What we’re about
We provide a variety of mindfulness meditation experiences (classes, workshops, retreats, mentoring, one-to-one teaching, and therapy), including Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) 8-week classes.
"As long as you are breathing, there is more right with you than there is wrong with you, no matter how ill or hopeless you may feel." - Jon Kabat-Zinn
Our mission is to help you open up to all that you are and all that you can be through mindfulness meditation.
Mindfulness:
Mindfulness is "paying attention in a particular way, on purpose, in the present moment, without judgement" - Jon Kabat-Zinn
Mindfulness is a form of meditation that stems from Buddhism and is often referred to as Insight Meditation or Vipassina Meditation. Mindfulness meditation is not just practiced on the cushion, through sitting meditation, but it is incorporated in all that we do in our daily lives, moment by moment. In mindfulness we learn to clear our minds, open our hearts, and live life fully through our bodies. Through this process we open up to a greater sense of wholeness and wellbeing within ourselves and a vast connectedness with others and the world. As we build the muscles of mindfulness meditation, we live more fully in the present moment and experience life from a greater stillness, which aids us in relating to both ourselves and others with increased clarity, compassion, calmness and creativity, and less fear, anxiety, and stress. Thirty years of research has indicated that mindfulness meditation is associated with significant decreases in stress, pain, physical and emotional distress (including depression, anxiety, grief and loss), and improvements in sleep, energy, health outcomes, and quality of life.
TEACHERS:
NANCY BRUTSCHÉ, MSN, RN, PMHCNS-BC
STAN EISENSTEIN, MSW
Upcoming events (4+)
See all- Mindfulness-Based Care-Partnership Relationship for Chronic ConditionsZoom Video Conference, Maryland, MD
[NOTE: RSVP on this site is not sufficient for registration. In order to receive the Zoom link for the workshop, please register and pay at Insight Meditation Community of Washington (IMCW).]
ABOUT: Many of us living with chronic health conditions rely upon the support of a care-giver. The care partnership that emerges from this relationship can be challenging. The challenges can include a multitude of communication issues, being with discomfort and suffering, and – frequently – a shift in the identity of both the care provider and the person needing care, as well as the lack of control experienced by both parties. These challenges can put a strain on all aspects of the relationship, including increased conflict, adverse mental and physical health outcomes, loneliness and the experience of being overwhelmed and/or immobilized.
This introductory workshop is designed to help participants with chronic pain and illness and their care-givers to cultivate and utilize mindfulness-based skills for the purpose of helping to navigate the care-giver/care-recipient partnership more skillfully. The workshop will include a mix of meditation and mindfulness practices, personal stories and learnings, along with practical strategies and perspectives designed to nurture and empower the care-recipient/care-giver partnership.
The instructors are experienced mindfulness meditation teachers who have lived experience with chronic health issues and with caring for people with chronic health issues. They will be sharing tips, practices, and perspectives that have directly helped them in their own treatment paths.This workshop is associated with the 17-week course Inviting Chronic Pain and Illness to Tea (ICPIT) -- the next course starts in January 2025. This workshop is appropriate both for course graduates as well as for those who have not taken the ICPIT course. No meditation experience is required.
TEACHERS (Click to see bios): Stan Eisenstein, Ruth Zanoni, and Jeani George
WORKSHOP FEE: $30.
REGISTRATION: through Insight Meditation Community of Washington (IMCW)
SCHOLARSHIP AND QUESTIONS: For questions, or to apply for scholarship, please contact Stan at imcwcolumbia@gmail.com
- MEDITATIVE REPARENTING SILENT 5-DAY RETREAT - In-Person and Online HybridWellsprings Retreat Center , Germantown, MD
[NOTE: An RSVP to this Meetup event is not sufficient for registration. To register and pay for the event, please follow this link.]
ABOUT: Reparenting is a powerful process for healing stored emotional and psychic tangles that keep us stuck and suffering in our lives.
As we go through life, especially in childhood but also into adulthood, we encounter messages and challenging events that do not get resolved. These unresolved issues stick in our subconscious experience like thorns. Until they are resolved, these psychic thorns affect our mood and our capacity to navigate life challenges. New situations that remind us of the old ones that are unresolved are taken to be threatening, and we find ourselves getting unskillfully reactive.
