Welcome Spring 2014 UVM Yoga & Mindfulness Students!
Here is the class syllabus — Mindfulness Syllabus, Spring 2014
Please come prepared to practice yoga on the first day…also, please bring a journal and pen to the first class (and all classes after that).
Look forward to seeing you in class! John
WEEKLY HOMEWORK
Each week you are asked to:
• Meditate for 5 minutes every day, and make a short journal entry about the experience. You can do meditations you learn in class, others you know, or there are some good ones on line — I like meditationoasis.com, or using the app “Insight Timer” that helps track mediation, and has meditations to follow.
• Do a physical yoga practice once during the week for at least 30 minutes, and write a short entry in your journal about the experience. (this can be a live class, one of the free video classes on this website…there are over 80…or another online class or just practicing on your own.)
Week #12 (April 9th-11th)
This week’s class and homework is about gratitude. There is more and more evidence about the positive effects of gratitude.
Here is a video we watched in class, below, on a sweet practice of gratitude…basically about telling someone you care about how much they mean to you.
Here’s the video to watch:
(here’s the link, if video below has troubles)
HOMEWORK:
Think of someone who has been influential in your life. Take a few minutes and write down why this person is important to you. Then, tell that person face to face or call them, and read what you wrote about them (if that doesn’t work, send them what you wrote about them…calling/in-person is better, though).
Write in your journal how the experience went.
EXTRA CREDIT GRATITUDE HOMEWORK
As an extra credit assignment (and possibility of counting toward a missed class), keep a gratitude journal from now until next class. Every time you think of something you are grateful for, write it in your journal. This needs to be in a SEPARATE journal that is just for gratitude. I’d recommend a small notepad you can keep in your pocket – the sell them at the bookstore for a dollar or two.
To Get Extra Credit:
• It’s obvious you made entries throughout the day every day
• The journal is a unique journal separate from your Yoga Journal
• There are many entries every day, and you took the assignment to heart
• You bring the gratitude journal with you to class and give it to me for review
Enjoy it…it’s guaranteed to make you happier. 🙂
Week #11 (April 2th-4th)
We discussed that idea of our ability to make good choices in our life to be happier, and how it’s a practice.
Week #11 Homework
Keep track of everything you put in your body every day, starting right after class. It’s best to write it down immediately after, if possible. That means everything…water, food, drugs…
Do your best to make conscious choices about what you are putting in your body before you do it. Lean toward consuming what will make you happier in the long-term. Also, this is a practice…the point is to learn and do your best..we are all working on being the best we can be.
Week #10 (March 26th-28th)
Today I talked about a yoga retreat I went to with Dr. Bill Mahony…here’s a story about it. The gist of the experience was that we can choose to cultivate and practice love in our heart and with other people, and we should do that! Specifically, Bill was talking about a number sacred text writings, here’s one to contemplate:
Teachings on bhakti (love) should be reflected on; practices that awaken it should be undertaken.
Week #10 Homework
For extra credit, email me the SUMMARY ONLY of this assignment.
If you weren’t in class, take 5 minutes and write down in your journal who you define love. What it feels like for you…how you’d explain it to someone else. Then take 2 minutes and write down every experience you can think of where you’ve felt love.
Really take this idea of practicing love to heart. Please take 10 minutes/day and practice reflecting on and awakening love in your heart. It doesn’t matter what the practice is — maybe you really feel love in conversation, or making dinner, or making art — do what ever brings love to you, and do it with conscious intention of bringing a feeling of love to your heart.
Write an entry in your journal about how that went. Write a 2 paragraph summary at the end of the week about the whole experience.
FOR EXTRA CREDIT, email the SUMMARY to me before the beginning of next class.
Week #9 (March 19th – 21st)
I talked about how it’s SPRING (technically)…and how during the winter we can get very tight and shrink into ourselves, and in the Spring we start to expand and find space. So, in class we worked on finding space with the breath and side-body stretches.
Week #9 Homework
Do the following breathing (pranayama) exercise with the idea of creating more space within yourself for Spring:
• Take 8-10 short sucks of breath as you inhale fully
• Hold at the top of the breath for the count of 4
• Exhale for the count of 6
• Repeat this section a total of 4 times.
Next…
• Inhale for the count of 6
• Hold at the top of the breath for the count of 4
• Exhale short bits of breath over 8 to 10 times until you are completely empty of breath
• Repeat this section a total of 4 times.
Next…
• Inhale for the count of 6
• Hold at the top of the breath for the count of 4
• Exhale for the count of 6
• Hold at the bottom of the breath for the count of 2
• Repeat this section for a total of 3-5 minutes
Notice the space on the inside as you do this exercise..creating as much space as possible for your breath – being a really big container for your inner light and for Spring.
