_source=Stan

The Power Of Kindness Kindness, when deeply cultivated, is powerful and transformational. In this silent retreat, we will be exploring practices designed to cultivate the capacity to transmit kindness.

Ruth Zanoni and I are looking forward to offering the “Inviting Chronic Pain and Illness to Tea” course again in this January. We have offered this course several times now, to great benefit (see some of the testimonials below). Please share this post with those you feel might benefit.

Sign up for the free, live info session on January 9th: https://imcw.org/event/?eventId=1400&utm_source=Stan

“Inviting Chronic Pain and Illness to Tea” is a 4-month live, online course. The purpose of the course is to help participants come to a greater sense of well-being in the presence of chronic pain and illness.

One natural tendency is to suppress our awareness of pain and illness. This suppression and avoidance takes a lot of energy and effort, and maintains a heightened sense of stress. The suppression also makes us feel less embodied, less grounded, less confident in ourselves. The converse of suppression is maintaining high alert, always looking for the next possible fix. This constant attempt to fix is also quite stressful and “disembodying.”

The mindful approach to chronic pain and illness is to turn toward the experience, to gently lean in. We learn how to come to a greater sense of ease in the presence of pain and illness. We learn to return home into our bodies, instead of trying to escape. We learn how our thought processes keep us trapped, and how we can start to think differently to create greater freedom and well-being.

This mindful approach takes time to learn and integrate (hence the 4-month long course). It requires a variety of practices including:

* Cultivating self-kindness
* Cultivating a deeper sense of relaxation as we encounter pain and illness
* Learning to bring awareness more fully into the body
* Noting our habitual thought patterns and their effects
* Cultivating a sense of gratitude – even for some of the aspects of our lives that challenge us
* Learning to reframe our sense of identity
* Spending time getting to know the pain and illness more intimately – forming a relationship

The course rests on several foundations:

* Didactic learning (which introduces ideas to the rational mind)
* Formal meditation practice (which helps to retrain the automatic subconscious mind)
* Informal home practice (which helps to ground the teachings into a way of life)
* Community (connection with others who experience similar challenges and support you along the way)

The course runs on 17 consecutive Tuesdays starting January 23, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time.

Sign up for the free, live info session on February 28: https://imcw.org/event/?eventId=1400&utm_source=Stan

The course is run through the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, the organization started by mindfulness teacher Tara Brach.

Course Fee: The course tuition is $550. We are aware that many people who have chronic pain and illness may be underemployed or have challenging medical expenses. Scholarship funds are available. No-one will be turned away for lack of funds.

This course offers 9 bi-weekly classes where new content will be offered, and 8 bi-weekly practice sessions to integrate learning and cultivate community. It includes:

* Guided instruction in mindfulness meditation practices
* Group dialogue and discussions aimed at community-building and working through challenges
* Daily home practice, including guided meditations
* Bi-weekly sessions to support integration of learning
* Fifteen recorded guided meditations and a home practice manual

Testimonials from Past Participants:

"I have learned so many new ways to relate to my very real challenges, with acceptance, with perspective, with self-compassion, with an understanding of the effects of negative thoughts on my body, and of needing things to be a certain way." ~Lucy

"A life changer! I have gained a new perspective on how to be ok with the disease instead of wanting it to go away....The safe space created, a sense of community for healing and growing. Being in the body instead of resisting it." ~Luciana

"The 17 weeks, alternating class with practice session was really beneficial in allowing me to fully grasp material of one class over two weeks. The small groups fostered a sense of community which was great. Stan and Ruth, both good teachers with a lot compassionate and patience, they balanced each other well." ~Mary Ellen

Learn more about the course and Stan and Ruth: https://imcw.org/event/?eventId=1399&utm_source=Stan

This January 12-15, I am offering Deepening Into the Mystery, a silent weekend retreat. You can attend either in-person at the Bon Secours Retreat Center in Marriottsville, MD, or online via Zoom. For more information and to register: https://imcw.org/event/?eventId=1398&utm_source=Stan

The stillness of winter invites us to go inward, to tune into the deeper currents of life, to sense our deeper spiritual roots. We tend to identify ourselves with our personalities, our achievements or failures, our beliefs, our worldly selves. Yet there is something more fundamental about ourselves that we can explore, both in our minds and in our bodies, in our beings. As we cultivate a letting go of clinging to a worldly identity, we can begin to explore who we are at a deeper level. This shift in identity has the capacity to bring a great deal of freedom, peace, and joy.

