STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK
Have you got a worried mind?
Learn to tame it when the Hailey Public Library presents a program titled “Taming Our Worrying Minds” at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 3, on Zoom.
The program kicks off a new series titled “Mindful Living in Challenging Times” that explores ways to live mindfully and with balance when handed any number of challenges, such as those this past year has thrown at us.
To attend, RSVP to Kristin.fletcher@haileypubliclibrary.org.
The first evening will feature mindfulness practitioners Mary Ann Chubb and Kristin Fletcher discussing why we worry. They will be joined by Idaho State University clinical psychologist Dr. Paula Seikel, who specializes in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction.
Together, they will introduce the practice of mindfulness and discuss how it can reduce anxiety.
“It seems every day we are faced with new challenges and unsettling news,” said Fletcher, who is also the library’s program and engagement coordinator. “COVID, political and economic uncertainty, racial justice climate change…it can be hard to catch our breath. But by incorporating mindfulness techniques into our daily life, we can learn to skillfully ride the rapids of change.”
Seikel worked for 18 years as a clinical psychologist at ISU’s Counseling and Testing Service. In 2008 she took a sabbatical to study ways to integrate mindfulness practices into psychotherapy. During that time, she attended a Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction intensive training with Jon Kabat-Zinn, creator of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care and Society at the Massachusetts Medical School.
She has started a two-year Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program led by psychologist Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield, author of such books as “No Time Like the Present,” “Meditation for Beginners,” “A Path with Heart” and “The Wise Heart. And, currently, she co-teaches classes at ISU that explore the uses of mindfulness and self-compassion in the health professional.
Chubb, a 40-year resident of the Wood River Valley, became interested in meditation and the Buddhist path in 1996. She has attended many meditation retreats and facilitates a local group practice in Ketchum. She also taught mindfulness practices in the valley’s school on behalf of the Flourish Foundation.
Fletcher participated in her first 10-day silent mindfulness meditation retreat in 1988 and estimates she has logged more than six months in silent retreat since. She co-founded the Portneuf Sangha Meditation Center in Pocatello in 1998.
The Mindful Living series will continue on Dec. 10 when St. Luke’s internist Dr. Scott McLeean shares how to navigate the world of COVID in an evening called “Befriending Monsters.”
On Dec. 17 ISU’s Dr. Tony Seikel will discuss mindfulness practices and their effects on the brain and body in an evening called “The Mindfulness Toolbox.”