• Skip to main content

Heart-Based Mindfulness

with Kate Mitcheom - CNM, MSN, RYT, EMP

  • Home
  • About Kate
  • Meditations
  • COURSES
    • UPCOMING MBSR COURSES
    • RESOURCES FOR KATE’S COURSES
      • MBSR Course Materials
      • MBSR Course Book
      • Poems for Mindfulness
      • Guided Meditations via Happify
    • About Mindfulness
  • Retreats
  • YOGA
    • Yoga with Kate
    • Lying Down Yoga Practice Video
    • Standing Yoga Practice Video
    • Yoga for Osteoporosis Video
    • MBSR Yoga Tutorial
    • Yoga Related Research Studies
  • AND MORE
    • Blog
    • Partners & helpful resources
    • Midwifery
    • Energy Work
    • 1:1 Mindfulness Coaching
    • Consulting & Mentoring
  • Subscribe
  • Contact

Blog

The Gift of Inner and Outer Journeys

Dear Friends,

Remember March 2020? When we wrung our hands at the thought that this Covid thing might last for days?  And here we are, almost 2 years later.  

I have missed you all, and somehow seeing you in little squares on Zoom is sweet, but not the same.  

Some things have continued:

  • Yoga Wednesdays and Sundays 
  • Teaching MBSR for Brown University 
  • Silent retreats (Lucia McBee and I are offering one in January — Awakening the Heart)  

Many of you were along for the journey as our son, Ben, and his wife, Liz, welcomed their twins, Max and Charlie.  They were born in November 2020, and just turned one! Their toddling and giggling are a constant joy. Molly is a great big sister. She spent her 3rd birthday with us in Branford.

We bought a house in Denver, and we hope to be helpful grandparents. 🙂  Fortunately, our other son, Spencer, is also living nearby in Denver.

Lizie, our daughter, moved out of our house (where she spent Covid) and is happily thriving in Manhattan. We are all grateful to be alive and well. 

During Covid, I offered free half-hour Mindfulness sessions; I plan to resume that for this winter, on Mondays. Watch the website for details, and please come.

After 2 years of uncertainty, staycations, and our own four walls, my guess is that you, like me, may be ready for adventure. Movement. New sights. New sounds. Art. Mythology. Lifelong learning. Friendship. A sense of belonging to the world, to the human family, and to ourselves.

Join me, with Kathy Daniels and Lucia McBee, for a journey both inward and outward.

Pack your bags. 

Come to Greece!

Glorious Greece, Mindfulness-Based Travel
May 2022

Awakening the Heart Online Retreat
January 2022

Making a Practice of On-line Retreats

This blog post originally appeared on Mindfulness Meditation Live as a guest blog.

In January, 2022, Kate and Lucia are hosting Awakening the Heart, a silent online retreat.

Read more and register for Awakening the Heart

This guest blog is by Kate Mitcheom (Certified MBSR Teacher and MBSR Teacher Trainer) and Lucia McBee (also an experienced MBSR Teacher), who have been colleagues for 25 years, and leading retreats together online since April 2020.

The 2020 COVID pandemic has changed our lives dramatically. We work, learn and interact more virtually than ever and this may continue for a very long time- including the teaching of mindfulness and yoga. The crisis of the pandemic has caused immense suffering, as well as the opportunity to create new solutions. 

————

Heart trampled on the snow with feet in a snowdrift on a hillside with a gorgeous view of the coniferous forest and mountain ranges on a sunny frosty day during a ski vacation. Place for text

Walker there is no path,

the path is made when walking.

– Antonio Machado

The long-standing role of residential retreats

Mindfulness practitioners and teachers have long included silent residential retreats as an important aspect of deepening and sustaining practice. Traditionally these retreats are 5-10 days long or longer, held at residential centers that provide a supportive container for silent, intensive practice. The responsibilities of our lives are put aside, allowing participants to immerse themselves in formal and informal practice. 

