Events
Starting March 14: Beginner’s Mind Series
Learn to Meditate. Deepen Your Practice.
Beginner’s mind, or shoshin, is the practice of approaching life and study with an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of assumptions regardless of one’s level of experience. This new, four-part series of classes led by our experienced instructors is intended for those who wish to learn about, establish, or deepen their practice of the four core practices Mindful Heart Programs teaches.
The series begins with an introduction to Mindfulness that will establish a solid foundation for the next three sessions. Participants will approach mindfulness meditation with a beginner's mind, starting with the basics:
If you're new to meditation practice, this will be a great introduction to get you started on the right foot and address confusions and pitfalls that can arise without instruction.
If you're an experienced meditator, you'll hear a fresh take that will shed light on mindfulness in a new way to enhance and deepen your practice.
The class will include lecture and instruction, short meditation practices, and discussion with Q&A. You'll learn:
How mindfulness builds three psychological and emotional skills.
Why mindfulness skills are beneficial in daily life.
What to do and how to practice at least two techniques on your own.
About ways to enjoy the pleasant aspects of life more fully and manage challenging and unpleasant experiences with greater ease and peace of mind.
When: Four Saturdays, 1-5 p.m., starting with Mindfulness on March 14
Where: Santa Barbara Middle School, Lotus Theater, 1321 Alameda Padre Serra or via our Special Events/ Retreats Zoom link.
Register: To reserve your spot, please click on the links for each session you plan to attend:
Nature Connection, April 11, with Michael Kearney and Andrew Smyth
Awake Awareness, May 2, with Radhule Weininger and Harrison Heyl
The suggested donation for each session is $30. Donations may be made in person at the door or via our website. Participants may attend the entire series or individual classes. A refreshment break will be served. Meet our teachers.
Questions? Contact us at mindfulheartprograms@gmail.com
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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. This class will be held in person. There will not be an online option.
Register: Please use this link to sign up for the class. 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.
About: 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.
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. The retreat center reports that registration will close on April 4.
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Deep Resilience 2.0: Remembering Who We Really Are
When: Saturday, May 30, 9 a.m.-4: p.m.
Where: Sedgwick Reserve, UCSB research facility and grounds, Santa Ynez Valley.
About: This day-long retreat at the beautiful Sedgwick Reserve was so popular last year that we are offering it again this year. Class size will be capped at 30 participants. The day will feature classroom lectures, guided meditation, group discussion/circle, and outdoor time on the reserve for a nature-connection vision quest. MHP faculty will include Michael Kearney, Radhule Weininger, Andrew Symth, and special guests. Refreshment breaks will be provided. Participants will bring their own lunch. Registration and continuing education units for therapists are pending.
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.