"Atmospherics: Reaching Another Level in Mindfulness-Based Teaching"

The atmosphere in the room is the key resource for growth in teaching. This talk explores the concept of atmosphere from a range of viewpoints, to better understand the kind of knowing that teachers develop from inside the community of the class. They become instruments that measure the unmeasurable-the emotional temperature, the unfolding of mindfulness, the level of intensity, the potential for transformation. Teachers who are tuned in know more than they can say-and can choose to act from that knowledge. Most important this experience of communion, of community, sends teachers and participants into the world beyond the classroom as potential catalysts for reshaping the small and large communities to which they belong. Perhaps good teaching really can change the world!
 
Dr. Don McCown is Associate Professor of Health and Co-Director of the Center for Contemplative Studies at West Chester University. Over the past two decades, he has taught mindfulness-based interventions at Thomas Jefferson University, Won Institute of Graduate Studies, and in the post-graduate program in Family Therapy at Council for Relationships. He is author of "The Ethical Space of the Mindfulness-Based Interventions," primary author of Teaching Mindfulness: A practical guide for clinicians and educators" and "New World Mindfulness: From the Founding Fathers, Emerson, and Thoreau to Your Personal Practice," and primary editor of "Resources for Teaching Mindfulness: An International Handbook."