Events
Full Moon Meditation, Singing Bowls + Bells
Sunday, Feb. 1, 7-8 p.m., with Peter Moreno
Santa Barbara Middle School, 1321 Alameda Padre Serra
Meditate and enjoy a soothing sound bath with crystal bowls and bells by the light of the full moon. We will meet in the school’s Lotus Theater. Follow the MHP signs and look for red blinking lights. The suggested donation for this event is $10. It will not be available via Zoom. Please notify Peter at 805-453-1813 by noon on Feb. 1 if you plan to attend.
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Retreat: Meeting Fear and Doubt with Fullness of Heart
Saturday, Feb. 7, 2-5 p.m., with Radhule Weininger
La Casa de Maria, 800 El Bosque Road, Montecito
To attend in person, click here to register. To join via Zoom, click on the MHP Special Events/Retreats link on the MHP website. The suggested donation is $30. A refreshment break will be served.
Directions: Use the El Bosque entrance and follow signs to the Terrace Room. The San Ysidro Road gate is for exits only.
About the Retreat
We will learn about and practice ways to face our worries and existential questions with grace and skill. This retreat will offer a safe and open place where we can cultivate deep resilience, a connection with the deepest ground, and enduring, loving compassion.
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Softening the Heart in Grief and Gratitude:
Yoga + Meditation Practice for All Levels, with Emily Benaron and Arno Jaffe
When: Saturday, Feb. 21, 9-4 p.m.
Where: Santa Barbara Middle School, Lotus Theater, 1321 Alameda Padre Serra, or via our Special Events/ Retreats Zoom link. Follow the signs to access the theater. Please bring your own yoga mat. Cushions and blankets will be provided, or you can bring your own. A refreshment break will be served. The suggestion donation for this event is $30. Donations may be made in person or via our website. To reserve your spot, please use this link to register.
About: Enhance your mind-body connection. Emily Benaron, MA, AMFT, will lead participants in yoga practices that focus on the body, heart, and mind to support well-being, vitality, and resilience. She will be joined by MHP Board President Arno Jaffe, who will lead mindfulness and compassion meditation practices for a truly holistic experience.
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NEW FOUR-PART SERIES: Introduction to Meditation for Beginners and Practitioners
When: Saturdays from 1-5 pm., March 14 and 28, April 11, and May 2
Where: Santa Barbara Middle School, Lotus Theater, 1321 Alameda Padre Serra or via our Special Events/ Retreats Zoom link. The suggestion donation for each session is $30. Donations may be made in person at the door or via our website. A refreshment break will be served. Participants may attend the entire series or individual classes. See below for class registration links to reserve your spot.
About: This series of introductory classes led by experienced MHP teachers is intended for those who wish to learn about the benefits of meditation, establish their own practice, or deepen their knowledge of the four primary types of meditation that Mindful Heart Programs teaches. The series features expert guidance on the following practices:
Questions? Contact us at mindfulheartprograms@gmail.com
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Online Retreat: From Sustainable Compassion to Unbound Awareness, with Radhule Weininger and special guest Jessica Morey
When: March 21, 10 a.m.-3 p.m., online only
The suggested donation for this Zoom-only retreat is $30. Join via our Special Events/ Retreats Zoom link. Donations may be made via our website.
About: Radhule and Jessica will co-teach and lead meditation practices to cultivate compassion for ourselves and others. They will explain how to build trust in life and allow the heart-mind to relax into its deepest nature and boundless freedom. Jessica is a meditation teacher and contemplative coach with over three decades of experience. She is the first time Radhule has collaborated with Jessica to present an MHP retreat. Don’t miss it!
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Opening to the Unconditional Love and Wisdom of Our Buddha Nature, with special guest Lama John Makransky, Ph.D.
When: Saturday, April 25, 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m.
Where: Santa Barbara Middle School, Lotus Theater, 1321 Alameda Padre Serra, or via our Special Events/ Retreats Zoom link
This day-long retreat will feature short talks, guided meditations, and discussion. At least two years of consistent contemplative practice (meditation or prayer in any spiritual tradition) is a prerequisite. Participants are also asked to read John’s book, How Compassion Works (Shambala 2025, Paul Condon, co-author), before the retreat. Makransky, an Associate Professor of Buddhism and Comparative Theology at Boston College, and Condon are well known for developing a Sustainable Compassion Training model that facilitates access to our innate capacities for compassion and awareness. The suggested donation is $60, in person or via our website. MHP will provide two refreshment breaks. Participants are asked to bring their own lunch. Please register here to reserve your spot.
