Your Stories

When did you first start practicing mindfulness and why were you motivated to do so?

I first started practicing mindfulness in June 1989.  I attended a four-day Stephen Levine workshop entitled “Conscious Living, Conscious Dying” at Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY.  Beforehand, I truly had no idea who Steven Levine was or that mindfulness meditation was part of the workshop.  I simply had done my own personal grief work and wanted to attend the workshop as a way of preparing to leave my job as a clinical social worker at a child guidance clinic and then do hospice social work.  After the workshop I began meditating 10 minutes a day and have continued meditating ever since.

Of note, the following year in 1990 I joined a group of spiritually minded therapists and attended a week long workshop on “Holotropic Breathing” given by Stan and Christina Grof. They were accompanied by some guy named Jack Kornfield, of whom I had never heard.  As in the previous year, I had no idea that mindfulness meditation would be part of the workshop.  I was grateful it was....Jack's presence and mindfulness sittings proved to be the “container” for the week!

Location: Warren, Michigan

When did you first start practicing mindfulness and why were you motivated to do so?

I started practicing mindfulness back when I worked as a Code Enforcement Officer. Dealing with the public every day, I needed to look at everything from a different perspective; thinking more of the effect of actions, not just the emotion of those actions.

Did you take a class? If so, what sort of class did you take?

No, I just started talking with the monks at the vihar near my home. I literally just walked in one day.