Mindfulness Group Practice
Do You Want To Strengthen Your Mindfulness Practice, But You Don’t Know Where To Start?
Are you feeling stuck, depressed, anxious, and at a loss for answers? Do you feel unable to control your thoughts and emotions? Are you looking for something different than ordinary talk therapy? Have you looked into mindfulness, but you’re not sure if it’s right for you?
Maybe you’ve tried mindfulness before and found it ineffective. The skills you learned may have been very surface-level. The practitioners who taught you may not have been as knowledgeable as you would’ve liked. It’s possible you didn’t get the relief you were hoping for from meditation. Perhaps you hit a plateau in your practice and couldn’t seem to progress any further. Or maybe you’re hesitant about meditation for religious reasons—people have told you that meditation is incompatible with your beliefs.
In our weekly group sessions, we are confident that we can help you reframe your perspective on mindfulness and create a practice where you get out what you put in. We want to help you gain insight, manage stressful life transitions, free yourself from negative thoughts, and experience deeper healing in your mind, body, and spirit.
Many People Struggle To Find Meditation Programs That Are Authentically Spiritual
In spite of how global it is today, mindfulness meditation only entered the West fairly recently. As a result, it’s common for practitioners to learn about meditation through a secondhand source and only experience the benefits superficially. Mindfulness gurus are a dime-a-dozen these days, but few in the West are truly educated about it.
The good news is that our mindfulness practitioner, Zaw Maw, grew up as a novice monk in Burma. This adds an element of authenticity that is rarely found in practices nowadays. The Burmese language has traces of Pali in it, which is the language spoken in Buddha’s day and is one of the world’s oldest languages. In Burma, Buddhist teaching has been preserved and carried along into the present day. This gives Zaw Maw access to the spirit of the original teachings, which he can share with you in sessions.
Mindfulness Practices Can Seem Foreign And Intimidating To People In The West
There’s a deeper reason that lots of people turn to less-than-helpful mindfulness programs. Many of them feel intimidated by Buddhist meditation and the foreignness of it all—the Sanskrit and Pali terms, the ancient history, etc. They feel that meditation is abstract, mysterious, and at odds with their beliefs.
What’s more, many people feel more comfortable with a practitioner who’s Western, hip, and talks like them. The image of a Buddhist monk in a long-flowing robe isn’t exactly relatable to most people. Here at Recovery Collective, we aim to find the middle ground between these two extremes. We want to help you uncover the nitty-gritty of mindfulness, yet do so in a way that’s deeply practical and relatable.
The Fundamentals Of Our Practice
Our approach to meditation is adapted from the Four Foundations of Mindfulness from the Theravada Buddhist Tradition. These foundations are four “objects” of meditation, or things you can focus your awareness on while you meditate. They are 1) the material world, 2) feelings and emotions, 3), mental states, and 4) the nature of reality.
These objects of contemplation will help you understand that all things are ultimately impermanent, unsatisfactory, and impersonal. You will learn to stop being attached to what’s external—your wants, your stressors, and your relationships with others—and pay more attention to what’s internal. You’ll understand how to respond to internal experiences and relate to the outside world with inner harmony. After all, the one thing that doesn’t change in your life is you. That’s why we want you to cultivate a deeper relationship with yourself.
You will have mindfulness and meditation tools that you can draw from at any time. In the end, our hope is that meditation can help you expand your self-awareness, reduce your depression and anxiety, and find serenity in hard times.
How The Buddhist Approach Was Inspired By My Life Experiences
Being born and raised in Burma, Buddhism as a way of life was already chosen for me since from the beginning. Being in the background as a great resource, Buddhism took three major transitional phases in my life looking back – first, it was as a tradition that I took for granted as part of Burmese culture; second, it was as a subject of philosophy when I studied it academically from a Yale graduate professor while preparing to come to the US for college; third, it was as a practice and a way of life when I got into recovery myself, family life, and as a first-generation immigrant in a foreign country away from home. Having stated all that, this is the approach that has consistently worked for me through thick and thin in my life – with the core principles of Buddhism such as the Noble Eightfold Path, the Four Noble Truths, and the Three Characteristics of Existence, I was always reminded to look inward at every turning points in my life that not only helped me get through challenging times but also coming out stronger on the other side with more integrity. I am inspired by a sense of duty to make this approach available to whomever needs it and whomever can benefit from it.
You May Have Some Questions About Group Meditation…
I know people who tried meditation and it didn’t work for them. How will it work for me?
The key to meditation is consistency, not intensity. A lot of people try to meditate with too much intensity at first, only to become frustrated and end up quitting. Here at Recovery Collective, we like to start slowly and help you build your mindfulness practice gradually. We want to help you set achievable goals for yourself and understand that you don’t have to meditate “perfectly.” it’s okay if your mind wanders and you have trouble concentrating. All of this is normal in building a mindfulness practice.
Why should I come to a group instead of doing this myself?
A facilitator like Zaw Maw can help support your real-life skills for de-stressing, improve the quality of your life, and stay accountable and on track with your personal goals. What’s more, trying to build a meditation routine on your own is hard. No matter how dedicated you are, many of the resources out there are superficial and unhelpful.
What if I don’t have time for mindfulness?
Mindfulness doesn’t have to be time-consuming. We don’t expect you to set aside hours a day to practice. Coming into a supportive group setting once a week can be a great step toward establishing a foundational habit. What’s more, we like to emphasize the importance of mindful living. You don’t have to sit in stillness all the time—sometimes you might practice being mindful when you’re eating, exercising, spending quality time with loved ones, or out in nature. It’s all about what works for you.
Let Us Help You Find Stillness And Serenity In Difficult Times
If you want to practice mindfulness but you’re not sure where to begin, we would be honored to help you find your way. To get started, you can call 240-813-8135. We look forward to hearing from you!
