Events
Weekly Relational Mindfulness in Isla Vista
This class is on holiday break and will resume in January.
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Join Us Dec. 13 for an Inter-faith Gathering
Topic: Navigate the Holiday Season with Grace and Envision New Beginnings: An Inter-faith Gathering led by Radhule Weininger, with guests representing various faith traditions
When: Saturday, Dec. 13, 2-5 p.m.
Where: La Casa de Maria, 800 El Bosque Road, Montecito (enter through the gate and follow the MHP signs to the Terrace Room)
Register: Space is limited. Please use this link to register by Thursday, Dec. 11 if you plan to attend in person. To join from home via Zoom, visit the meditation page and click on the Special Events/Retreats button. The suggested donation for this retreat is $30.
Program: These are tumultuous times. Many people are experiencing a profound sense of spiritual homesickness and longing for a deeper connection and meaning in life. The retreat will focus on clarification of values, spiritual reconnection, and community support. A panel comprised of local faith leaders representing Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Indigenous, and nature connection spiritual traditions will answer these questions: 1. What do you see as the most important spiritual value we need to cultivate in society right now? 2. What is one teaching or practice from your tradition that would help support this value? 3. What change in the world would make you most happy to see right now? The day will include guided meditation practice, music, and refreshments.
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December Moonrise Meditation + Sound Bath
Friday, Dec. 5, 7-8 p.m., with Peter Moreno
Santa Barbara Middle School, 1321 Alameda Padre Serra
Watch the moon rise, meditate, and enjoy a soothing sound bath with crystal bowls and bells. Bring a jacket, portable chair, and blanket for outdoor viewing. We will meet in the school’s Lotus Theater if the weather is not good. Follow the MHP signs and look for red blinking lights. There is a large parking lot on the campus. The suggested donation for this event is $10. It will not be available via Zoom. If you plan to attend, please notify Peter at 805-453-1813 by noon on Dec. 5.
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Effortless Mindfulness on Dec. 6
Afternoon Retreat with Radhule Weininger
Saturday, December 6, 2-4:30pm
28 Parker Way, Santa Barbara
This class is sponsored by Yoga Soup. Visit Yoga Soup’s class schedule listings to register. There is a $30 fee. Reminder: Mindful Heart Programs offers a sound bath and guided awake-awareness practice every Monday from 7-8:15 p.m. at Yoga Soup. Donations are gratefully accepted.
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Deep Resilience Zoom Sessions
Michael Kearney teaches two weekly Wednesday sessions on deep resilience: 9-10 a.m. and 7-8 p.m. Pacific time. The course features a mix of didactic, experiential, and interactive teaching methods. To join via Zoom, click on https://www.mindfulheartprograms.org/meditate, then click on the Daily Meditations/Weekly Meetings button. All are welcome to join.
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Sustainable Compassion Practices
Michael also leads meditation sessions based on Lama John Makransky's sustainable compassion practices on Thursdays from 10-11 a.m. To join via Zoom, click on https://www.mindfulheartprograms.org/meditate, then click on the Daily Meditations/Weekly Meetings button. Visit https://sustainablecompassion.org/ to learn more about these practices and view Makransky’s book on “How Compassion Works.”
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Retreats at La Casa de Maria
Interfaith Gathering on Dec. 13 Please refer to the notice at the top of the page for information about this half-day retreat.
The following dates and times are tentative. Registration links are not yet available.
Beginning the New Year with Awake Awareness and Love
Saturday, Jan. 24, 10 a.m-4 p.m., with Radhule Weininger
This full-day meditation retreat will allow us to begin the New Year with intention and love. Sustainable Compassion practice will allow us to meet life with an open heart that does not burn out. Loving Awareness meditation will give us the tools we need to ground ourselves in a deeper stream and stay connected to our spiritual home.
Meeting Fear and Doubt with Fullness of Heart
Saturday, Feb. 7, 2-5 p.m., with Radhule Weininger
We will learn about and practice ways to face our worries and existential questions with grace and skill. This retreat offers a safe and open place where we can cultivate deep resilience, a connection with the deepest ground, and enduring, loving compassion.
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.