Grand Lake, CO

New Mindful Life Retreats

 
Shadowcliff Meeting Facility
In 2017, we invite you to join us for our new series of Mindful Life Retreats. These residential retreats offer participants the opportunity to deepen their understanding and practice of meditation and living mindfully. Our first scheduled retreats take place in Australia, followed by retreats in Colorado and California. We invite you to join co-founder Mark Molony in Westernport Bay in Corinella February 17 -19 or March 17 – 19. In the US, our first will be June 8 – 11 in Grand Lake, CO at Shadowcliff Retreat Center led by Executive Director Laura Bartels and on August 24 – 27, we will be at Mercy Retreat Center in Auburn, CA with both Laura Bartels and John Bruna. We will be adding additional locations and dates in the future. Space will be limited so we do encourage registering early.  
Mindfulness in Recovery Community Launches

Mindfulness in Recovery Community Launches in January 

We are very excited to announce the launch of our new Mindfulness in Recovery Community. We are currently fine tuning all of the components and it will become fully active in January of 2017.

The Mindfulness in Recovery Community is an inclusive recovery support program, open to anyone with a sincere desire for recovery. Our goal is to provide daily mindfulness activities and support to enhance our members’ current 12 Step program and to provide mindfulness tools and resources for those not in 12 Step programs.

It is our firm conviction that everyone, regardless of race, religion, gender or orientation deserves to live a meaningful and happy life in recovery. It is our belief that this can best be accomplished when people have the resources and tolls to live a life they find meaningful, a life that is in alignment with their own values and allows them to flourish. We will share an announcement as soon as we are ready to accept members.

Enhancing Resilience in Firefighters Mindfully

by Mark Molony

For the past 15 years I have had the honor to work with an amazing group of professional firefighters from the local fire service in the Melbourne area which numbers approximately 2,200 firefighters. More recently, I have been incorporating the foundational practices of the Mindful life Program in assisting firefighters to developing resilience as they navigate the effects of their work. My role is as a part time consultant mental health worker supporting firefighters to maintain their well-being and mental health while they continue to work in a challenging emergency response role. Our firefighters, like many around the world, also work as first responders to medical emergencies where patients are non-breathing and non-responsive. These life and death calls can be very challenging for firefighters. As part of my role, I keep an eye out for all the different types of stress and traumatic situations firefighters are exposed to and work to restore and enhance their personal resilience.

One way I work with firefighters is by providing a service called a “well-being check”. This well-being check is the mental health equivalent of regular medical monitoring or physical health check ups by a doctor. In these well-being checks, I share about what can lower our resilience. I explore symptoms of stress, anxiety, depression and trauma, using some screening questionnaires and by reviewing significant life events that have impacted them in the past year. Together, we also explore beliefs and actions that support well-being and human flourishing. As a result of this well-being check, we develop a plan for the individual firefighter for the next year that will continue to build their resilience. The fire crews are usually very enthusiastic about their well-being checks, especially when I let them know that the aim is to help them maintain their own awareness, well-being and resilience while they are helping rescue others in our community.

As a result of my individual conversations with firefighters, I am able to have a very honest discussion about what helps to promote well-being and resilience. I introduce mindfulness, the practice of noticing and monitoring how you are in the present moment while actively remembering what are the important considerations in your life that you wish to take care of.

“The practice of mindfulness is much more than present moment awareness. It includes and facilitates the cultivation of concentration, wisdom and the ability to make healthy choices that foster genuine happiness and a meaningful life.” – John Bruna

These discussions often promote great interest as firefighters can be challenged by remembering many distressing and traumatic situations. These memories can trigger off some very strong emotions and reactions. After observing hundreds of firefighters in my professional practice over 15 years, one of their major strategies for dealing with these symptoms is keeping themselves very busy. It is common to see firefighters working two jobs and/or undertaking large projects, volunteering and undertaking charity work to keep themselves occupied. This busy behaviour is often highly productive, yet can also be driven by trying to avoid the difficult feelings, memories and thoughts that appear when you stop. We all can experience this when we stop being occupied and let our minds wander. Often the wandering mind will roam to areas of worry and concern. The practice of mindfulness and mindfulness meditation allows firefighters to calm and settle themselves and be present. This is often a pleasant contrast to the busy avoidance behaviours that keep them active and filling large chunks of their waking hours.

