Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction 8-week Online Course
Hosted by: Unitarian-Universalist Church of Concord, NH
Open to: church members, friends and general public
Teacher: Margaret Fletcher
Location: All class meetings will happen online
Required Orientation Class: Monday, January 22, 2024, 6-8:00 pm
Dates: Mondays, Jan. 29 – March 18; All-Day Session Saturday, March 9
Time: Mondays, 6-8:30pm; Saturday, March 9, 9am-4:30pm
Cost: This program is freely offered by the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Concord, NH. Donations are gratefully accepted to support the work of the church.
Contact Info: Margaret at margaret@margaretwpfletcher.com
Mindfulness invites each of us into an intimate, clear and wise relationship with the moments of our lives. When we practice attending to life with curiosity and good-hearted interest, what we discover can inform and transform us. We can move beyond the known and the habitual, release what no longer benefits us and step into life with freshness and newfound freedom.
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is an intensive 8-week program that teaches participants how to consciously and systematically apply mindfulness, in order to connect with what is genuine, true and healing within each of us. The program was originally developed at the University of Massachusetts Medical School’s Center for Mindfulness. In this program, participants engage to improve their ability to face difficulties, to manage the challenges of life, and to be with and enjoy all that life has to offer. MBSR training provides a proven means for helping people to reduce symptoms and discomfort associated with physical and emotional pain and to improve a person’s ability to comfortably be with stressors and pain that cannot be eliminated. Practices of gentle yoga and meditation will be used to cultivate a sustained, awake way of being, during both formal practice as well as the ordinary moments in everyday life. Benefits can include reduction of stress, fatigue, anxiety and physical or psychological pain, and can include an increased sense of aliveness, joy, connection and well-being. The program asks the following of each participant:
*Complete a pre-program questionnaire to help the teacher get to know you
*Attend all online sessions: orientation, eight classes and the retreat class
*Practice for about one hour each day between class meetings, following recorded meditations and daily life assignments
*Participate in the group with respect and goodwill for yourself and others
*Bring a beginner’s mindset; engage with curiosity and humility
*Commit to yourself, the group and the learning protocol for 8 weeks
All sessions are held via Zoom. Participants are asked to join via laptop placed on a stable surface with a high-speed internet connection, situated in a relatively uninterrupted space. We’ll use natural backgrounds rather than image-based backdrops. Well-functioning speakers and microphones are required. (Please, no tablets or phones.) Zoom sessions will be recorded in the event someone needs them for a make-up session.
Margaret Fletcher trained and is certified to teach MBSR through the Center for Mindfulness at UMass Medical School, where she also served as an MBSR Teacher and MBSR Teacher Trainer. She trained with senior trainers at Bangor and Oxford Universities in assessing teacher competency using the MBI-TAC tool and is certified as a “calibrated MBI-TAC rater” in assessing MBSR teaching. Margaret is on the Eco-Advisory Committee of the Bess Family Foundation, whose focus is on addressing the climate crisis using the tools of mindfulness and meditation. Margaret is a founding member, featured teacher and advisor to the Anticancer Lifestyle Foundation, where she offers evidence-based mindfulness practices to help cancer survivors protect themselves from recurrences and flourish in their lives. Margaret brings over two decades of experience in teaching meditation and mindfulness in corporate, small business, non-profit, church and community settings. Her personal practice began with her teacher, Norman Scrimshaw, with whom she co-founded and led a NH non-dual meditation community, White Mountain Sangha. Margaret’s loves include the Earth, her family, her neighborhood, her gardens, all things fabric- and fiber-related, and helping people come alive.