Big Bear Retreat with John Makransky and Radhule Weininger
Before John visits Santa Barbara, he will co-present a Sustainable Compassion Training residential retreat with Radhule from April 18-21 at the Big Bear Retreat Center, expanding on the topic: Opening to the Unconditional Love and Wisdom of Our Buddha Nature. Visit the Big Bear Retreat Center website to learn more and to register.
Newsletters
Heart Medicine in Difficult Times
In this online year-long drop-in series, Radhule will teach you psychological and spiritual skills that will guide you to address the root causes behind painful patterns and show how to address them with comprehensive practices. Working with painful patterns is especially necessary in these times, as many of our old painful patterns are getting triggered by current difficult circumstances in our world. Uncertainty and trauma bring up our own woundedness and fear. In order to be engaged in our world, we need to heal our painful patterns and connect to the wholeness that is already there.
Register with InsightLA
Awake Aware: Touching the Sky behind the clouds and bringing it back to Earth
New Series with Radhule Weininger, MD, PHD.
This Monday (over zoom), we will continue an exciting new series on awake awareness meditations and the pointing-out instructions. We are repeating this series on Monday nights at 7.15 pm (Yoga Soup, Studio 2, as well as zoom).
Location: Yoga Soup, 28 Parker Way, Santa Barbara
Heart Aware: Mindful Body Breath and Awake Awareness Meditation Group
Time: Thursdays at 6:30pm (beginning December 1st, 2022)
Location: Saint Michael’s University Church, 6586 Picasso Rd, Isla Vista, CA
We will meet in person to practice meditation and self-compassion. Join us to cultivate a regular mindfulness practice and experience a sense of community and belonging on a weekly basis.
Heart Medicine in Difficult Times
with Radhule Weininger, MD, PhD
Sunday, August 28, 12:30-2pm
Last Sunday every month in 2022
In this online year-long drop-in series, Radhule will teach you psychological and spiritual skills that will guide you to address the root causes behind painful patterns and show how to address them with comprehensive practices. Working with painful patterns is especially necessary in these times, as many of our old painful patterns are getting triggered by current difficult circumstances in our world. Uncertainty and trauma bring up our own woundedness and fear. In order to be engaged in our world, we need to heal our painful patterns and connect to the wholeness that is already there.
Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC): 8 Week Course
With Hattie Bluestone, DPT and Anahita Navab Holden, PhD
Sundays: August 7th-October 2nd
(with the exception of Sunday 8/28)
10 AM-12 PM
La Mesa Park
Price: $400
For registration, please visit www.yogasoup.com
In difficult moments, what would it be like to offer yourself the same kindness, care, and support that you would naturally extend to a friend? Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) is an empirically supported, 8-week program that teaches core principles and practices to cultivate the skill of self-compassion. MSC was developed by Kristin Neff, PhD, and Christopher Germer, PhD, leader in the integration of mindfulness and psychotherapy. The program includes guided meditations, short talks, experiential exercises, group discussion, and take-home practices to integrate self-compassion into daily life. For more information please contact: info@anahitaholdenphd.com.
Deepening the Experience of the Sacred: Mindfully Embracing our World
During the morning of this day-long seminar, Radhule will teach you to deepen the practice of Ordinary and Non-dual Mindfulness, Introducing pointing out instructions, so you can learn to rest in awake awareness. Radhule will also introduce Self-compassion and Compassion-for-others (Tong Len) practices, which will include the care for ourselves and our world.
From 2 to 4 pm, Dave Richo will join us again, so we can together integrate our experience of the Sacred. We will also discuss how Kindness and Compassion can help us hold our personal suffering and how we can live with meaning and purpose in our troubled and breathtakingly beautiful world.
Maintaining our Balance in a Shaky World: Psychological and Spiritual Practices that Foster Inner Peace
In our present world of surprises, we may find it difficult to find a footing of safety and security in ourselves or in society. Violence and disease seem to be the new normal.
In an age of anxiety like this one it is perfectly understandable that we fear the future and perhaps lose trust in the political, psychological, and spiritual sources that were reliable before. Likewise, we may lose our trust in our own inner resources.
In this topsy-turvy world we still have one another. That is our source of hope. Our only challenge is to trust it when all the evidence has become shaky. We can learn to do that, always as beginners and always as enthusiasts.
In this workshop we will have time and space to explore what we fear or trust. We will experience practices of ordinary and non-dual mindfulness that take us to deep awareness.