September Webinar: Working with Fear and Resistance when Fostering Contemplative Space Posted on Sep 3, 2019 Fostering contemplative spaces in academic settings is often limited by the fear and resistance educators, students, and administrators face. This webinar will help prepare participants to utilize contemplative practices to work with fear and resistance in themselves, students, management, and systems. Read More

A Dialogue on Self-Compassion and Interdependence Posted on Aug 8, 2019 Drs. Mamgain and Majied discuss fierce self-compassion as it relates to interdependence so that participants learn how to increase their own positive life force through progressive self-reflection. Read More

Soulfulness Practices: Applying the SOUL-Centered Framework (Part 2) Posted on Jul 12, 2019 Building upon the June 2019 webinar introducing soulfulness, this webinar focuses on the application of soulfulness to contemplative practice. Presenter Shelly P. Harrell, Ph.D. is a psychologist whose work focuses on individual, relational, and collective well-being in the context of culture and oppression. Read More

“I Got Soul”: Soulfulness, Culture, and Contemplative Practice Posted on Jun 10, 2019 This webinar will introduce “soulfulness” as an approach to contemplative practice that centers a synergistic integration of the psychological, spiritual, and cultural dimensions of soul. Read More

Bridging the Gap between Islam, Islamophobia and Contemplative Pedagogy Posted on May 2, 2019 Participants in this webinar will engage foundational information about Islam, Islamophobia, and the historical context about Islam as relevant to current-day realities, and will consider connections between Islam and contemplative practices, and opportunities to create space for Muslims in contemplative education. Read More

Faith in a Seed: Strategies for Nurturing and Embedding Contemplative Approaches on our Campuses Posted on Apr 4, 2019 In this webinar with Juliet Trail, Director of Education for the University of Virginia Contemplative Sciences Center, we will walk through ways in which we can cultivate contemplative approaches across the various mission areas of higher education – including academics, the co-curricular domain (including student life, student health, and faculty/staff life), research, service, and patient care. Read More

The Tree of Contemplative Practices Posted on Mar 12, 2019 In this webinar with Maia Duerr, research director of CMind’s Contemplative Net Project (2002-2004), you’ll learn about the inspiration and story behind the Tree of Practices concept: the image was originally created as a way to organize and represent the project’s findings. Read More

Cultivating Hope in a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous World Posted on Feb 1, 2019 A webinar with Éliane Ubalijoro, PhD, exploring how we can navigate challenges we face today and others we have yet to anticipate, especially in higher education. Read More

Contemplative Resistance Posted on Jan 7, 2019 In this webinar with organizer and activist Holly Roach Knight, we will look at some of the obstacles to social change and explore how a contemplative view, practice, and conduct can help us address them. In essence, we will look at how contemplative education in higher education can help equip students to navigate and contribute to equity and social justice work. Read More

Begin With Wholeness, End With Joy Posted on Nov 13, 2018 In this webinar, Dr. Maria Hamilton Abegunde draws on the work done in her graduate level Black Feminisms class to ask, “What if we intentionally structure our teaching with rituals of wholeness, healing, and joy; practices that help students feel connected to the powerful things that can nurture and sustain them?” Read More

Contemplation, Reflexivity, and Gender/ Sexual Diversity in the Classroom Posted on Sep 11, 2018 This webinar offers an introduction to Dr. Kerr Mesner’s work developing contemplative and anti-oppressive approaches to addressing issues of gender/sexual diversity in the classroom. Participants will have an opportunity to engage with this work experientially, as well as to reflect on their own teaching practices in addressing gender/ sexual diversity in their own classrooms. Read More

Contemplative Practices in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Posted on Aug 17, 2018 This webinar with Dr. Patricia Owen-Smith focuses on the place of contemplative knowing and contemplative practices within the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) framework. Read More

Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness: Practices for Safe and Transformative Healing Posted on Jun 19, 2018 Educator and trauma professional David Treleaven draws on a decade of research and clinical experience to discuss safe, transformative ways of teaching and practicing mindfulness with an awareness of trauma. Read More

Across the Divides: A Pedagogy of Love Posted on Jun 11, 2018 In this video, Dr. Paul Wapner delivers the inaugural address of the Arthur Zajonc Contemplative Education Lecture Series. Filmed on Wednesday, August 9, 2017. Read More

Lessons From the Off Ramp Posted on May 29, 2018 As she prepares to retire, Renée A. Hill writes, “This webinar is about what I have learned in the classroom over the last fifteen years about contemplative practices and what they can bring to learning and growth—both that of my students and my own.” Read More

