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Are you looking for a mindful community of friends?

Do you wish you had a meditation practice?

Do you experience conflict in relationships?

Would you like to be more accepting of your life as it is?

Are you looking for practices to help you find more ease and happiness in your life?

How Buddhist principles can help with these issues

The Buddha’s teachings are all about suffering and how to put an end to our suffering. We do this by learning how to understand and accept the truth about ourselves and the world. The practices taught by the Buddha can bring more joy into your life and provide insights about the challenges that you face.

These ancient practices allow us to settle our minds and look deeply into our anxieties, fears, frustrations, and biases. We see and disidentify with these mental formations in order to transform them into greater compassion, joy and more skillful action.

By looking deeply into our own lived experience, we can find the next wise step in our life. We more easily and authentically find the purpose in life we are longing for.

Understanding what the Buddha taught and practicing together can change how we respond to our internal reactivity and to other people and situations. Our challenges won’t ever entirely end, but we can learn how to respond to life without panic or rumination.

Here’s how this workshop helps

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I created this 3-month program to offer you time to learn some of the basic teachings of the Buddha and time to practice in a welcoming community in person and online. We practice in less challenging environments like this one in order to be prepared for the more challenging moments in our lives. This class will be a refuge where we work on our practice over time and support each other’s transformations.

By committing to this one hour per week, you will begin to notice a difference in your daily life, finding more clarity and ease in facing daily challenges. Over time these teachings can help you to be a kinder, more open, generous, and compassionate human being.

In addition to weekly meetings, you will be able to schedule a one-on-one session with Annie during the program, and will have access to a private Facebook group for our class.

What you’ll learn

You will deepen your understanding of mindfulness, and how to use mindfulness to settle into the present moment. When you settle deeply, you allow the nervous system to rest and gain needed energy and insights into yourself and the world. You may find that you more often act in alignment with your deepest values of caring for yourself and others.

What to expect every week

Most weeks we will gather online and explore one of the basic Buddhist concepts or practices that will help you process whatever is happening in your life that week -- whether it’s the news, or in your personal life. We will also meet in person twice during the program which will be a chance to get to know the community, learn, and practice together.

We will also enjoy a relaxing meditation each time we meet, and usually a break out conversation with one or two other practitioners. There will be time for questions and insights as well. Everything we do will be applicable to daily life, not simply theory.

Your one-on-one session with Annie (scheduled on phone, video or in person) can be used to ask questions, have a private guided meditation, or do some work on transforming strong emotions using the practices of mindfulness and focusing.

These teachings are based on Annie’s experiences with a variety of Buddhist teachers including Thich Nhat Hanh, Roshi Joan Halifax, Sharon Salzburg, Jack Kornfield, Suzuki Roshi, Bernie Glassman Roshi, and many others, as well as her Focusing professional training with Ann Weiser-Cornell and Barbara McGavin and Nonviolent Communication (NVC) training with Marshall Rosenburg.

Schedule

September 13 - December 13

Mondays 4-5pm ET / 1-2pm PT

Plus one-on-one with Annie, either in-person or online (scheduled directly with Annie)

What others have said about Annie

BIO

Annie Mahon (she, they) is a white, Armenian-American, ordained cis-gendered woman practicing in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh. She has been studying in this Zen tradition - through retreats with Thich Nhat Hanh and many other teachers - since the 1990’s. She is also the founder of Circle Yoga Cooperative (2003), DC Community Yoga and DC Yoga Week (2005), the Pink House Foundation (2010)—a grant-making organization supporting the development political and social capital for marginalized groups in the United States, moving land, wealth, and power to historically oppressed groups, Opening Heart Mindfulness Community (2014), and most recently Making-Visble (2018), an ongoing webinar series grounded in mindfulness and led by those most impacted by issues of social injustice, internal biases.

Her book about mindful eating, Things I Did When I Was Hangry: Navigating a Peaceful Relationship with Food was published by Parallax Press in 2015.

Annie holds masters degrees in both Computer Science, from the University of Michigan, and Religious Studies from Howard University. She studied yoga with Suzie Hurley at Willow Street Yoga Center in 2004, and she was one of the country’s first certified Children’s Yoga teachers. In addition, she is a certified Focusing professional, Licensed Massage Therapist (LMT). Trauma-informed Clinical Practice, Nonviolent Communication (NVC), and practices many other modalities.

FAQs

I’m not a buddhist. Why should I join?

You don’t need to have any particular spiritual or religious identity to join this class - all are welcome. We will simply be using buddhist practices to bring more mindfulness to your life. Also, many people think of Buddhism as a philosophy or a practice and not a religion. So there is no conflict with your current religion, if you have one.

What are the Four Noble Truths?

The Four Noble Truths are a set of teachings - the first teachings that the Buddha gave immediately after his enlightenment experience. They have to do with the nature of suffering.

What is the Eight-Fold Path?

The Eightfold Path is the path that leads from suffering to non-suffering, and is the fourth of the Four Noble Truths.

What is Metta?

Metta just means loving-kindness, and metta practice is way to develop more friendliness toward ourselves an others and is the doorway to understanding interdependence or inter-being.

What are the Five Hindrances?

The Five Hindrances are a list of ways of reacting that the Buddha suggested are what prevent us from being present. They are desire, aversion, weariness, nervousness/worry, and self-doubt.

Do I need mindfulness training to attend this workshop?

No experience is needed. If you have no experience or a lot of mindfulness experience, you will find something new and have time set aside to practice each week. You will also enjoy making new friends on the path.