Taking Ten

Hello,

How have you been?  How are you now?  

It’s been a while since the last blog post.  I’ve sat down to write you many times, only to be pulled away by a phone call or an email asking for CMP’s help.  There is a growing mental health crisis in this country and people are looking for evidence-based ways to manage stress and anxiety, regulate emotion and feel connected.  We’ve been responding to a growing number of requests from schools and organizations to work with staff, students and clients.   

We’ve averaged over 10 outreach workshops a month this year, serving almost 500 people.  One of my favorite moments took place at a high school last week.  In between sessions scheduled for staff, one teacher popped in to ask if she could bring her class by.  She said, “We were just about to listen to CMP’s Mini Mountain meditation on the website and realized you were in the building.  Can we do it with you in person?” I was overjoyed to learn that our online resources are serving people in this way!

We turn no organization away for lack of funds, so your support has been essential as we respond to requests for help.  

As requests for our services grow, we need to grow, too.  We are hiring our first ever full-time employee - an Executive Director!  We are excited to bring new expertise and additional bandwidth onto the team.  You can check out the job posting here.  Please share it far and wide with anyone you know who might be interested.  

This high-paced start to the year has reminded us of the wise saying, “If you’re so busy that you don’t have 5 minutes to meditate you should probably take 10.”  I find myself working hard to practice what we advise others:  checking with myself during the day, offering myself moments to breathe, bringing awareness to emotions, noticing what it feels like to walk from the car to a school building…  And I bookend these moments with morning and evening mindfulness rituals, gratitude in the morning before I get out of bed, and body scan and loving kindness before I fall asleep.  I truly believe that it is the practice that keeps us resourced, able to serve from our own full cup.

Each word of our name, Community Mindfulness Project, speaks to who we are.  We are grateful to you for being an essential part of the Community and for making our work possible.

With gratitude and love,

Your CMP family