The heart of a retreat is the opportunity to see the ways we create difficulties in our lives, and to discover how mindfulness practice can be liberating. Participants are often surprised that habitual difficulties still arise in a contemplative setting. How are we participating in the creation of our own suffering? A residential retreat usually shines a light on this in powerful ways.

Obviously, it is an immense privilege to be able to attend a residential retreat, and carve out this. It requires many conditions to come together, such as funding and the ability to take time off from work and/or caring for loved ones. Nevertheless, as interest in mindfulness and MBSR have expanded in our culture, the demand for retreats has also increased. 

Pandemic lockdown: retreat without retreat?

In March 2020, most residential retreat centers shut down. After a few weeks of lockdown, retreats began to be offered online. 

Clearly, this shift removed the physical container traditionally used to support retreatants. Participants were encouraged to create the time and space needed to practice regularly at home. The online retreat schedules reflected residential retreats, including sustained silence, regular periods of sitting and walking together on Zoom, and evening dharma talks.

It was not clear that online retreats were tenable or effective, especially for those at home with families. 

And yet, given the on-going world-wide crisis, why not? This massive adjustment has offered surprising insights and possibilities. What adjustments might be needed to make this work?

Retreating in the middle of it all, together

Some online retreat participants live alone or are able to stay in seclusion. For many, however, the retreat is in the midst of their home and the “full catastrophe” of modern life. The challenges that annoy, bore, anger and otherwise create disturbance in our lives are physically present. The work of an on-line retreat is to view all of this through a different lens. 

Continuous practice in the home environment may allow us to see clearly the ways we create difficulties in our lives, and to discover a freedom of heart in the midst of all things. As one participant reported:

The fact is I could get triggered at home anytime, but the next hour, I would be sitting on the mat to work through it, therefore, I could gain many breakthroughs in my practice. It helps me to integrate the practice into daily living, I really start to cultivate the moment-to-moment awareness throughout the day.

Despite the silence of retreat, a sense of community typically develops on residential retreats. We develop a connection to the person we sit next to every day; the person who takes their tea near us after lunch. 

How does this translate to the on-line space? Participants are physically separated, and yet this sense of community develops as the same faces show up for sittings and other practice, day after day. The intimacy and familiarity that arise can create a real momentum for the retreat.

Online retreats increase participation from those otherwise might be unable to attend due to mobility and other health issues, and/or unable to afford the time or expense of residential retreats. Online retreats are often more diverse and include participants from around the world.  This adds something to the experience that is rarely felt communally in the residential form of a retreat.

Remembering history, looking to the future

It may be helpful to remember that, while many elements of the Buddha’s teachings remain constant, the way of teaching the practices of mindfulness has been modified over time. Monasteries originally were only for monks and nuns, until centuries later, householders were encouraged to attend 10-day retreats in these monasteries. 

Due to the impact of colonization in Asia, several monastic leaders began teaching meditation to lay people in the 19th and 20th centuries as a form of cultural resistance and as a way of preserving Buddhism in the face of Christian missionizing. These were often forward thinking reformers and visionaries. It was in this context of upheaval that young travelers from the West came to Asia in the 1960s to learn meditation, eventually bringing their learnings back home.

MBSR is part of a larger shift in the way mindfulness has been taught. Kabat-Zinn created the model of an eight-week class with homework to bring the practices of mindfulness and yoga to those unlikely to ever attend a residential retreat, or even go to a yoga class. As he put it:

“It struck me …that it would be a worthy work to simply share the essence of meditation and yoga practices …with those who would never come to a place like IMS [Insight Meditation Society] or a Zen Center.” Jon Kabat-Zinn

Change happens. A core tenet of mindfulness is the contemplation of impermanence. How mindfulness is taught and how retreats are conceived of  will continue to evolve, while the constancy of the dharma remains. 

Poems and Readings ~ March /April/May 2020

This page has been replaced. Please go to Readings for Meditation.

