IMS Online Learning Center

This program is now closed to new registrations.

Mindfulness is a quality of awareness in which our perception of the present moment’s experience is not distorted by biases such as old fears, assumptions, or projection into the future. It shows us what life looks like when we see through the lens of universal conditions such as impermanence and interconnection. Mindfulness spearheads the path of understanding our lives by helping us to notice what causes us suffering and what brings us freedom from suffering. It is the root of living our lives more fully and more truly. 

This program explores the meditative techniques of mindfulness applied in a variety of contexts, including wrestling with dukkha, making ethical decisions, seeking wisdom, coping with trauma, communicating, practicing lovingkindness, exploring equanimity, the commonality of science and mindfulness, and the role of mindfulness in everyday life.

Whether you use mindfulness to manage stress or difficult emotions, improve relationships, increase engagement, or enhance your overall well-being, these discussions can help you further live your mindfulness practice. This nine-month program features IMS teachers from many generations and backgrounds. You can participate in all nine months or pick and choose the topics that interest you most.

What does a spiritual path that has at its heart the practice of mindfulness look like? When we understand spirituality as a way to engage and explore not only our own habits of mind, but also how we relate to our friends and family, our communities and even the earth we live on, our practice becomes an everyday matter.

In this module of Essential Mindfulness, insight meditation teachers Alexis Santos and Devon Hase  explored mindfulness and spirituality as a path to awakening in our daily lives.