Meditation workshop offered a respite
Our first workshop of 2019 was billed as an experiential event on meditation and mindfulness. Three meditators began by describing what got them into mindfulness meditation and then offered testimonia s to its benefits.
Ron Matross, chair of UMRA’s Workshop and Cares committees, told about his long recovery from a bad bike accident. He turned to guided meditation using a phone app to deal with his persistent and negative rumination, worry, and physical and mental pain. He eventually recovered from his accident and continues regular use of the Headspace app and website produced by Andy Puddicombe.
Michael Dennis Browne—a well-known writer, poet, and retired professor who led an UMRA workshop in 2012 on aging and becoming—said meditation saved his life by teaching him “self-compassion.” Over the years he has studied many forms of mediation, including Hatha Yoga. His current approach is “centering prayer,” a Christian-based method emphasizing interior silence. He also finds comfort in the spirit of Abba Father prayers. “To me, meditation restores the balance. It gives me a place to be, a haven, a harbor,” Browne said. While he may follow the contemplative tradition, Browne quoted extensively from Buddhist writers, including Charlotte Joko Beck, Jack Kornfield, and Thick Nhat Hanh, author of The Miracle of Mindfulness.
Eric Storlie has been teaching courses on both mindfulness and meditation at the U of M’s Center for Spirituality & Healing for the past 15 years. He first learned sitting meditation in the Zen tradition from a temple priest in Japantown while attending the University of California, Berkeley, in the 1960s. Storlie helped found the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center in Minneapolis in 1973. He said one of his goals in meditation is to get through a proverbial “traffic jam” without feeling anger or an automatic fight-or-flight response. During meditation in such situations he can feel “adrenalin drain from my body.”
Following questions and answers, Storlie led the approximately 50 participants in a typical mindfulness mediation for about 15 minutes. In a remarkably soothing voice, he gave instructions on how to relax various muscles, similar to that of the Progressive Muscle Relaxation technique. Browne described this semi-spiritual experience as not so much feeling as observing our muscles and our thoughts.
In my opinion, workshop participants took home a rich array of beneficial ideas and experiences.
—Ron Anderson, Cares Committee
Meditation and mindfulness
Fri, February 22 2019, 1:30pm
Conference Room ABC, Campus Club, Fourth Floor, Coffman Memorial Union
The January Living Well workshop will be a discussion of meditation and mindfulness. Three UMRA members, Ron Matross, poet Michael Dennis Browne, and another will lead off by talking about their very different mindfulness paths and practices, including why and how they got started in meditation, why and how they continue with it, and how they deal with obstacles to doing it.
Then we will do a brief meditation, followed by time for a group discussion of mindfulness practices. Come and share your questions about meditation as well your own experiences with it.
—Ron Matross, chair, Workshop and Cares committees
Upcoming Events
We are fortunate to have UMRA member and former Minnesota Landscape Arboretum director Peter Moe to lead this approximately 3.7-mile hike at the Arboretum on Monday, May 6. Plan to have lunch together after the hike at the Eatery café inside the Oswald Visitor Center.
This session will continue the discussion begun in the May 8, 2023 session. See that article for details.
If you currently live in your own home or apartment, have you looked ahead to when you might want to consider a senior living option? Do you have any idea what those options might be? How much they cost? What they provide? UMRA’s May 14 workshop will provide an overview of the world of senior living and the basic information you need.
You’re invited to join the final Family History Interest Group meeting for 2023–24. This will be an opportunity to ask questions related to family history, share insights, talk about recent projects, and suggest topics for next year.
Stephanie Daily will lead the discussion of Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by best-selling author Mary Roach when the UMRA Book Club meets via Zoom at 2 p.m. on Friday, May 17.
The May 20 hike will start at the Historic Lift Bridge in Stillwater and go along the river to the new bridge, cross over and then back on the Wisconsin side, a total of approximately 5 miles. Most of the route is paved. We will eat lunch after at Brian's Bar and Grill in Stillwater. Car pooling will be available.
Climatologist and meteorologist Mark Seeley joined the U of M faculty in 1978 and has been a weekly commentator on Minnesota Public Radio since 1992. We are honored to welcome him as our guest speaker for UMRA’s May Luncheon Forum and 2024 Annual Meeting. He is always entertaining and informative.
UMRA’s Fourth Friday Book Club welcomes back, for the second time, author Julie Schumacher, U of M Regents professor of creative writing and English, for a conversation about her novel The Shakespeare Requirement.
We are in for a treat on June 3! Lynn Anderson, will lead us on trails at two parks near her Monticello home. Bring a bag lunch and we will gather in Lynn's yard along the Mississippi River for eating and socializing after the hike.
Get out to the ballpark with fellow UMRA members for the annual U of M Day at Target Field as the Minnesota Twins take on the Oakland Athletics on June 14 at 7:10 p.m.
Please join us at 9:30 on June 17, 2024 for a walk around Lake Como in St. Paul before attending the UMRA Summer Social and Picnic starting at 11 at the Como Pavilion. A perfect opportunity to get in a walk before we gather to celebrate summer.
Picnic under the covered, open-air Como pavilion, gaze at the water, spy some birds, catch up with friends and former colleagues, and meet new members. We’ll have lunch with plenty of time for visiting and then compete in teams as we are challenged by our Quiz master(s)!
Healthy aging, mindfulness, fighting ageism, and more will be the focus of the third annual Age-Friendly University Day to be held on the U of M Twin Cities campus.