Beginning again

Two common phrases this time of year are “Peace on Earth” and “Happy New Year”.  Like many phrases they can be hollow unless we actually put our energy and intention toward manifesting peace and happiness.

Because of negativity bias and our own habits and patterns, it can challenging to change, even if we want to grow peace and happiness in our garden of life.

We make New Year’s resolutions and often they don’t manifest quickly and easily. We may feel like we have failed and become cynical, thinking we can never improve our outlooks. BUT, it is just like coming back to the breath. We can begin again, nothing lost!

If you are working with anxiety here’s a wonderful link to a short segment from the TODAY show’s recent broadcast about mindfulness and anxiety.

When we get stuck with unwholesome habits and patterns we have an opportunity, not for discouragement, but to see the causes and conditions that brought unhappiness and a lack of peace into our lives. Changing patterns takes repeated efforts.

In the midst of the difficult and painful lie the moment to acknowledge what is present and offer some compassion for the suffering. We change not through demands but through the gentle & enduring presence of love.

I am going to offer Mindfulness to the cast of Slave Play in New York this coming weekend. This play confronts our country’s painful history of slavery.  The mindfulness community is focusing on healing and inclusion.  I am happy to be a part of this effort.

Here are some opportunities I’d like to share with you…

I have added some new yoga videos to the website!Each video requires a password. For the first three, just fill out the form on the page and you will receive the password immediately.

Lying Down Yoga
Standing Yoga
Yoga for Osteoporosis

The MBSR Yoga Tutorial is reserved for teachers or trainees. Please fill out the form. I will review it and then send you the password.

Wishing you mindful moments, sweet memories, and all the happiness a heart can hold.

Kate

Travel and mindfulness

Recently I had a 4 hour delay at Midway airport in Chicago, yikes!  

The trouble with so many trips and too many fights lately is twofold. Flying wreaks havoc on the body and the carbon footprint wreaks havoc on the planet

My good fortune, however, was that amazingly enough the airport had a yoga studio. I was a happy camper!

I found myself in the yoga room on the mat with perhaps a middle-aged business looking type woman on her mat beside me. She did legs up the wall in her striped cotton dress and blonde ponytail while I eased my way through a few rounds of salutation to the sun. I suspect we both appreciated the quiet serene environment.

As she ended, I smiled and said “isn’t it wonderful to be able to stretch between flights?” She replied “yes, I was going to do some OMs but I didn’t want to bother you”.  My response “no worries, go for it”.  At which point she boomed out 3 hearty Oms.

I reflected for a moment and realized, if I had seen her hustling to her gate rather than standing in Tadasana with hands in prayer pose, I might have mistakenly made assumptions about who she was: or who I thought she was. I still don’t know who she was/is except that her beautiful practice touched my heart right there the Chicago airport.

I might have forgotten that just like most of us, quite likely she longed for ease and peace and connection.  Maybe even a deep feeling for something beyond our usual routines and superficial conversations.

I gave gratitude for all those trying to make our world a better place and for those who thought to provide a space in the midst of the noise and bustle of an airport to turn inward and care for our bodies, and for the magical gift of a moment of connection

Yoga and meditation in Ecuador

Guayaquil, Ecuador – First Annual Women’s Wellness Symposium

It is nearly impossible, while living in Western comfort to imagine the barrio much less the women and their families living there in poverty.  But Mama Linda, the matriarch of Adopta Una Familia (AUF) and daughters Erica (who was a Peace Corp Volunteer in Guasmo) and Abby know them well.  Together with the women of the community, they created the First Annual Women’s Health Symposium.  

 â€śOf course, I will go” was my reply when asked would I come along to offer yoga and meditation (in Spanish with great translators).  We were a mighty group of 9 coming from the US to the barrio to offer massage, mindfulness, trauma work and prayer for 4 days, complete with meals and goodie bags for the 70+participants ranging from 16-75.  This community is especially dear to me because my children each traveled there many times to do service work and our whole family went together there the year after 15 year old Ben’s adventures losing his passport and $$ (some of you may remember this tale and many of you have donated or could donate to AUF).