Through dharma talks, group meetings with the teacher, meditation instruction, personal meditation, and gentle movement practices, you will be guided toward a sense of who we are that is more fundamental than our experience of our personalities, our ego, or our worldly selves.

Words from past retreat participants:

"Stan's guidance throughout the retreat was unparalleled in the variety of teachings he incorporated and balancing that with periods without guidance to let those teachings do their work. I truly appreciated the way the activities throughout the day flowed into one another and how even the breaks had the spirit of the retreat. I could sense that he was keenly aware of folks' responses to his guidance and would provide additional guidance when necessary. It didn't feel like we were simply going through a set of preplanned events and the retreat had a sense of aliveness to it that was beneficial for me finding clarity about what it means to allow every part of my experience to be as it is and trust that all is unfolding as it should." ~Wouhib

"After the retreat, I feel relieved to have moved through some difficult emotions and patterns that were stored in my body for years. I feel recharged to face the 'real world' with a deeper inner sense of calm. I feel that my experiences were relevant and respected by Stan as our guide; he listened deeply, supported us through it, and offered suggestions for sitting with sadness and grief. Thank you Stan for kindness, wisdom, and truly seeing us for who we are. I feel stronger now than when the weekend began and you charged my personal growth." ~Martha

"For the first time I saw how my meditation practice connects with my emotional life. We were encouraged to feel and process feelings not just notice our breath. My meditation practice will be changed forever." ~Chris

https://imcw.org/event/?eventId=1398&utm_source=Stan

There are still a few spots open! On Monday evenings starting in January, I am offering Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) online via Zoom. If you are interested in learning more, you can take the intro session on January 8 (register for the course, and if after attending the intro session you don't wish to continue, you will receive a full refund): https://imcw.org/event/?eventId=1397&utm_source=Stan

MBSR is an eight-week program, developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn, that assists people who want to learn to use their own internal resources to respond more skillfully to stress, medical and psychological conditions, and promote healthy living. MBSR has been highly researched since its onset in 1979, and research strongly supports its effectiveness in improving difficulties in multiple areas of health and wellness.

Some reasons people come to the course include: job, school or family stress; chronic pain; hypertension; attention deficits; enhancement of quality of life/happiness; mild or situational depression; gastrointestinal disorders; wellness and self-care; cancer; anxiety and panic; anger-management; life transitions.

Intentional, present-moment awareness, developed through mindfulness meditation practices, helps us experience whatever is happening in our life as it unfolds with curiosity, non-judging attention, and compassion for ourselves and others. Engaging with our life in this manner helps us to become more skillful and creative in our responses, while gaining insight into how to free ourselves from habitual patterns of reacting.

This program can be a complement to current medical care, as well as promotion of health and well-being.

Here are some words from past students:

“MBSR opens up the connection between mind and body. Through that awareness I finally understood how shifts in beliefs and behavior are truly possible. What a gift to yourself and others to carry into each day of your life that can make for more peaceful, sane responses to stresses and kindness to yourself and others. Stan creates an emotionally safe community for that to unfold.” ~Delsi

“I learned to meditate in new ways, opening myself to healing compassion I did not know (or want to admit) I truly needed. Stan was such a phenomenal teacher—he gave wonderful classes and was available for make-up classes as needed. He went above and beyond anything I could have imagined. This course truly changed my life.” ~Samantha

“I highly recommend this class for anyone interested in a richer, more positive, life experience. Stan is a fantastic teacher, has tremendous compassion, understanding, knowledge, and a great guided meditation voice. He also clearly connects what we are learning and practicing to our daily lives. MBSR helped with a more positive and realistic concept of myself. I feel more resilient in the face of the everyday ups and downs of life.” ~Meghan

Tuition is $550, and some scholarship is available--please contact me: https://www.staneisenstein.com/contact. The tuition includes eight 2.5-hour live experiential sessions, a 6.5-hour daylong retreat, a workbook, and eighteen guided meditations.