If we are to resolve some of these psychic thorns or tangles, we need to replay the old situations that brought them about – but in a new way, a way that resolves the situation. Our younger self needed someone to help us through the challenges. We needed a parent that could attune to our needs, understand the situation, and help us to navigate the difficulty. No external parent can do this all of the time. The one who is most capable of helping your younger self through challenges is the adult self you are now. You have lived through the experience of your younger self. You know intimately what your younger self was (and is) experiencing. And you have wisdom from life that can help you to discern what your younger self most needs to help them move through the challenges and come out the other side with a sense of well-being.
In the process of reparenting, we learn to use meditative imagery and body sensations to bring our wisest adult selves to our stored younger versions of ourselves. We learn to form a relationship with these younger versions. We learn to care for them, and they learn to trust us. Once a relationship is established, we learn how to guide our younger versions of ourselves through some of the challenging situations they encountered in a way that releases the psychic thorns or tangles. Each thorn that is removed brings a sense of relief or ease that has a direct through line to your current self.
This retreat will consist of talks about stages of reparenting and caveats for how to most safely work with the process, guided meditations, periods of unguided sitting and walking meditation, and group meetings with teachers.SAMPLE TALK AND MEDITATION: Healing Conditions - The Practice of Reparenting
TEACHER: Stan Eisenstein has been guiding self-inquiry and other meditation practices since 2012. He is a teacher for the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, with founder Tara Brach. Stan is a an instructor for various courses: Mindfulness-Basted Stress Reduction; Inviting Chronic Pain and Illness to Tea; Self-Inquiry. He is also a mentor for the international Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program, taught by Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield, and run by Sounds True. You can explore Stan's bio and recordings of Stan's teachings at his website: staneisenstein.com
LOCATION: Wellspring Retreat Center in Germantown, MD or Online via Zoom Video Conferencing.
RETREAT FEES:
Single room (limited availability): $750.00
Shared room: $600.00
Camping: $500.00
Online: $300.00
Please note that retreat fees only cover direct expenses for this event, such as room, meals, and administrative costs. In keeping with the Buddhist tradition, the teachers and retreat managers receive no payment. Donations offered by students at the end of the retreat are appreciated and support the teachers and retreat managers in continuing to make the teachings available to all.QUESTIONS AND SCHOLARSHIP REQUESTS: Contact Stan at imcwcolumbia@gmail.com
TESTIMONIALS
I have no words at this moment to describe what I learned or how I benefited from attending this retreat other than to say I will carry the truths Stan so skillfully taught, the people I met, and the deep knowing found during our meditation periods with me for the rest of my life. I am profoundly changed, and grateful. ~Melanie
This was a much needed respite from the craziness of the world around us. Stan is a wonderful guide, teaching with love and kindness how to be loving and kind to ourselves during difficult times. His practices gave me a sense of calm and clearing out, and being in community with others (even over Zoom) felt so supportive. Many thanks ~Julie
- Inviting Chronic Pain and Illness to Tea - Free Intro Class - OnlineZoom Video Conference, Maryland, MD
NOTE: You must register through IMCW (see below) in order to get the link to the class.
REGISTRATION AND INFO through IMCW
ABOUT THIS SESSION: This class is a free introduction to the course, "Inviting Chronic Pain and Illness to Tea", which starts on January 23. You will have the opportunity to meet the teachers and to explore some of the principles of the course, both didactically and experientially.
ABOUT THE COURSE: “Inviting Chronic Pain and Illness to Tea” is a 4-month live, online course. The purpose of the course is to help participants come to a greater sense of well-being in the presence of chronic pain and illness.
The mindful approach to chronic pain and illness is to turn toward the experience, to gently lean in. We learn how to come to a greater sense of ease in the presence of pain and illness. We learn to return home into our bodies, instead of trying to escape. We learn how our thought processes keep us trapped, and how we can start to think differently to create greater freedom and well-being.
This mindful approach takes time to learn and integrate (hence the 4-month long course). It requires a variety of practices including:
*cultivating SELF-KINDNESS
*cultivating a deeper sense of RELAXATION as we encounter pain and illness
*learning to bring AWARENESS more fully INTO THE BODY
*noting our HABITUAL THOUGHT PATTERNS and their effects
*cultivating a sense of GRATITUDE – even for some of the aspects of our lives that challenge us
*learning to reframe our sense of IDENTITY
*spending time getting to know the pain and illness more intimately – forming a RELATIONSHIP
*becoming part of a supportive COMMUNITYDATE/TIME:
FREE INTRO CLASS: Tuesday, January 7, 1:00 - 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time
[REGISTRATION]17-WEEK COURSE: Tuesdays starting January 21, 1:00 – 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time.