Week #8 (March 12th – 14th)
This week I talked about the idea of having a “touchstone” that reminds you of who you are and what you are doing. Some physical thing that helps keep you connected to the path that is currently right for you in your life. Also, we talked about the idea of sva-dharma, which is your personal path. The path you should be on right that is uniquely yours.
Week #8 Homework
Consider your sva-dharma. What is your own personal path? Then create or find something that helps remind you of your path — a “touchstone” that you can look at and feel that keeps you connected and reminds you of your path, your sva-dharma…a simple way to keep you going on the path you have chosen to be on.
Week #5 (Feb 12th – 14th)
(FIRST…please bring your journal to class next week to hand in).
I talked this week about a conversation I had with a friend who knows some of the Olympians at the Winter Olympics. She told how one of the snowboarders she knows looks at the whole experience like a complicated calculation…and she feel like she’s solved the problem! She takes into account her physical and emotional state, what she is thinking, what the course is, and come up with a solution to make it all work. I think that’s fascinating. Nothing in that view is negative. It’s all about seeing things as they are and figuring out how to be successful.
Week #5 Homework
(FIRST…please bring your journal to class next week to hand in).
Take the opportunity this week to really look at your life like a fun equation you can work on. Look at your abilities (and inabilities) as assets. How to you use your situation and who you are to be the most successful, depending on the situation. What can you let go off to be more of a success? What do you need to keep and expand? How can you best work with what you are given and who you are in order to see the joy in your heart and in life? Keep this in your mind during the week, and do your best to tweak your calculation to make each day, each moment a gold medal success! Please make an entry each day about how your day went and what you did. At the end of the week write up a paragraph or two about how it all went.
Week #4 (Feb 5th – 7th)
This week we talked about how easy it is to create your world of experiences and beliefs, and start to shut out new experiences and ideas. During class we did a meditation practice where you first just focus on the air moving in and out of your nose. Then switch to focus on all the sounds around you. Then you focus on both — it’s the idea that there is your world, there is the world around you, and there is both together.
Week #4 Homework
NOTE: Please email me this homework prior to the start of the next class.
For this week, practice being open and try new things. Think of it as a week of new discoveries and open-mindedness. Maybe cook a different meal, take a walk on campus a different way, go out at night to a new place, say “yes” to an experience that seems intimidating, have a new adventure…use the week as a chance to break out of your regular self and be open to new ideas and experiences.
— Each day make a couple sentence entry about your experience that day.
–On the last day, along with the entry, write a concluding paragraph about your experience and any insights you may have gained.
–Email me the 7 entries, along with the concluding paragraph before the next class
Week #3 (Jan 29th – 31st)
This week during class we practiced seeing the good in ourselves, and letting go if what can get in the way of seeing our own light.
Week #3 Homework
Do as many nice things as you can for other people. Practice seeing the good in yourself, and recognize that other people are just as good as you, so be nice to them; open doors for people, let others in front of you in line, be kind to the cashier, share a smile with someone. This isn’t about doing some huge “nice” thing, it’s about all the little acts of kindness that can actually really make someone else’s day. Make a couple sentence entry in your journal about it went for you each day.
Week #2 (Jan 22th-24th)
We talked about mindfulness is awareness, but you also need to take action to make a difference. It’s one thing to be mindful that you are in pain physically, emotionally, or in your mind, it’s another thing to take action to do something about it. Yoga and mindfulness is both about awareness, and about taking action for change. The destination is always to the ever-present goodness in your heart.
Week #2 Homework
One thing we did in class is worked on standing with correct alignment. I invite you do that during the week…you don’t need to write about it, just work on it.
Each day when you notice you are feeling some pressure or stress, take five long 3-part breaths (breath into the belly, then mid-chest, then upper chest…like filling up a container). Notice how taking the action of breathing changed how you feel.
In your journal record how you felt in mind, body, heart, breath before you did the conscious breathing, and then write down how you felt after. Write one conclusion paragraph after doing this all week about insights you may have gained.
You can do the exercise as many times as you want during each day…I just want you to make one entry in your journal of a couple sentences for each day, and the concluding paragraph.
Week #1 (Jan 15th-17th)
This week we talked about how mindfulness is awareness on all types of levels. We focused on being aware of our body, mind, heart, and breath.
Week #1 Homework
The homework is about awareness, and connecting to yourself and being aware of yourself in different life experiences. Each day from now until the next class, write a short journal entry (1-2 paragraphs) about an experience during the day where you were aware of your body, mind, heart and breath. The entry should say what the experience is, and how you were feeling relating to mind, body, heart, breath. Write a final 1-2 paragraph entry commenting on any insights you had from the exercise.