Mindful Life Retreat, May 10 – 13, 2018 in Auburn, CA

“Mindfulness is much more than present moment awareness, mindfulness 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

Join us for a mindfulness retreat guided by mindfulness teachers John Bruna and Laura Bartels at Mercy Retreat Center in Auburn, CA. The Mindful Life Retreat combines the practice of meditation and the practical application of mindfulness in daily life. Living mindfully empowers you to live your life with attention and intention, cultivating the skills to make healthy choices that are in alignment with your values and are meaningful to you.

Our retreat at the Mercy Retreat Center will provide you with mindfulness tools to help you reduce stress and increase inner peace, resiliency and well-being. We will focus on the four keys of living mindfully:

  • Concentration– Developing attention skills through meditation training.
  • Wisdom– Understanding one’s biases, labeling, projection and pre-judgment. Increasing emotional intelligence and learning to respond rather than react.
  • Values– Exploring your values so they can be a guiding force in your life.
  • Open heart– Developing healthy relationships and connections. Cultivating skills of compassion, loving-kindness, empathic joy and equanimity.

The retreat will include periods of silence, meditation, discussion, and journaling.  We recommend reading The Wisdom of a Meaningful Life: The Essence of Mindfulness prior to the retreat.

John Bruna, author of The Wisdom of a Meaningful Life: The Essence of Mindfulness, is a counselor, educator, mindfulness and Dharma teacher. He is the co-founder of the Mindful Life Program and director of the Way of Compassion Foundation.

Laura Bartels is the Executive Director of the Mindful Life Program and a certified mindfulness teacher.

About the location

Mercy Retreat Center

Mercy Center Auburn is a Retreat and Conference Center located in the beautiful foothills of Northern California’s Sierra Nevada mountains.

Accommodations

Mercy Retreat accommodations include 40 bedrooms in a quiet and informal community setting. Each single-occupancy bedroom is furnished with a desk, a comfortable chair for relaxation, a sink and lighted vanity mirror, and full or twin bed.

Pricing

TBD

All resident registrations are for single rooms

Registration

Registration will be open soon. Registration is through Mercy Retreat Center at http://www.mercycenter.org/retreat-calendar

Space is limited so we encourage early registration. 

For more information, call us at 970-633-0163 or email us at [email protected].

Mindfulness Foundations Course

Mindfulness Foundations Course, Nov 7 – Dec 19 in Carbondale, CO

Join the Mindful Life Program Foundations Course, November 7 – December 19 at our center

in Carbondale, Colorado. Give yourself the gift of this lively and engaging opportunity to learn to live mindfully, with attention and intention, cultivating genuine happiness and a meaningful life. The course teaches the practice of meditation and the practical application of mindfulness in daily life. Empower yourself to integrate the four key areas of mindfulness – attention, wisdom, values, and an open heart – into your life in practical, accessible and universal ways.

Concentration – Developing attention skills through meditation training.

Wisdom – Understanding one’s biases, labeling, projection and pre-judgment. Increasing emotional intelligence and learning to respond rather than react.

Values – Living a meaningful life. Developing healthy habits and responses that are in alignment with one’s personal values.

Open heart – Developing healthy relationships and connections. Cultivating skills of compassion, loving-kindness, empathic joy and equanimity.

The course has dramatically improved my life” – Recent participant

Enrollment includes:

  • 20 hours of engaging in-person class 
  • Foundations Course Companion Journal
  • Downloadable guided meditations
  • Daily practice guide

Read the full description for the course under the Programs tab, and read more feedback from recent participants here.

Dates: Tuesdays,  November 7 – December 19, 6 – 8:30 pm and Saturday, December 9, 9 – 11:30 am

Facilitator: Laura Bartels

Cost: $250. Inquire about group discounts. Payment plans and scholarships are available. Our mission is to help everyone, regardless of their ability to pay. To apply for a payment plan or scholarship, please email us (see organizer information above).

*Continuing Professional Development (CPDs) credits available for social workers, therapists, and substance abuse counselors.

*Continuing Education Units (CEUs) may be available for teachers.

Values List

Values List **click for a pdf download**

Acceptance
Accomplishment
Accountability
Achievement
Acknowledgment
Activism
Adaptability
Altruism
Ambition
Appreciation
Assertiveness
Attentiveness
Awareness
 
Balance
Beauty
Belonging
Benevolence
Bravery
 
Calmness
Candor
Care
Charity
Cheerfulness
Comfort
Commitment
Community
Compassion
Competence
Confidence
Conformity
Connection
Consciousness
Consistency
Contentment
Continuous improvement
Cooperation
Courage
Courtesy
Creativity
Credibility
Curiosity
 
Decisiveness
Democracy
Dependability
Determination
Devotion
Dignity
Diligence
Discipline
Discretion
Diversity
Drive
Duty
 
Effectiveness
Empathy
Enjoyment
Enthusiasm
Equality
Ethics
 
Fairness
Faith
Family
Fearlessness
Fidelity
Freedom
Friendliness
Fun
 
Generosity
Goodness
Grace
Gratitude
Growth
 
Happiness
Hard work
Helpfulness
Holiness
Honesty
Hopefulness
Humility
Humor
 
Impartiality
Inclusiveness
Independence
Individuality
Inner harmony
Inquisitiveness
Insightfulness
Integrity
Intelligence
Intimacy
Introspection
Intuitiveness
 
Joy
Justice
 
Kindness
 
Leadership
Legacy
Love
Loyalty
 
Making a difference
Merit
Motivation
 
Optimism
Order
Obedience
Open-mindedness
Originality
Passion
Patience
Peacefulness
Perseverance
Playfulness
Prudence
Punctuality
 
Rationality
Reasonableness
Relaxation
Reliability
Reputation
Resilience
Resolve
Resourcefulness
Respect
Responsibility
Restraint
Reverence
 
Self-actualization
Self-respect
Selflessness
Sensitivity
Serenity
Service
Sharing
Simplicity
Sincerity
Skillfulness
Spontaneity
Stability
Status
Stillness
Success
 
Teamwork
Temperance
Thoroughness
Thoughtfulness
Tolerance
Traditionalism
Trustworthiness
Truth
 
Uniqueness
Usefulness
 
Virtuous
Vitality
 
Willingness
Wisdom
Wonder
Worthiness

Free Will is a Skill – John’s TEDx Talk

On April 9, 2017, our co-founder, John Bruna, had the honor of presenting at the TEDx event hosted by California State University, Long Beach.  You can view the video of his moving and insightful talk below. 

Emotional Vocabulary List

Emotional Vocabulary List **click for pdf download** Acquiescent Affectionate Aggressive Alarmed Amazed Amused Angry Animosity Annoyed Anxious Apathetic Apprehensive Ardent Awestruck   Benevolent Bewildered Bitter Blissful Bored Brave   Caring Cautious […]