Sam Donaldson
Sam hosts courageous conversations, brave learning spaces and slow, sacred retreats, helping people and organisations to make sense of and live well within this time…
Tuesday 5 November - Tuesday 10 December
The live Zoom sessions are at 19:00-21:00 (UK time) every Tuesday.
Does mindful inner work help or hinder outer work? Can embracing things as they are really nourish social transformation? This course explores the paradoxical relationship between mindfulness and witness, supporting us in our work for a better world.
With its roots in Eastern spiritualities, mindfulness has now swept to prominence in the West, and in the process has become a billion-dollar industry. Is this mindfulness, severed from its original context, complementary to our Quaker commitment to working towards a more just and fairer world, or is it just the spirituality of capitalism, another opiate for the masses?
In this course we will explore mindfulness through a number of different lenses. We will ask ourselves what role values play in mindful practice and whether there is more to mindfulness than just concentrating the mind. What about heartfulness and soulfulness too? We will apply mindfulness holistically, asking what it might mean to eat mindfully, converse mindfully, and organise mindfully as we witness for a more just and beautiful world. We will also bring our mindfulness to our systems, asking ourselves what it might mean to be mindful of our privileges and entanglements in oppression, and what it might mean to be mindful of our place as humans within wider webs of life.
The course is 6 weeks long and there will be a weekly 2 hour online live gathering, which will include a guided mindfulness meditation alongside lots of time in small groups for mindful conversations.
Participants will also be encouraged to commit to a daily practice of mindfulness over the duration of the course, and to write a daily reflection of mindful journaling.
On the booking form, there is a chance for you to let us know about any accessibility or communication adjustments that will enable you to participate more fully in the course. Automated Zoom closed captions are available for all live sessions but if you feel you require more accurate closed captioning please email us directly in addition to booking.