Mindfulness Tools for Challenging Times

The cultivation of skills and practices to foster well-being in challenging times will be the focus of this four-week course. Drawing upon the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) curriculum, these practices have consistently demonstrated positive outcomes beneficial to beginner and experienced practitioners. Evidence-based effects include greater resilience, healthier coping skills, improved pain management, along with decreased anxiety and depression. Each session will include a short teacher talk linking elements of the course content to the wisdom traditions, theory, and emergent science supporting the practice.

Topics to be covered include

1. Cultivation of self-compassion and loving kindness
2. Skillful responding to the unwanted circumstances of life
3. Practices to work with emotional and physical pain
4. Mindful communications

Workshop Leader: David Patterson

David Patterson, Ph.D. is a professor emeritus in the College of Social Work at the University of Tennessee. He is a Brown University Mindfulness Center Certified MBSR Teacher with a daily sitting practice for more than three decades. Over the years, he has trained a wide array of individuals and groups in mindfulness practices. For five years, he taught the MBSR 8-week course to UT graduate students in social work, counseling, and psychology. Here at the Meaningful Life Center,  he has taught several mindfulness courses including Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction.