Welcome Fall 2014 UVM Yoga & Mindfulness Students!
Here is the class syllabus — Mindfulness Syllabus, Fall 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 #11 (Nov 5th – Nov 7th)
This week I talked about a happiness video I saw on Ted by Shawn Achor. In it one of the things he talks about is the power of gratitude in helping happiness.
HOMEWORK
Buy or create a small notebook you can carry around in your pocket or your bag. From now until the next class I want you to carry this around with you and write in it as often as possible things you are grateful for. You should easily get a couple dozen or more things a day. In the end you have one hundred or more gratitudes. Please bring this to class so I can see it, and I’ll give it back by the end of class. This notebook is for you to keep, I just need to see it to see you did it. Remember…THIS IS NOT YOUR JOURNAL…YOU NEED A UNIQUE NOTEPAD FOR THIS.
EXTRA CREDIT GRATITUDE – If you want to get some extra credit, put extra time into your journal and make it creative…I’ll leave it up to you in what that means.
Week #10 (Oct 29-31st)
(I will have one of these last homework assignments for extra credit..so please do the homework). This week was about the Chakras. Chakras are energy centers in the body that relate to different emotional experiences. It is thought that if you keep the energy of the chakras balanced, you’ll live a more balanced life. Here are the chakras:
1. Root Chakra – Represents our foundation and feeling of being grounded.
• Location: Base of spine in tailbone area.
• Emotional issues: Grounding, survival issues such as financial independence, money, and food.
2. Sacral Chakra – Our connection and ability to accept others and new experiences.
• Location: Directly below the belly button
• Emotional issues: Going with the flow of things, sexuality.
3. Solar Plexus Chakra – Our ability to be confident and in-control of our lives.
• Location: Upper abdomen in the stomach area.
• Emotional issues: will power, self-esteem.
4. Heart Chakra – Our ability to love.
• Location: Center of chest just above heart.
• Emotional issues: Love, joy, inner peace.
5. Throat Chakra – Our ability to communicate.
• Location: Throat.
• Emotional issues: Communication, self-expression of feelings, the truth.
6. Third Eye Chakra – Our ability to focus on and see the big picture.
• Location: Forehead between the eyes at the 3rd eye.
• Emotional issues: Intuition, imagination, wisdom, ability to think and make decisions.
7. Crown Chakra – The highest Chakra represents our ability to be fully connected spiritually.
• Location: The very top of the head.
• Emotional issues: Inner and outer beauty, our connection to spirituality, pure bliss.
HOMEWORK FOR WEEK #10 – Each day work on and contemplate one chakra…move from the 1st to the 7th over the period of 7 days. Consider if you are excessive, lacking, or pretty balanced with the chakra. Write a paragraph at the end of each day about the chakra, and then write 1-2 concluding paragraphs at the end of the week.
Week #8 (Oct 15-17th)
This week was about the Yamas — considered the ethical rules in yoga. These apply to all aspects of the Self; body, mind and heart. Here they are:
- Ahimsa (non-harming): non-violence, loving kindness, compassion.
- Satya (truthfulness): being genuine and authentic, having integrity, honesty, being honorable, not lying, not concealing the truth, not downplaying or exaggerating the truth.
- Asteya (non-stealing): not taking what is not yours or what is freely offered, not robbing people of their own experience or freedom, non-desire for another’s possessions, qualities, or status, not coveting.
- Brahmacharya (moderation): moderation on all levels concerning sex, food, and all aspects of daily life, no sexual misconduct, no overindulgence in senses.
- Aparigraha (non-possessivness): non-grasping, non-possessiveness, not accumulating things beyond what is necessary, non-attachment to possessions, no being greedy.
ASSIGNMENT: Contemplate these Yamas and decide on ONE that is difficult for you. (If you were in class you already have this!) Think about why it’s difficult for you, and each day take steps to work in a positive way with the yama. For instance, if you are working on Ahimsa and you find yourself feeling violent and argumentative, see if you can walk away from the situation. Write a paragraph in your journal each day about the yama and how it’s going. At the end of the week write a paragraph conclusion about how it all went.
**FOR EXTRA CREDIT – Email to me after you finish the last entry and before the next class. So, I should be getting 8 entries – one for each day, and a final entry of reflection on the whole exercise.**
Week #7 (Oct 8-10th)
We talked about letting go of what you don’t need.
HOMEWORK WEEK #7
Make a list of what you don’t need to keep carrying around in your mind, or you don’t need in terms of who are. Just things you know you don’t need to keep holding on to. Work on 1 or 2 things for the week. Write up each day how it went, and then do a summary for the week.
Week #5 (Sept 24-26th)
This week we talked about how your actions, even your inner feelings, can effect the people around your.
HOMEWORK WEEK #5 – Be a goodness ambassador. Spend your week using your thoughts and actions to make a positive difference in the world around you, and notice the results. Each night write about how it all went. At the end of the week write a summary of the whole week, and reflect on the experience.
Week #4 (Sept 17-19th)
This week we worked on a mediation of being very open and letting the mind do it’s thing, without pressure of feeling like it should do this or that. I compared it to a “Walking Meditation,” where you walk and take in the buildings, sounds, smells, but then they pass. We practiced in this way…letting thoughts and feelings come and go freely, without feeling pressure of “doing it right”.
HOMEWORK WEEK #4 – Please take a 10 minute silent walking meditation each day. If you can, do it with a friend or two…but still silent. Make a journal entry about it, and then at the end of the week write up a paragraph summary of how it all went.
Week #3 (Sept 10-12th)
This week we talked about how you can be all happy, and then something can come along that keep set you off course. We did an exercise focusing on the breath passing over the “Anapana Spot”, the place on your upper lip right below your nose. We talked about it as a place you can go and focus to keep your grounding when other things come to mind. As a meditation practice, we kept our focus on the Anapana spot, and then added listening to all the sounds around us, but not getting lost in the sound…so, keeping grounded by focusing the mind on the breath at the Anapana Spot.
HOMEWORK WK #3 – For your daily meditation, focus on both the Anapana Spot and “big ear” listening at the same time. Practice staying grounded. For the daily homework, be aware of yourself during the day. If there is a time when you find some stress or tension for one reason another, take 5 breaths with a focus on the Anapana Spot. Stay grounded in yourself. Right in your journal the results and how it went.
Week #2 (Sept 3-5th)
For this week we added breath awareness to what we did last week. Being aware of the breath in the body – where it is, it’s quality, how it feels. For homework, it’s the same as last week but adding in the breath.
Week #1 (Aug. 27-29th)
This week we talked about getting to know your experience. For homework, along with the mediation, once per day at any time take a moment to bring awareness to your body/mind/emotions. Either write in your journal right then or later about your experience. It doesn’t need to be anything long as an entry, just what was happening in your mind/body/emotions and the situation.