Philadelphia Yearly Meeting

of the Religious Society of Friends

Mindfulness

Hope Leans Forward

Written on:

An online series with Valerie Brown offering tools and practices to navigate these challenging times. 

Two consecutive Saturdays, 10:00am-11:30am Eastern Time (US & Canada) in collaboration with Woodbrooke Study Centre.

We are being pulled apart and broken-open by the global pandemic, violence, racial injustice, climate crisis, etc. This course will equip you with tools and practices to navigate these high-stress, high-anxiety times.

Based on Valerie’s latest book, Hope Leans Forward: Braving Your Way toward Simplicity, Awakening, and Peace (Broadleaf, 2022), this course will cover skill-building, evidence-based mindfulness practice, and soul-amplifying questions grounded in Quaker faith and practice that go to the heart of discerning your life purpose, meaning, and direction and supporting you to live your best self now.

In these highly interactive sessions, we’ll explore the Buddhist Seven Factors of Awakening, including:

  • Choose bravely when conditions are uncertain and ambiguous.
  • Examine unconscious patterns that hold you back.
  • Reflect on what matters most with soul-amplifying questions.
  • Align your values with your work for a greater sense of purpose and meaning.
  • Cultivate body intelligence and body awareness.
  • Show yourself real kindness through self-compassion.

Hope Leans Forward

Written on:

An online series with Valerie Brown offering tools and practices to navigate these challenging times. 

Two consecutive Saturdays, 10:00am-11:30am Eastern Time (US & Canada) in collaboration with Woodbrooke Study Centre.

We are being pulled apart and broken-open by the global pandemic, violence, racial injustice, climate crisis, etc. This course will equip you with tools and practices to navigate these high-stress, high-anxiety times.

Based on Valerie’s latest book, Hope Leans Forward: Braving Your Way toward Simplicity, Awakening, and Peace (Broadleaf, 2022), this course will cover skill-building, evidence-based mindfulness practice, and soul-amplifying questions grounded in Quaker faith and practice that go to the heart of discerning your life purpose, meaning, and direction and supporting you to live your best self now.

In these highly interactive sessions, we’ll explore the Buddhist Seven Factors of Awakening, including:

  • Choose bravely when conditions are uncertain and ambiguous.
  • Examine unconscious patterns that hold you back.
  • Reflect on what matters most with soul-amplifying questions.
  • Align your values with your work for a greater sense of purpose and meaning.
  • Cultivate body intelligence and body awareness.
  • Show yourself real kindness through self-compassion.

Mindful Mondays

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The Friends Counseling Service of PYM is sponsoring an online, 4-session series on mindfulness meditation this winter, led by Deborah Cooper of Germantown Monthly Meeting.

Together we will learn how to bring mindfulness practice into our daily lives. We will investigate ways in which this practice can begin to bring us a sense of increased well-being and decreased suffering as we negotiate the inevitable challenges which confront us every day.

Join on Mondays from January 23 to February 13, at 2:30-3:30 pm, for a brief talk, a guided meditation, and a time for questions and comments.

Come for one class or the entire series, as your schedule permits. These are free events; at registration you will be asked if you would like to make an optional, as-led contribution.

Register→

Mindful Mondays

Written on:

The Friends Counseling Service of PYM is sponsoring an online, 4-session series on mindfulness meditation this winter, led by Deborah Cooper of Germantown Monthly Meeting.

Together we will learn how to bring mindfulness practice into our daily lives. We will investigate ways in which this practice can begin to bring us a sense of increased well-being and decreased suffering as we negotiate the inevitable challenges which confront us every day.

Join on Mondays from January 23 to February 13, at 2:30-3:30 pm, for a brief talk, a guided meditation, and a time for questions and comments.

Come for one class or the entire series, as your schedule permits. These are free events; at registration you will be asked if you would like to make an optional, as-led contribution.

Register→

Mindful Mondays

Written on:

The Friends Counseling Service of PYM is sponsoring an online, 4-session series on mindfulness meditation this winter, led by Deborah Cooper of Germantown Monthly Meeting.

Together we will learn how to bring mindfulness practice into our daily lives. We will investigate ways in which this practice can begin to bring us a sense of increased well-being and decreased suffering as we negotiate the inevitable challenges which confront us every day.

Join on Mondays from January 23 to February 13, at 2:30-3:30 pm, for a brief talk, a guided meditation, and a time for questions and comments.

Come for one class or the entire series, as your schedule permits. These are free events; at registration you will be asked if you would like to make an optional, as-led contribution.

