Saturday, February 1, 2025, 1 p.m. until 3 p.m.
A two-hour workshop introducing the spiritual practices of meditation in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh, focusing on emotion regulation, stress response, memory, learning, and perspective-taking. Participants will learn breathing, walking, and eating meditation, and will have the opportunity to share experiences and ask questions. No prior meditation experience is needed, and there will not be a need to sit on the floor.
The mindfulness workshop will be led by Jenna Joya Blondel, Ph.D., Minister of Walking Prayer. Blondel worked for 30 years as a college professor in the United States and in the Middle East where she taught English, ESL, and Peace Studies courses. For the last ten years of her formal teaching career, Blondel taught a popular course entitled, “Mindfulness, Meditation, and Stress Reduction”. In addition to her mindfulness workshop at the UU Church of Canton, she offers a range of healing practices at Trillium in Potsdam, including Spiritual Counseling and Reiki.
The mindfulness meditation workshop is part of the year-long World Spiritual Practices Project (WiSPP) grant from the Unitarian Universalist Association funding program (UUFP), which is supporting experiences from a diversity of religious and spiritual perspectives that will be conveyed through workshops, worship, speakers, arts and cultural performances, and programming.