“ Anything BUT your run-of-the-mill Yoga/Buddhist/New Age meditation class…after the first two weeks, I could maintain focus longer. After a month, I felt a sharp clarity in my thinking. And after three months, these practices magnified my efforts to reduce anxiety. This isn’t just a course on meditation. It’s a toolbox for a meaningful life. Or maybe a toybox. Seriously. Take this course.”
-D.K. Take Back Your Mind
That is the kind of thing that people said about the old Take Back Your Mind Course, but going through it myself recently I realized that it was a bit bloated in places with long-winded explanations and some overly-complex methods. I wanted a TBYM that cut right to the heart of what we are trying to achieve: Sharp, Mindful, Self-Possession fit for an active and worldly life. So I decided to re-do it from the ground up.
A Leaner, More Effective Take Back Your Mind
This course is different than most mindfulness programs. Most teachings on meditation talk about finding calm and peace. Calm and peace are important, but they are a side effect, not the goal. The goal is to take back what has been stolen from you: your attention span, your self-possession, your command.
Some meditation teachers make it sound like they want you to be dead from the neck down, I want you to be fully alive. Fully transcendent and fully engaged with the world at the same time. The goal of this class is not just to keep your clarity and calm, but to increase your sharpness and edge.If we are going to Take Back Our Minds wile still maintaining a fully engaged life filled with work, family, friends, success, adventure, and joy, we need a program designed with that life in mind – not an approach based on the lives monks or contemplatives that treat ordinary life as an obstacle. This program treats your ordinary life as a platform for mindfulness, not a barrier to it.
What’s Different
The new course has the lessons broken up into shorter length recordings – each week you will get two or three audio files that are roughly 20 minutes in length – perfect for session on the cushion or the treadmill. By cutting away the methods meant to generate mystical experiences, and adding techniques that can be employed throughout you day, we keep squarely focused on the point of presence, attention, and self-possession. There are also fewer lessons, so the course costs less than it did in the past.
The Lesson Break Down
Week 1: SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP – Learning to sit breathe and focus the mind on the cushion. The cornerstone of your practice
a. Sit
b. Breathe
c. Focus
Week 2 . PAY ATTENTION DAMMIT! – How to carry mindfulness from the cushion to your life by strategic attention.
a. Mindful Moments
b. Between Breaths
c. Material Foci
Week 3. IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT YOU – Cutting through the separation of self and other
a. Outrospection
b. Managing your Environment
c. Other People Matter
Week 4. PULL YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR… –Real talk about distractions, discipline, and tactics for staying on the path
a. Idle Time/Vital Time
b. Sticky Distractions
c. Persistence
Week 5. GROW A SPINE – Mental Clarity is nothing if it is not reflected in your actions.
a. Cultivating Willpower
b. Facing and Desire
c. Sharpness
Week 6. GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF! – Tools for Self-Possession, Conscious living, and putting down your fucking phone.
a. Information Diet
b. Conscious Content Consumption
c. Heuristic Awareness
Week 7. SHIT HAPPENS – Dealing fear, baggage, and bullshit.
a. Making Space for Demons
b. Breath and Nerves
c. Perceverance
Week 8. OMG WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!! – No, seriously. We all are in fact going to die, and bad things are going to happen. That has to be part of your practice.
a. Making Peace With Death
b. Using Impermenance as Motivation
c. Premeditatio Malorum
Week 9. JUST LET GO – Moving beyond method.
a. Contemplation vs Meditation
b. Sky Gazing
c. Resting in Awareness
How to Join In
Class is $300 – Single Payment.