A Heartful Way of Living Posted on May 10, 2018 Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu, Psychologist at the Stanford University School of Medicine, will discuss community building and designing healing spaces through diverse sources of knowledge, storytelling, embodied practice, and creative expression. Read More

Knowing & Growing: Creating and Sustaining Contemplative Communities Posted on Mar 21, 2018 This webinar, presented by Stephanie Briggs (Assistant Professor of English, Community College of Baltimore County), focuses on ways to develop and maintain a campus-wide contemplative community. We will investigate how to recruit faculty and staff members, the design of a program, goals and objectives of the community, individual/shared facilitation, and cost. Read More

New Toolkit for Contemplative Community Building in Higher Education Posted on Feb 21, 2018 We hope that the toolkit will support the continued development of living and learning environments that support inquiry into meaning, purpose, and action. Read More

Enacting Human Revolution: The Inner Social Justice Movement Posted on Jan 23, 2018 Dr. Kamilah Majied will lead participants through activities that enable them to infuse a liberatory consciousness into their teaching and their contemplative practice. Read More

To Unite Against Hate Posted on Aug 15, 2017 In the wake of the racist, nationalist, white supremacist marches in Charlottesville, we are once again called to unite against hate, violence, and domestic terrorism. Read More

Cultural Humility and Theater of the Oppressed Posted on May 3, 2017 More than a concept, cultural humility is a process of personal and communal reflection to analyze the root causes of suffering and create a broader, more inclusive view of the world. To practice cultural humility is to maintain a willingness to suspend what we know, or what we think we know, about a person based on generalizations about their culture. Read More

Creating a Contemplative Culture at Community Colleges: Leadership and Classroom Practices Posted on Feb 17, 2017 In this webinar, Pearl Ratunil and Jon Brammer explore what a contemplative “initiative” can be at a two-year college where resources are scarce, the audience for contemplative pedagogy is sparse, and the need for contemplative approaches is great. Read More

Mindful Tech: How to Bring Balance to Our Digital Lives Posted on Jan 26, 2017 In this webinar, Dr. Levy will present some of the contemplative exercises and methods used in his courses and seminars. He will also discuss the philosophy underlying them, which places the emphasis on student discoveries through mindful observation and reflection, rather than on general rules that everyone should, or must, obey. Read More

Regarding the Election of Donald Trump Posted on Nov 16, 2016 The deep divisions which the election further exposed require reflective, thoughtful, and innovative teaching, leadership, and action in the search for solutions and justice. Read More

Uniting in Strength and Love after the Orlando Shooting Posted on Jun 15, 2016 In the wake of the tragic shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, we at the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society grieve for the senseless harm, the lives lost and the ignorance, hatred and intolerance that brought it about. Read More

Contemplating Chicano Park and a New Pedagogic Imaginary Posted on Apr 26, 2016 Prof. Alberto López Pulido presents a webinar underscoring the importance of contemplative practices for students of color at a private Roman Catholic University in San Diego, California. Through this work, a new Pedagogic Imaginary is put forth that embraces cultural diversity and social justice for all students, but in particular, students of color and first-generation students. Read More

Continuing the Momentum: Contemplative Practices, Social Justice, and Building Communities Posted on Apr 8, 2016 Our vision of transformative change holds contemplative methods as inseparable from community building, anti-racism and anti-oppression work: as we develop ways of recognizing our inextricable interconnection with each other and our planet, we continually refine and deepen our ability to respond to these challenges. Read More

The Science of Contemplative Practice and the Practice of Contemplative Science Posted on Feb 24, 2016 This webinar with Dr. Aaron Godlaski asks, How best do we connect the pedagogy of contemplative practices with the scholarship of contemplative studies? Should we treat research and practice as dichotomy, or dialectic? Read More

We’d Like to Send You a Tree…. Posted on Dec 29, 2015 Donate $20 or more to CMind before midnight ET on December 31, 2015, and we’ll send you three 8.5″ x 11″ glossy printed copies of the Tree of Contemplative Practices–our popular illustration of many “branches” of contemplative practice. Read More

Building Just Communities: The 2015 ACMHE Conference at Howard University Posted on Dec 14, 2015 With the grounds of historic Howard serving as a quiet touchstone, we came together to practice, to share our work, and to experience Just Community within our growing and evolving field of teachers, scholars, and learners. Read More

