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Hello everyone,
It has been a very long time since my last email message to this wonderful and diverse community. Like many of you, I have been doing my best to navigate these constantly challenging times. Perhaps ‘challenging’ doesn’t even begin to describe them? Even though I have not been emailing, as I was doing for a concerted period during the pandemic from March 2020 – March 2021, neither this course nor this community has been far from my thoughts. As you may be aware, we launched a major update a few months ago, and I have been fortunate to have received many messages from course participants. I’ve even been able to talk with some of you over Zoom. As this year slips, slides, and staggers towards its end, I’m writing today mostly just to check-in with you. This time of the year can be stressful and difficult even in the best of times, so I’m more than aware that many of you are probably struggling right now ... Hello again,
As we head towards the lunar New Year next week, I’m taking some time to sit with the various messages that have come in from participants in our course over the last few weeks. Many have been deeply moving, and I wanted to thank you for your trust and courage in sharing them with me. And some have been extremely generous and kind; as for many of you, this is a challenging time for me too, so I’m sincerely grateful to those of you who have reached out. One theme that has been pervasive in your messages recently has been anxiety about ‘repairing’ the world within and around you in various ways. ... Hello again,
Sometimes, like now, it feels almost ridiculous to say that we’re living through challenging times. There are only so many times we can say it before it seems worn thin from over usage. Perhaps numbness creeps in? And yet, it is precisely in such times, when everything feels like it’s too much (or too little), that our awareness can be most transformative, both for ourselves and those around us. I’ve received so many messages from participants on our course after my last missive about forgiveness, and once again I wanted to honour those and to thank you for sharing so much. It is truly humbling to see how many people are striving to cultivate and maintain an intentional compassion through these days of pandemic and political uncertainty ... Hello again,
It’s been at least a couple of weeks since I was last in touch. In that time, I have received very many messages and questions from our community. I am very grateful that you have shared so much and for your trust, and I am also deeply moved by so many of your stories. It’s remarkable to see how diverse our group is, with messages from Belgium, England, and Spain, from Canada, USA, and Mexico, from Argentina, Brazil, and Columbia, from China, Japan, and India. And elsewhere. It’s so inspiring to know that people all over the world are engaging with mindfulness in their own ways, trying to make use of it to help them and others make sense of the lives they’re living. In my last message to you, I invited you to write to me if you had questions. So ... |
AboutDuring the 2020/21 COVID19 pandemic, Chris Goto-Jones started writing periodic emails to the participants of the MOOC DeMystifying Mindfulness on Coursera and FutureLearn. Following requests to put them all in one place, they are reproduced here. Archives
February 2022
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The images used on this site were conceptualized by Chris Goto-Jones for various projects. The character set (monk, zombie, ninja, hippie, scientist) was illustrated by Siku for the MOOC: Demystifying Mindfulness. The Ninja Mindfulness and Virtual Ninja images were also illustrated by Siku. The art for the Zombie Mindfulness project is by Ricardo Bessa. The Jedi Mindfulness images are by Glen Mullaly. The Mindfulness Philosophy images were drawn by Roxanne van Beek. All images are copyright MentalPraxis 2016 - they can be re-used for non-commercial purposes with proper acknowledgement.