For more information and to register: https://imcw.org/event/?eventId=1397&utm_source=Stan

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) MBSR is an 8-week program that assists people to use their own internal resources to respond more skillfully to stress, medical and psychological conditions, and promote healthy living.

On Monday evenings starting in January, I am offering Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) online via Zoom. If you are interested in learning more, you can take the intro session on January 8 (register for the course, and if after attending the intro session you don't wish to continue, you will receive a full refund): https://imcw.org/event/?eventId=1397&utm_source=Stan

MBSR is an eight-week program, developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn, that assists people who want to learn to use their own internal resources to respond more skillfully to stress, medical and psychological conditions, and promote healthy living. MBSR has been highly researched since its onset in 1979, and research strongly supports its effectiveness in improving difficulties in multiple areas of health and wellness.

Some reasons people come to the course include: job, school or family stress; chronic pain; hypertension; attention deficits; enhancement of quality of life/happiness; mild or situational depression; gastrointestinal disorders; wellness and self-care; cancer; anxiety and panic; anger-management; life transitions.

Intentional, present-moment awareness, developed through mindfulness meditation practices, helps us experience whatever is happening in our life as it unfolds with curiosity, non-judging attention, and compassion for ourselves and others. Engaging with our life in this manner helps us to become more skillful and creative in our responses, while gaining insight into how to free ourselves from habitual patterns of reacting.

This program can be a complement to current medical care, as well as promotion of health and well-being.

Here are some words from past students:

“MBSR opens up the connection between mind and body. Through that awareness I finally understood how shifts in beliefs and behavior are truly possible. What a gift to yourself and others to carry into each day of your life that can make for more peaceful, sane responses to stresses and kindness to yourself and others. Stan creates an emotionally safe community for that to unfold.” ~Delsi

“I learned to meditate in new ways, opening myself to healing compassion I did not know (or want to admit) I truly needed. Stan was such a phenomenal teacher—he gave wonderful classes and was available for make-up classes as needed. He went above and beyond anything I could have imagined. This course truly changed my life.” ~Samantha

“I highly recommend this class for anyone interested in a richer, more positive, life experience. Stan is a fantastic teacher, has tremendous compassion, understanding, knowledge, and a great guided meditation voice. He also clearly connects what we are learning and practicing to our daily lives. MBSR helped with a more positive and realistic concept of myself. I feel more resilient in the face of the everyday ups and downs of life.” ~Meghan

Tuition is $550, and some scholarship is available--please contact me: https://www.staneisenstein.com/contact. The tuition includes eight 2.5-hour live experiential sessions, a 6.5-hour daylong retreat, a workbook, and eighteen guided meditations.

For more information and to register: https://imcw.org/event/?eventId=1397&utm_source=Stan

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) MBSR is an 8-week program that assists people to use their own internal resources to respond more skillfully to stress, medical and psychological conditions, and promote healthy living.

From “What to Do When You are Broken” by Mark Nepo

I've come to believe that we were all broken from the same nameless heart, and every living thing wakes with a piece of that original heart aching its way into being. Along the way, we are broken open like seeds that bear fruit, so we can meet each other and be touched by each other; so we can remember and inhabit the one precious life we're given. And when broken of all that gets in the way, we suddenly know each other below our strangeness. This is why when we fall, we lift each other; or when in pain, we hold each other; why when sudden with joy, we dance together. Life is the many pieces of that great heart loving itself back together.

I've come to believe that we were all broken from the same nameless heart, and every living thing wakes with a piece of that original heart aching its way into being. Life is the many pieces of that great heart loving itself back together.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema @ Unsplash

http://www.staneisenstein.com

14 minutes | Sadness and grief are often difficult emotions to work with. They are natural and embedded in our beings to help us cope with change. However, they are often misunderstood. Mindfulness of sadness and grief can help us to navigate these emotions with more skill and grace. This talk is complemented by the meditation "Touching into the Well of Grief".

