A Mindfulness Center in the Midwest: Six Years of Joyful Service

Though we’d been meeting in living rooms, coffee shops and yoga studios for a couple of years already, on January 1, 2018 the Midwest Alliance for Mindfulness (MAM) became an official entity.  The turning of 2024 marks our 6th year of joyful service in teaching mindfulness in the Kansas City community and beyond (you can read about years 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5).

MAM was birthed from our imaginations due to a perceived gap in services in our Kansas City metropolitan area at the time. Though there were a number of wonderful religious organizations here guiding meditation, there were no secular/nonsectarian organizations teaching contemplative skills and practices for those who might not feel comfortable attending a church or Buddhist center. Our intention was to create a place where people from all walks of life with any or no particular religious beliefs could safely and inclusively practice mindfulness with the guidance of a diverse group of trained teachers.

We’ve evolved from a handful of interested practitioners to a distinctive family of 15 trauma-informed and experienced teachers with  diverse backgrounds in contemplative training and practice. Since we started keeping records we’ve offered over 2,000 MAM classes serving over 1,000 people. We’ve also provided outside programming for schools and universities, social service agencies and associations, governmental departments, senior services agencies, museums and libraries, other contemplative organizations, charities, private businesses, environmental agencies, a prison and a botanical garden. We’ve trained a couple dozen folks in our area to teach secular mindfulness safely and inclusively to others. We even created a web magazine interviewing mindfulness teachers and communities from around the Midwest.

This year we held our 3rd annual residential mindfulness and self-compassion retreat and our very first ever residential float retreat (both of which we will repeat in 2024 with different themes). In addition to our regularly scheduled recurring offerings, we held many half day retreats, completed three mindfulness based programs (MBSR, MSC and MBCT), a compassion cultivation project, a couple of sound meditations, a mindful movie night, several book clubs and continuing education workshops, and a wide variety of nature connected experiences. Our LGBT+ community affinity group changed their name to Queer Community Mindfulness Practice Gathering.

As with many organizations, the way our services are utilized has changed dramatically since the pandemic. We’ve been patiently observing how this might unfold, but it appears that even several years out from the worldwide lock down, most folks are still preferring to meet online for our regularly scheduled classes. So, we’re making some big decisions this year about our dedicated space, the Peace Pod. We’re also taking this opportunity to reflect upon our identity as an organization as well as our mission, vision and values. Stay tuned for announcements in the coming months.

Though we are evolving, there are some things at our very core that haven’t changed – as the poet William Stafford wrote, there’s a thread we follow. Yes, we are teaching each other ways to relax, de-stress, calm our minds, and decrease our suffering – AND we are also teaching fundamental skills for collective well-being. We’re co-creating conditions that make it possible to step outside of harmful conditioning, to become conscious of things we once overlooked, to ask discerning questions, to be in greater choice, and to live our lives in better alignment with our deepest values. That’s why we call it a revolution from the inside out.

As always, we have a wide variety of innovative offerings on the calendar for the new year. In support of our values of access and inclusion, we offer lots of different ways to learn and practice, at different times of day and days of the week, both online and on location. We haven’t ever raised our very low cost of membership (as little as $15 per month), our offerings are priced as low as practically possible, and we offer “pay what you can” passes for as little as $1 for most offerings. We hope you might help us celebrate our 6th anniversary during our annual Winter Half Day Retreat at Hollis Renewal Center Sunday January 14, 2024 from 1-5 pm Central time. As has become our tradition, we will have vegan delights from our local Mud Pie Bakery for everyone to enjoy.

Now. In this extraordinary moment,
Before you leave and before you begin,
Breathe deeply, smell the scent of adventure,
Inhale the bouquet of the wondrous unfurling of your journey,
Exhale the tension of all you’ve held dear.

Be in this present moment,
This moment of stillness,
This moment of peace,
This moment full of gratitude
For what you’ve had, for what may come.

Close your eyes, and through the window,
Listen to spring. Can you hear it?
Do you not feel it? You are not alone,
Not in this moment, nor on this journey.
Be not afraid, then, to lift your foot.
The time is propitious for that one single step.

– Cathan Kabrelian, excerpt from That Extraordinary Moment

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