WELL 14 — Playful Mindfulness: A Journey to Everyday Confidence, Calm, and Connection
Quarter: Summer
Instructor(s): Ted DesMaisons
Date(s): Jun 28—Jun 29
Class Recording Available: No
Class Meeting Day: Saturday and Sunday
Grade Restriction: No letter grade
Class Meeting Time: 10:00 am—5:00 pm (PT)
Tuition: $445
Refund Deadline: Jun 21
Unit(s): 1
Enrollment Limit: 30
Status: Open
Quarter: Summer
Day: Saturday and Sunday
Duration: 2 days
Time: 10:00 am—5:00 pm (PT)
Date(s): Jun 28—Jun 29
Unit(s): 1
Tuition: $445
Refund Deadline: Jun 21
Instructor(s): Ted DesMaisons
Grade Restriction: No letter grade
Enrollment Limit: 30
Recording Available: No
Status: Open
Our current world and all our relationships in it often leave us breathless and frustrated. Mindfulness—paying attention to the present moment with curiosity and kindness—helps us slow down, take a breath, and befriend the inner resources that lead to discovery, delight, and a life well lived. Integrating insights and exercises from mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) with those from improvisational theater, this immersive, experiential course will help you forge new neural pathways and develop a more connected personal presence. While mindfulness training sometimes takes on a somber or even pious tone (This is serious stuff!), in this course, we choose a different track, learning to “play attention” through traditional methods and through humor, games, and exercises drawn from the wisdom of applied improvisation. Our topics will include relationship to failure, paying attention, cultivating curiosity and kindness, the mind as storyteller, moving from reactivity to response, and mindfulness in motion. Learning modes will include formal mindfulness practices, informal activities that integrate the skills we are learning into daily life, and shared inquiry using safe small- and large-group discussions to draw wisdom from the whole group.
No previous improv or mindfulness experience is necessary. We make a conscious effort to create a welcoming learning space for everyone.
TED DESMAISONS
Founder and Principal, ANIMA Learning
Ted DesMaisons is a trained mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) instructor and has studied, performed, and taught improvisation internationally. He has studied intensively with voice and presence coach Patsy Rodenburg and earned recognition as a Patsy Rodenburg Associate. He co-hosts the Monster Baby podcast on improvisation and mindfulness and is the author of Playful Mindfulness. DesMaisons received an MBA from Stanford and an MTh from Harvard. Textbooks for this course:
(Required) Ted DesMaisons, Playful Mindfulness: a joyful journey to everyday confidence, calm, and connection (ISBN 978-1950373000)
(Required) Mark Williams, Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World (ISBN 978-1609618957)
(Recommended) Patricia Ryan Madson, Improv Wisdom (ISBN 978-1400081882)
(Required) Mark Williams, Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World (ISBN 978-1609618957)
(Recommended) Patricia Ryan Madson, Improv Wisdom (ISBN 978-1400081882)