Talk: Working with Sadness and Grief 14 minutes | Sadness and grief are often difficult emotions to work with. They are natural and embedded in our beings to help us cope with change. However, they are often misunderstood. Mindfulness of sadness and grief can help us to navigate these emotions with more skill and grace. This talk is co...

"Setting your intention doesn’t mean that you are going to make it happen, but rather that you will allow it to happen. When you plant seeds in your garden, you can’t will the vegetables to grow. You can only do your part by tending and caring for them, seeing what they need in order to develop as fully as possible. Likewise, you support your intention by keeping it in your consciousness and doing your part to help it manifest." ~James Baraz

Photo by Dino Reichmuth @ Unsplash

http://www.staneisenstein.com

7 minutes | Anger is a powerful emotion. When used skillfully, it can produce valuable effects. When used unskillfully it can be damaging, both to self and others. Mindfulness of anger allows us to bring greater discernment regarding how and when we engage in anger. Photo by David Knox on Unsplash

Talk: Working with Anger

"Clearing" by Martha Postlethwaite

Do not try to save the whole world
or do anything grandiose.
Instead, create a clearing
in the dense forest of your life
and wait there patiently,
until the song that is your life
falls into your own cupped hands
and you recognize and greet it.
Only then will you know how to give yourself
to this world so worth of rescue.

Photo by Ales Maze @ Unsplash

http://www.staneisenstein.com

9 minutes | Through breath, imagery, words, and felt body sensations we practice cultivating a deeper and more expansive field of unconditional kindness for ourselves and others. This practice tends to bypass the conscious mind and seed kindness into what is more subconscious, helping kindness to become more of the default experience.

Meditation: Breathing Kindness In and Out 9 minutes | Through breath, imagery, words, and felt body sensations we practice cultivating a deeper and more expansive field of unconditional kindness for ourselves and others. This practice tends to bypass the conscious mind and seed kindness into what is more subconscious, helping kindness to be...

"Love after Love" by Derek Walcott

The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
And each will smile at the other’s welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was yourself.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you have ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

Photo by Autoestima Cidada @ Unsplash

http://www.staneisenstein.com

This September 1-4, I am offering Tending and Befriending: Cultivating Self-Kindness, a silent weekend retreat. You can attend either in-person at the Bon Secours Retreat Center in Marriottsville, MD, or online via Zoom. For more information and to register: https://imcw.org/event/?eventId=1320&utm_source=Teachers&utm_medium=referral

One of the most pervasive challenges human beings face is the inner critic, that part of the psyche that blames and judges ourselves and others. Most of the time the critical voice remains unexamined, so it continues to run in the background, coloring all of our experiences and causing suffering. When we bring the critic into conscious awareness and practice holding it and ourselves in kindness, we can start to gain insight into, and freedom from its dictates. This practice is valuable for meditators at any level of experience.

In this retreat, we will explore practices that cultivate self-kindness, focusing on bringing kindness to the experience of the inner critic. We will do this through dharma talks, guided meditations, exercises, and group meetings with the teachers.

Words from past retreat participants:

"Stan's guidance throughout the retreat was unparalleled in the variety of teachings he incorporated and balancing that with periods without guidance to let those teachings do their work. I truly appreciated the way the activities throughout the day flowed into one another and how even the breaks had the spirit of the retreat. I could sense that he was keenly aware of folks' responses to his guidance and would provide additional guidance when necessary. It didn't feel like we were simply going through a set of preplanned events and the retreat had a sense of aliveness to it that was beneficial for me finding clarity about what it means to allow every part of my experience to be as it is and trust that all is unfolding as it should." ~Wouhib

"After the retreat, I feel relieved to have moved through some difficult emotions and patterns that were stored in my body for years. I feel recharged to face the 'real world' with a deeper inner sense of calm. I feel that my experiences were relevant and respected by Stan as our guide; he listened deeply, supported us through it, and offered suggestions for sitting with sadness and grief. Thank you Stan for kindness, wisdom, and truly seeing us for who we are. I feel stronger now than when the weekend began and you charged my personal growth." ~Martha

"For the first time I saw how my meditation practice connects with my emotional life. We were encouraged to feel and process feelings not just notice our breath. My meditation practice will be changed forever." ~Chris

https://imcw.org/event/?eventId=1320&utm_source=Teachers&utm_medium=referral

Self-Kindness Retreat In this retreat, we will explore practices that cultivate self-kindness, focusing on bringing kindness to the experience of the inner critic. We will do this through dharma talks, guided meditations, exercises, and group meetings with the teachers.