Register→

Mindful Mondays

Written on:

The Friends Counseling Service of PYM is sponsoring an online, 4-session series on mindfulness meditation this winter, led by Deborah Cooper of Germantown Monthly Meeting.

Together we will learn how to bring mindfulness practice into our daily lives. We will investigate ways in which this practice can begin to bring us a sense of increased well-being and decreased suffering as we negotiate the inevitable challenges which confront us every day.

Join on Mondays from January 23 to February 13, at 2:30-3:30 pm, for a brief talk, a guided meditation, and a time for questions and comments.

Come for one class or the entire series, as your schedule permits. These are free events; at registration you will be asked if you would like to make an optional, as-led contribution.

Register→

The Sacred and Eternal Present Moment

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A Seven-Day Mindfulness Meditation Retreat On Campus with Mary Grace Orr, Anne Briggs, and Rebecca Kronlage.

In order to find inner peace and wisdom, virtually every spiritual lineage stresses the importance of learning to plumb the depths of the present moment. The simple techniques of mindfulness and kindness, taught by the Buddha, teach us to do just that. This silent retreat will have periods of sitting and walking meditation, yoga practice, opportunities to talk with a teacher, and formal presentations. It is suitable for both beginners and experienced students and for people of all faith traditions.

New Year’s: Open Heart, Peaceful Mind

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An in-person retreat for rest and reflection with Valerie Brown.

For more than 15 years, hundreds of people have welcomed the New Year at Pendle Hill with the gift of this retreat designed to rest, reflect, renew, and restore. At these times of high stress and high anxiety, we need now, more than ever, to exhale deeply and feel fully nourished through resilience-building, heart-opening, and peace-making practices. We can’t do this alone. We need a caring and supportive community and space and time to be nurtured and supported.

This retreat includes periods of silence, reflection, group discussion, creative arts, walks in nature, deep relaxation, and mindful movement. Savor guided meditation and extended periods of silence to deepen discernment about how to live your best self as you close the year and enter the New Year.

You will learn how to:

  • Choose bravely when conditions are uncertain and ambiguous.
  • Reflect on what matters most with soul-amplifying questions.
  • Align your values with your work for a greater sense of purpose and meaning.
  • Cultivate body intelligence and body awareness.
  • Show yourself real kindness through self-compassion.

Surrounded by a supportive and caring community, you will restore balance and calm, and feel uplifted toward the best version of you. Return home with tools to create greater peace and hope in your life.

This year’s retreat is based on Valerie’s latest book, Hope Leans Forward: Braving Your Way toward Awakening, Simplicity, and Peace (Broadleaf 2022).

Hope Leans Forward: Braving Your Way Toward Simplicity, Awakening, and Peace

Written on:

A First Monday lecture online with Valerie Brown, exploring themes from her new book from Broadleaf press.

Daily we are asked to stretch in the direction of goodness, kindness, forgiveness, patience, and vulnerability. Yet life’s fragility, fear, and anxiety, and our own self-sabotage can derail us from growing and thriving, leaving us stuck, fractured, and constantly second-guessing ourselves. How can we gain greater self-awareness and bravery to break these patterns?

Based on Valerie’s latest book, Hope Leans Forward: Braving Your Way toward Simplicity, Awakening, and Peace (Broadleaf, 2022), this highly interactive lecture will explore using the Buddhist teachings on the Seven Factors of Awakening and the wisdom of Quaker faith and practice to:

  • Choose bravely when conditions are uncertain and ambiguous;
  • Examine unconscious patterns that hold you back;
  • Reflect on what matters most with soul-amplifying questions;
  • Align your values with your work for a greater sense of purpose and meaning;
  • Cultivate body intelligence and body awareness;
  • Show yourself real kindness through self-compassion.

How Can the Practice of Mindfulness Benefit Friends?

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We live in a fast-paced world, with a constant stream of input from email, news, texts, and social media. Whether we are working from home or are in retirement, we are bombarded with so much stimulation that the still small voice inside is easily crowded out, and we lose our grounding.

Mindfulness meditation is a spiritual practice that has its origin in the teachings of the Buddha and has been described as “learning to become aware, in the moment, of exactly what is happening, without judgement.” (Jon Kabat-Zinn) As we learn to quiet the mind by centering our awareness on the body or the breath, we begin to slow down, the mind becomes quieter, and we become more receptive to the voice of the Spirit. [Read more…] about How Can the Practice of Mindfulness Benefit Friends?

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