Support CMind this #GivingTuesday Posted on Dec 1, 2015 Gifts of any size make a difference–especially this month, as we have received a matching grant from a generous supporter! Read More

Contemplative Education for Racial Justice: Meeting Hate with the Power of Love Posted on Jun 23, 2015 As President of the Board of The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, I write to express my heartbreak over the recent criminal act of hate, terrorism and profound alienation from the sense of Beloved Community that we saw in the shooting that took place last week at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church in Charleston, SC. Read More

Contemplative Practices and 21st Century Skills Posted on Jun 4, 2015 While we certainly cannot predict the exact characteristics of 21st century skills and their requirements, a deeper consideration of our present situation can help us make observations about the kinds of skills that will support personal and global thriving. Read More

A special event to support earthquake relief efforts in Nepal Posted on Jun 4, 2015 If you’re located in the Western Massachusetts area, we hope you’ll consider joining us on Thursday, June 11th, at 7:00pm for a special film screening and Q & A to support relief efforts following the devastating earthquakes in Nepal. Read More

How Mindfulness Can Defeat Racial Bias Posted on May 23, 2015 When we consider these new findings along with some of the already proven benefits of mindfulness, and combine them with teachings about contemporary forms of racism, the outlines of an effective set of new mindfulness-based interventions—for police, doctors, educators, and the full range of others—have already begun to emerge. Read More

3 Steps for Building & Evaluating Successful Contemplative Programs Posted on May 15, 2015 This webinar is designed for anyone interested in discovering the 3 essential steps for developing, implementing and evaluating sustainable contemplative programs and pedagogical approaches in the classroom or educational community. Read More

In Support of Changes to the Smith College Admission Policy Posted on May 6, 2015 This past Saturday, the trustees of Smith College voted to admit transgender women to the college. We applaud this decision: honoring self-identification is an important political statement that, we believe, will foster greater freedom and expression for all. Read More

Focusing on Justice Posted on May 5, 2015 As we create liberatory, anti-racist contemplative pedagogies, classrooms, and institutions, our efforts must be rooted in a focused commitment to understanding our individual experiences, the experiences of others, and how our experiences relate to the political, social/cultural, and economic systems in which we participate. Read More

Be. Still. Move: Creative Contemplative Movement Posted on Mar 12, 2015 A webinar on using movement, storytelling, and art to discover students’ embodied knowledge, develop a connection to personal body/mind insights, and internalize new knowledge. Read More

Challenges and Opportunities in Contemplative Higher Education Posted on Jan 13, 2015 In this webinar, Carolyn Jacobs and Mirabai Bush engage in a dialogue about their experience teaching students in Smith College’s Contemplative Clinical Practice Advanced Certificate Program. Read More

Challenging Racism and Oppression in Academia Posted on Dec 17, 2014 We are witnessing the dawning of a broader awareness of what many of us have lived and known firsthand: that for far too long, systemic racism has been under-acknowledged. The origins and manifestations of injustice in our nation’s history, in our contemporary culture, and especially in our own individual actions, need to be examined and challenged. Read More

Developing Indicators for What Matters Most in Your Teaching Posted on Nov 21, 2014 This webinar explores our intentions for using contemplative practices in higher education, including what matters most to us as instructors, what matters most to our students, and how we can know if contemplative pedagogy is effective. Read More

Towards an Embodied Social Justice: Integrating Mindfulness into Anti-Oppression Pedagogy Posted on May 19, 2014 In this webinar, Beth Berila explores how contemplative practices can deepen feminist and critical race pedagogies in Women’s Studies, Ethnic Studies, and other courses about diversity, power, and oppression. Read More

Contemplative Practice in a Course on Arguing as an Art of Peace Posted on Mar 20, 2014 For the past seven years, Barry Kroll has been teaching a Lehigh University seminar that asks first-year college students to consider how arguing—so often associated with controversy and conflict—can be practiced as an art of peace. This webinar features student voices from the course. Read More

Using Contemplative Practices to Promote Well-Being and Social Justice Awareness Posted on Feb 14, 2014 Michelle Chatman shares contemplative practices used in sociology and anthropology classes to deepen student learning, enhance well-being, and inspire a commitment to social justice. Read More

Intention and Imagination in Higher Education Posted on Feb 7, 2014 A challenge for integration in education is the joining of past experience with the innovative spirit of the present. Universities should be a prime venue for such imaginative and integrative work, where a true stimulus in the direction of new insights, and creations, is given to the minds and hearts of those who are part of its community. Read More