This site is as far as I know the first resources of it's kind in Western Canada. I consider this site as a guide for exploring - from the inside and outside - what it means to be involved in teaching mindfulness in mainstream secular settings within a mainstream society.
Currently I teach mindfulness in three broad areas. I teach school children at secondary schools every week in Vancouver, BC. I teach parents a multi-week program who are in recovery from addictive behaviour. I also teach a mindfulness based approach called the Unconditional Confidence and piloting a new advanced program called the Presence Principle. Both are designed to transform the rich and challenging interior and exterior conditions we encounter in our business lives.
I have purposely set out to do two things in my teaching: teach mindfulness in a wide range of contexts, audiences, ages and abilities. The ability, agility and willingness to do this makes me (I hope) a better teacher. I also passionately believe that the benefits of mindfulness are for everyone and that we (as teachers) should actively encourage a 'trickle down' and a 'trickle up' effect to all levels of society. This practice is as useful to a team leader of a technology company as it is to a single, unemployed mother with small children. It's my intention to continue to teach in 'both directions'.
I believe a good teacher subscribes not only to a set of high standards, but is open and willing to bring together different ways of studying and knowing the world of human experience from multiple perspectives. Those perspectives can include everything from neuroscience, parenting, business or even certain philosophical view points in service to the person or groups needs.
There is a great responsibility and a great challenge in teaching mindfulness. This is a discipline that can only be taught by living it oneself. It cannot be learned from a book. And there is always an understanding that each person's experience of mindfulness must be their own. There is no right or wrong way to do it. Accepting the sovereignty of a person's experience whatever it may be, is at the heart of my teaching.
There are great benefits, life transforming benefits, that can emerge for all of us, because the present moment always contains the seeds of transformation within it. The future we wish for is not happening tomorrow. It's available to us right here, right now.
This 'work' is fun and dare I say it, enlightening. I hope you'll join us.