Vacation/Retreat in Tuscany

  • Ebbio, Tuscany, Italy – 7 day Meditation/Vacation Retreat

Some of the retreats I lead combine meditation and vacation.  We practice yoga first thing in the morning followed by breakfast and then 2 hours of mindfulness and meditation. We practice sitting, walking and exploring themes and topics.  This retreat took place in Italy at an 800 year old farmhouse.  While very different from a silent retreat, each participant still meets themselves and challenges arise.  

As we explored the Tuscan region of Italy in the afternoon, the participants had a chance to put what they were learning in the morning sessions into action as they interacted with others and observed the art and architecture of ancient civilizations.  My college roommate and art historian, Kathy Daniels, guided us through cities, towns, museums and churches.  As with silent retreats, participants here also met with challenges of past habits and patterns.  They had to face their own discomforts of cold floors, unfamiliar food and the invitation to turn toward that which they might otherwise reject and learn to “just be” with what “is”.

Why do we go on retreat?

When we go on retreat, we leave our customary comforts and move into the unknown.  As they say, our old problems will not be solved with the same thinking that created them.  There are gifts that come to us from the challenges that being out of our comfort zone brings.  It is of benefit to hear, really hear not just with our ears but with our mind and heart what the world of another sounds, looks and feels like.  When we go on a retreat, our view of ourselves, each other and our world expands.  We become more fluid and curious.  This benefits not just us but all those with whom we share our world.   We may find that in our routines at home we are unlikely to “travel” outside of that which is familiar and comfortable and consequently we may be limited in what can be experienced.  It is a big wide world outside and inside…  take a chance, take a look, explore! 

Folks sometimes say they want my life.  I agree it is good and being involved in retreats is a big part of what makes it so good.  I have been hosting retreats for the last several years and I hope that sharing some thoughts on the experiences will be of interest to you.

  • Sept 2019 – Spirit Fire, Leyden MA – 7 day Silent Retreat

Participants came from as far away as Japan and Brazil and brought with them their cultural traditions.  We all brought our own habits and patterns and points of view!  

At the end of the retreat the feelings expressed by many participants was overall surprise that one could feel intimately connected with another whose name was barely known, much less any superficial details of their lives. This has been a common experience in all the silent retreats I have led and it is inspiring to see the commitment to the practice of Mindfulness and to the well-being of the participants themselves that radiates out to the world.

  • April 2019 – Copper Beach Institute, West Hartford, CT – 5 day Silent Retreat 

Participants entered into silence on Sunday evening after a social supper and an orientation informing them abouthow the week would proceed.  At all times the intention was to direct one’s attention to the present moment.  This was practiced while meditating on a cushion or chair, walking, eating meals, doing yoga, and upon wakening, showering and preparing for bed.

This practice can be tiring, even exhausting.  It takes effort and diligence and no small degree of courage to come back, over and over again to the present moment, seeing one’s own thoughts and mental patterns.  Interviews or small group meetings are held during the retreat which give the participant the opportunity for individual check-ins.  These sessions are intended to support the practice and engage in conversation around difficulties that may be arising.  At the first group interview on day 3 a couple of participants expressed a desire to leave.  Neither truly intended to leave but were simply sharing their struggles and unhappiness.  On some level they could see that there was the possibility of insight into what was causing their unhappiness.   By the end of the retreat both were in tears of joy with what, for them, was a transformation.   As the leader/facilitator I am always in awe of the meditator’s journey, and to know that it comes at no small cost in terms of self-compassion and a willingness to visit the parts of ourselves that may have been abandoned.

  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Go to Next Page »
Heart-Based Mindfulness

Contact Kate  · 203-887-8932

Copyright © 2022 · Log in