I have been delighted to see the beneficial impact that the foundational practices of the Mindful life Program has had in assisting individual firefighters to start developing a mindfulness practice. As a population, our firefighters tend to be practical, no nonsense types who want down to earth, grounded and simple strategies. So the design of the Mindful Life Program to be practical, universal and accessible works well. The mindfulness practices work at both a preventative and remedial level by assisting them to maintain higher levels of resilience to deal with their emergency responder roles and helping to reduce and cease distressing reactions after difficult personal and traumatic incidents. I look forward in the future to introducing a pilot mindfulness training for recruit firefighters and monitor their progress to more effectively validate the impact of the mindfulness training.

Mindfulness in Recovery

The Vision of the Mindfulness in Recovery Program- April, 2016

We are very excited to launch our new Mindfulness in Recovery program!

This has been a vision of our co-founder, John Bruna, for many years and it has now come to fruition. Drawing upon his 31 years in recovery, experience as a substance abuse counselor, educator, Buddhist monastic, and mindfulness teacher, we have integrated the tools and resources of our mindfulness community with specific meditations and resources for people in recovery.

The mission of Mindfulness in Recovery is to provide our members with skills, activities, and support to cultivate mindfulness in their daily lives, empowering them to make healthy choices that are in alignment with their personal values and beliefs, so they can live meaningful lives in recovery.

Mindfulness in Recovery is an inclusive recovery support program, open to anyone with a sincere desire for recovery. Our goal is to provide daily mindfulness activities and support that enhance our members current 12 Step program and to provide mindfulness tools and resources for those not in 12 Step programs.

How it Works – The program is facilitated through the Mindful Life Community. Anyone can join. Just go to www.mindfulnessinrecovery.com to sign up. Like all of the members of the Mindful Life Community, members receive daily emails with lessons, inspiration and activities to help them engage in the day with attention and intention. Members also have an additional section with meditations and resources specific to supporting their life in recovery.

We welcome and support members of all faiths, spiritual traditions, and those of no spiritual tradition. We do not promote any particular faith or belief system. It is our firm conviction that everyone, regardless of race, religion, gender, or orientation, deserves to live a meaningful and happy life in recovery. It is our belief that this can be accomplished when people have the resources and tools to live the life they find meaningful – with attention and intention. A life that is in alignment with their own values and allows them to flourish.

 

John Bruna to Speak at Google, Facebook and BookExpo America – April, 2016

It is an honor for John to be now scheduled to speak about his upcoming book in a variety of venues. In May, John will be in Chicago for BookExpo America. After the book release this summer, the schedule includes a talk at Google and Facebook’s headquarters near San Francisco at the beginning of August. Public events in the Bay Area are also being scheduled. Later in August, he’ll attend the National Conference on Addiction Disorders in Denver with the publisher, Central Recovery Press. He’s also scheduled to speak at public libraries throughout Colorado in the fall with more locations coming. We’ll be sure to share dates as the details are finalized.

The book is described as a rich and multilayered guide that offers readers accessible wisdom and practical methods to cultivate deeper satisfaction in everyday experiences. In contrast to stimulus-driven pleasure, contentment comes from living a life of meaning that aligns with one’s values. The author identifies the common traps people fall into looking for happiness that actually create stress, worries, and fears, and offers authentic mindfulness-based solutions to counteract them.

If you missed the reviews we shared in in our last newsletter, here are a few.

“This text un-complicates and brings clarity to concepts that have been both overused and misused in popular literature. Simply written, and yet, profound. A practical and accessible guide to cultivating a healthy mind. John Bruna’s work is enduring and brilliant!” – Rebecca Willow, Ed.D., LPC, Associate Professor, Gannon University

“John Bruna’s kind, loving presence is infused in these pages where he shares many tools along with simply stated wisdom that guide us to a more meaningful life of contented happiness. From his years as a Buddhist Monk and in recovery John has gained the insight and clarity to offer deep wisdom in clear accessible language. He is a skilled communicator, committed in word and deed to helping others find the path to true freedom and transformational living. John is a natural storyteller and this book resonates with his big heart, authenticity, and humor.” – Peter Kuhn, Zen Buddhist Priest, Twelve-step Buddhist workshop, group, and retreat facilitator, writer and jazz musician

“What a welcome offering John Bruna provides us in his new book, The Wisdom of a Meaningful Life: The Essence of Mindfulness. Not only does Bruna recast traditional Buddhist teachings on mindfulness practice in a contemporary, and scientifically grounded new key, but he goes beyond the emphasis on meditation practice alone and adds his distinct and fresh perspective on the importance of ethical action. It is this skilled translation of mindfulness into right action that generates wellbeing, inner peace, and happiness. Most compellingly, Bruna illustrates his teaching with powerful examples from his own experience of transformation from addiction to freedom.” – Rev. David McCallum, S.J., Ed.D, Special Assistant to the President for Mission Integration, Le Moyne College