"Allow" by Danna Faulds

There is no controlling life.
Try corralling a lightning bolt, containing a tornado.
Dam a stream and it will create a new channel.
Resist, and the tide will sweep you off your feet.
Allow, and grace will carry you to higher ground.
The only safety lies in letting it all in –
the wild and the weak;
fear, fantasies, failures and success.
When loss rips off the doors of the heart,
or sadness veils your vision with despair,
practice becomes simply bearing the truth.
In the choice to let go of your known way of being,
the whole world is revealed to your new eyes.

Photo by Harald Arlander @ Unsplash

http://www.staneisenstein.com

There are a few spots left! On Mondays, starting July 10, I am offering an 8-week course over Zoom called Inquiry: Cultivating Meditative Practices for Healing, Growth, and Freedom. For more details and to register: https://www.staneisenstein.com/inquiry-course

The process of Inquiry allows us to discover and release from subconscious programming that keeps us stuck and suffering. We all carry conditioning, automatic reactions to buried beliefs and hurts. This conditioning, if left unexplored, limits our capacity to live fully and freely. Inquiry practices use meditative techniques to help us to uncover this subconscious programming and begin the process of healing and release.

​The practice of Inquiry is an art, and yet there are skills and orientations that can be learned to help make the process more effective and efficient. This course is designed to offer a variety of tools to help in the development of an inquiry practice. The course will be a mix of guided meditations (recorded and available for practice), experiential exercises, short talks, and inquiry practice, both individually and in pairs.

​Topics covered include:
* Why Inquiry is Valuable
* Using Meditation as an Experiment
* Cultivating Self-Kindness and Working with the Inner Critic
* Inquiry and Trauma – Caveats and Skillful Means
* How the Body Aids in Inquiry
* How we Identify and Work with Emotion (with a special discussion on Anger)
* Recognizing Patterns of Thought
* The Importance of Allowing, and Inviting Discomfort to Tea
* Resourcing, and How to Deal With Moments of Overwhelm
* Investigation – How to Gradually Deepen Awareness
* Investigating Deeply-Held Beliefs
* Working with Old Hurts and Wounds
* Forgiveness
* Healing through Reparenting
* Working with Imagery
* Interpersonal Inquiry

Here are some reviews from students in my 2021 Inquiry course:

"The choice of topics as well as the talks, meditations, handouts and suggested at-home practices were engaging and incredibly helpful. Stan has a way of explaining some rather 'unexplainable' topics, clearly. He is compassionate and insightful." ~Maryellen

"I went into the Inquiry class with an open mind. I came out of the class with a different perspective on awareness and how I can relate to what is taking place on a moment-to-moment basis. The class also helped deepen my awareness of what was going on with me internally, and introduced the insight that peace can only be found within." ~Clay

"I highly recommend this Inquiry course led by Stan where he offers invaluable tools and shares lots of wisdom on how his students can access the deeper aspects of themselves. Stan is a caring and knowledgeable teacher, a loving presence who holds the space for his groups in a way that everyone feels safe to be vulnerable." ~Luciana

​Tuition for the course is $550. The price includes eight 2.5-hour live experiential sessions (Mondays, July 10-August 28, 2023, 6:30-9 p.m. Eastern Time), a 6.5-hour daylong retreat, a workbook (Saturday, August 19, 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Eastern Time), and eighteen guided meditations.

Scholarship is available. Contact me to apply: https://www.staneisenstein.com/contact

Inquiry 8-Week Course | Stan Eisenstein Inquiry is an 8-week course that helps participants find freedom from suffering.

"As long as you are breathing, there is more right with you than wrong with you, no matter what challenges you are facing." –Jon Kabat-Zinn

http://www.staneisenstein.com