[REGISTRATION]The course is run through the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, the organization started by mindfulness teacher Tara Brach.
COURSE FEE and SCHOLARSHIP: The course tuition is $700.
We are aware that many people who have chronic pain and illness may be underemployed and/or have challenging medical expenses.
SCHOLARSHIP funds are available. No-one will be turned away for lack of funds.TESTIMONIALS from Past Participants:
"I have learned so many new ways to relate to my very real challenges, with acceptance, with perspective, with self-compassion, with an understanding of the effects of negative thoughts on my body, and of needing things to be a certain way." ~Lucy
"A life changer! I have gained a new perspective on how to be ok with the disease instead of wanting it to go away....The safe space created, a sense of community for healing and growing. Being in the body instead of resisting it." ~Luciana
"The 17 weeks, alternating class with practice session was really beneficial in allowing me to fully grasp material of one class over two weeks. The small groups fostered a sense of community which was great. Stan and Ruth, both good teachers with a lot compassionate and patience, they balanced each other well." ~Mary Ellen
REGISTRATION:
FREE INTRO CLASS on January 7Learn more about the full course and teachers Stan Eisenstein and Ruth Zanoni
QUESTIONS: Contact Stan
- Intro to Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) 8-Week Course: ONLINEZoom Video Conference, Maryland, MD
NOTE: To participate, you must register at the links below. RSVP at this meetup is not sufficient.
REGISTRATION:
8-week course beginning January 23 with a free introduction class on January 9 (register for the 8-week course and, if after attending the free intro you decide not to continue, you will receive a full refund)ABOUT THE COURSE:
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is an eight-week program, developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn, that assists people who want to learn to use their own internal resources to respond more skillfully to stress, medical and psychological conditions, and promote healthy living. MBSR has been highly researched since its onset in 1979, and research strongly supports its effectiveness in improving difficulties in multiple areas of health and wellness.Some reasons people come to the group include: job, school or family stress; chronic pain; hypertension; attention deficits; enhancement of quality of life/happiness; mild or situational depression; gastrointestinal disorders; wellness and self-care; cancer; anxiety and panic; anger-management; life transitions; developing and deepening a meditation practice.
Intentional, present-moment awareness, developed through mindfulness meditation practices, helps us experience whatever is happening in our life as it unfolds with curiosity, non-judging attention, and compassion for ourselves and others. Engaging with our life in this manner helps us to become more skillful and creative in our responses while gaining insight into how to free ourselves from habitual patterns of reacting.
This program can be a complement to current medical care, as well as promotion of health and well-being.
DATES (all times Eastern Time):
Free Introductory Class: Thursday, January 9, 6:30 - 8 PM
8-Week Course: Eight Thursdays, January 23 - March 13, 6:30 - 9 PM
Daylong Retreat: Sunday, March 2, 10 AM - 4:30 PMTEACHER: Stan Eisenstein
Stan is the founder and teacher of the Columbia Insight Meditation Group (a weekly drop-in meditation and mindfulness community). Stan is a teacher for the Insight Meditation Community of Washington (IMCW) with senior teacher Tara Brach.
Stan is a mentor for the Power of Awareness meditation course and for the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program, both published by Sounds True with teachers Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield. Stan teaches Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), Mindfulness for Teens, Meeting Chronic Pain and Illness, and Deepening MBSR courses. Stan also holds daylong workshops on Relationships, Heart Practices, Forgiveness, and Working with Strong Emotions. Stan has a Master’s Degree in Social Work.
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT THE CLASS:
Follow this link to see comments by participants in recent classes.LOCATION:
The Course will be held Online. Zoom links will be sent to registrants about a week before the course beginsCOST & PAYMENT:
Introductory Class: Free (register for the 8-week course and, if after attending the intro on January 9 you decide not to continue, you will receive a full refund)Total cost of the 8-Week Course: $550
Includes 18 guided meditations in mp3 format and an online workbook.Some SCHOLARSHIP is available. For more information, contact Stan
REGISTRATION:
8-week course beginning January 23 with a free introduction class on January 9 (register for the 8-week course and, if after attending the free intro you decide not to continue, you will receive a full refund)QUESTIONS:
Contact Stan
