Workshops/Courses

SPRING 2025

New Four-Week Mindfulness Course with Facility Dog

Applications closed.

Are you interested in developing a mindfulness practice to support your health and wellbeing? Or to use in your work, for example in the classroom or educational setting? The Center for Contemplative Practices at �� partners with the �� Facility Dog Program to bring you this free four-week introductory mindfulness course. This is an opportunity to explore the practice of mindfulness within a trusted and trusting community of humans and our facility dog Frank.

Research shows that Facility/Therapy Dog (F/T Dog) programs reduce stress, boost feel-good hormones, and enhance mental well-being. Their presence fosters a healthier campus environment, promoting trust, collaboration, and a sense of belonging among students, faculty, staff, and the community. This program promotes mental health and aims to create a supportive, connected campus experience. The �� Facilty dog Frank is a Golden Doodle and is considered to be hypoallergenic as he does not shed and produces much less dander than non-doodle or poodle breeds.

To create a trusted and trusting community to support us in our mindfulness practice we need participants to attend all of the sessions of the course.

Dates and times:

Wednesday, March 5^th, 5:30pm to 7:00pm
Wednesday, March 12^th, 5:30pm to 7:00pm
Wednesday, March 19^th, 5:30pm to 7:00pm
Wednesday, March 26^th, 5:30pm to 7:00pm

WORKSHOPS

Healing the Heart of Democracy Series (in partnership with SHCS)

DATE: Feb. 5th, Mar. 5th, Apr. 9th, May 7th from 11:00am to 12:00pm

LOCATION: SBSB 4221

This series will center around Parker Palmer’s book (2024): Healing the Heart of Democracy:

“Many of us on the left, on the right, and in the center have at least this much in common: a shared experience of heartbreak about the condition of our culture, our society, our body politic. That shared heartbreak can build a footbridge of mutual understanding on which we can walk toward each other. Within us is a yearning for something better than divisiveness, toxicity, passivity, powerlessness, and selling our democratic inheritance to the highest bidder. Within us is the courage to pursue that yearning, to hold life’s tensions consciously, faithfully, and well, until they break us open. The broken-open heart is a source of power as well as compassion—the power to bring down whatever diminishes us and raise up whatever serves us well.”

In these sessions we will explore ways in which we can keep this experiment of democracy alive in our hearts, in our actions and in our interactions with others in order to foster a more mindful, compassionate and thoughtful community and world.

Procrastination Workshop

DATE: Monday, February 17^th from 5:30pm to 7:00pm.

LOCATION: SBSB 3219

Studies have shown that procrastination is a pervasive problem among students and among other adults (Steel, 2007; Harriott & Ferrari, 1996) which can lead to several negative outcomes such as stress, anxiety, low self-esteem, poor health and financial outcomes, and poor academic performance (Howell et al., 2006). The interest in mindfulness and other contemplative practices has spurred a great deal of research and discussion in recent years. Several studies (Gautam et al., 2019; Flett et al., 2016) have found that mindfulness practices reduce procrastination directly and indirectly by reducing anxiety. Join us for a 2-hour workshop on reducing procrastination with mindfulness. In this workshop, we will discuss a variety of evidence-based contemplative practices such as breath practices, mindfulness of emotions, self-compassion, and intention-setting practices designed to help reduce procrastination and anxiety.

Mindfulness Practices for Burnout Workshop

DATE: Thursday, March 20th from 12pm to 12:50pm
LOCATION: SBSB 3219

This will be an informative, inspirational, and interactive workshop on burnout, compassion fatigue, and building resiliency. Participants will learn methods to build inner resources and tips for everyday stress management.

Mindful Preparation for Interviews

DATE: Thursday, April 17th from 12pm to 12:50pm
LOCATION:SBSB 3219

Feeling stressed and anxious about an upcoming interview? Please join us for a 50-minute session on how to use evidence-based mindfulness practices designed specifically to prepare you for interviews.

Silent Saturday Retreat

DATE: Saturday, May 3rd from 9:30am to 12pm
LOCATION: SBSB Courtyard

This half day retreat is an opportunity to pause, to reflect, to notice and to develop deep awareness. Our daily lives are so busy that we often forget to pay attention to our inner selves, to our environment and to each other. This retreat provides guided meditations, movement, art and other ways to connect deeply with ourselves and the world around us.

Workshops on Request

We also offer a variety of customized workshops, courses, retreats on a range of topics which include:

Introduction to Mindfulness
Contemplative pedagogy for faculty
Mindfulness and Inclusive excellence
Mindful Communication
Mindfulness for finding Joy
Mindfulness for Resilience and Uncertainty
Mindfulness for Morale Building
Mindfulness for Stress Reduction
Mindful Leadership
Mindful compassion for caregivers and social workers
Mindfulness for Community Healing
Mindfulness for Diversity and Inclusion
Mindfulness for Teachers
Mindfulness for Health related fields
Mindfulness for Business

These workshops and courses range from semester long courses to 4 to 6 week offerings to half day sessions to 2 hour sessions. If you don't see one offered that you would like to see us offer please reach out to us and we will be happy to design one for you or for your unit or organization. To explore further please contact Ranjeeta Basu at rbasu@csusm.edu