Meditation Room

Mindfulness, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

the Midwest Alliance for Mindfulness (MAM) was committed to valuing differences, dismantling inequities, and cultivating belonging.
Deah Robinson and Sydney Spears at the Ways of Looking Mindfulness Retreat

What is Mindfulness?

The best way to understand mindfulness and how it can be helpful is to practice it, but we do our best to explain it simply and conceptually here.

Nurturing a Formal Mindfulness Practice

Formal mindfulness practice is a training ground for whatever we may encounter in our lives, from the ordinary to the extraordinary. An unimaginable tomorrow becomes the beneficiary of today's practice by increasing the likelihood that our response, when it matters most, will be skillful.

Mindfulness of Self-Dealing

A dedicated mindfulness practice can help us notice our baser instinct for self-dealing. Over time, we become more aware of our deep interconnection. We see that we are inseparable from others and from our environment, and we naturally begin to relate to the world in a way that is in alignment with the greater good.

Relating Mindfully in a Time of Social Distance

In times of uncertainty and physical separation, the ability to relate to one another mindfully is more important than ever. Every call, text, email, and other means of relating across distance is ripe with the opportunity to make a meaningful connection through mindful communication.
Photo by Kelly Sikkema

Mindfulness of Distress

A dedicated mindfulness practice can help prepare us to meet life's inevitable challenges with greater wisdom and ease. This might allow us to decrease our own suffering and prevent ourselves from mindlessly causing or exacerbating harm to others.

Mindfulness of Conduct

Mindfulness training offers us an embodied way of knowing when our choices are beneficial and when they are harmful. We become more conscious of the good feelings that arise when we act in alignment with our deepest values. With dedicated practice comes wisdom and a natural inclination toward what contributes to our collective wellbeing.
community mindfulness practice

Mindfulness and Spirituality

Is mindfulness a spiritual practice? It depends on your definition of both mindfulness and spirituality. The answer may be both yes and no...

Love is Immortal

Love is like an energy that flows from generation to generation, creating beneficial ripple effects across time. Rather than dying with the individual, love becomes our greatest gift to ourselves and others and our noblest legacy.

The Power of Mindfulness Based Programs

Mindfulness Based Programs can be powerful tools for increasing self-understanding, improving the way we relate to ourselves, others and the world, broadening our perspectives, and empowering ourselves through an expansion in our range of choices.

Planning a Mindfulness Retreat

A mindfulness retreat can be a powerful practice to add to our mindfulness repertoire. Here are some tips and strategies for making it a truly beneficial experience.

Escaping the Cycle of Suffering

We can learn how to step out of the cycle of suffering with the help of a dedicated mindfulness practice, responding to pain with wisdom.

The Politics of Mindfulness

Do mindfulness and politics go together? Mindfulness can help us develop skills and qualities that deepen our connection with and understanding of our values and beliefs and this may in turn inform our political choices.

Teachings for Teachers

At the Midwest Alliance for Mindfulness we have been building a secular sangha of teachers, doing our best to create opportunities for support and guidance that can be lacking Midwestern and rural communities.

Mindfulness of Responsibility

When we dare to take responsibility with mindfulness and compassion, we find the motivation to face great challenges and tap into our potential to contribute to a better world.

Five Years of Ashtanga Yoga

Ashtanga yoga offers a unique opportunity to connect with inner experience, providing a blank canvas upon which our dispositions, mental and emotional patterns, and behavioral traits come into stark relief.

Bridging the Emotion Gap

Mindfulness is a form of remembering - a way of coming back to the moment and home to ourselves, bridging the emotion gap so that we can respond more compassionately and with greater wisdom.

Mindfulness of Ways of Looking

Mindfulness training can help us realize, open to, and explore the infinite possibilities available to us so that we can exercise some degree of choice in how we relate and respond to ourselves, others, and the world. Through practice, we can develop greater awareness of our ways of looking and the wisdom to choose a perspective that is of greatest benefit to all.