YOGA The MBA Project's Curriculum

The MBA Project's Curriculum

The Mind Body Awareness Project’s core curriculum blends 4 distinct yet complimentary aspects of self care and participatory wellness adapted specifically to high risk teen populations:
attention (MBSR/mindfulness meditation), authentic communication (council), embodiment (yoga), and challenge learning (ropes course)*. These interventions are drawn from ancient transformational practices that have proven to be ideal complements to traditional mental health services. They are designed to support the developmental needs of teens, to enhance emotional intelligence, and to optimize the innate potential of youth crossing the threshold into adulthood.

What We Teach

Meditation

The practice of meditation is simply the practice of remembering, of returning to contact what is happening right now. In each moment, the future has not yet arrived and the past is already gone. Life occurs right on the “tip of this moment”. Mindfulness meditation is the practice of returning your attention to this present moment each time your mind wanders into thoughts of the past, or starts thinking about the future. It’s simply bringing your self back to this felt moment of life.
Each of our classes includes two 7-10 minute silent or guided meditation periods. The participants are taught how to sit still with their eyes closed and focus their attention on a single object. We teach basic mindfulness meditation based on breath, as well as related meditative techniques designed to bring awareness to specific qualities of experience.

This practice has many benefits:
•Increases attention span, strengthens concentration and capacity to focus
•Rejuvenates the mind through direct access to inner calm
•Promotes emotional intelligence through enhanced self awareness
•Provides a potent tool for stress reduction, anger management, and impulse control
•Increases ability to manage conflict with ease

The style of meditation we teach is called Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, developed by MBA advisor Jon Kabat-Zinn.

What We Teach

Mindfulness (MBSR)

We call what we do “Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction” (MBSR). However, in actuality, MBSR goes far beyond what is commonly thought of as “stress reduction” and may be best described as tapping directly into the dimensions of human experience commonly described by words such as heart, spirit, soul, Tao, and dharma. In this way, MBSR can be thought of as a consciousness discipline: a profound spiritual discipline, aimed at deep self-reflection, self-knowledge, and liberation from confining views of self, others, and the world. Our articulation of the meditative principles and practices involved in MBSR attempts to uncover the universal dimensions of such disciplines and their applicability in modern society, and is independent of the ideological and cultural belief systems and religious frameworks out of which these meditative practices emerged, although it honors what is deepest and best in all the meditative traditions and attempts to embody the wisdom and compassion that underlie all of them.
Mindfulness is a way of learning to relate directly to whatever is happening in your life, a way of taking charge of your life, a way of doing something for yourself that no one else can do for you — consciously and systematically working with your own stress, pain, illness, and the challenges and demands of everyday life. The Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society (CFM) is an outgrowth of the Stress Reduction Clinic, founded by Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D. in 1979. Jon Kabat–Zinn is a current member of the MBA advisory board, his son is an outstanding MBA Project instructor.
The Stress Reduction Program has been featured in the Bill Moyer’s PBS documentary Healing and the Mind and in the book of the same title, on Oprah, NBC Dateline, ABC’s Chronicle, and in various national print media. It is also the subject of Jon Kabat-Zinn’s best-selling book, Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness (Delta, 1990) and Saki Santorelli’s book, Heal Thy Self: Lessons on Mindfulness in Medicine (Random House, 1999). Since its inception, more than 13,000 people have completed the eight-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program and learned how to use their innate resources and abilities to respond more effectively to stress, pain, and anger.

What We Teach

Yoga

Yoga and meditation help to harness the energy of the mind so that the mind and body are united. Yoga literally means “to yoke the mind and body together”, so that your thoughts are not a thousand miles away from what your body is feeling and sensing. Yoga is a philosophy and discipline applied to the development of mind and body. Yoga practices consist of concentrated stretching based on prescribed sequences of body positions, or asanas. The movement patterns are coupled with bringing attention away from thinking and into the internal feeling space of the body, where breath is used to harness the mind and body together. The practitioner increases body awareness, posture, strength, flexibility, and calmness of spirit. Yoga and meditation invite you to be yourself and to embody yourself: to deepen authentic moment-to-moment contact with how it feels to be who you are, and what it feels like to be in your body. Each MBA class incorporates a period of yoga.

Some of the benefits are:
• Develops strength, flexibility, and coordination (physical)
• Can begin to unlock trauma stored in muscle memory (physical)
• Increases mental clarity, concentration, and focus (mental)
• Builds self-esteem and confidence through physical mastery (emotional)
• Provides direct access to mental and physical relaxation
• Provides practical tools to reduce stress

What We Teach

Challenge Learning

The boys’ Meditation and Yoga Intensive Program at Camp Glenwood has been partnering with the Challenge Learning Center for the past three years to offer the program’s students a daylong Challenge Day. This day occurs toward the end of the ten-class (the group meets once a week over ten weeks) program, and is a unique opportunity for the 8-10 participants to integrate and practice the tools and techniques they’ve been learning during the course. The day is off-site, and includes a morning of team and trust-building challenges and activities, followed by an afternoon on the high-ropes course. Meditation and yoga practice are incorporated at regular intervals throughout the day, helping the guys to reconnect more fully with themselves and bring a deeper sense of presence to the challenges at hand.
The Challenge Day is a fun, powerful and rewarding experience that presents the guys with both individual and group challenges that often push them to their personal and collective limits. Although the content and structure of the day is unlike the rest of their days in the camp or ‘on the outs’, the struggles and difficulties that arise here are very familiar. They must frequently confront their frustrations, fears, and potentially limiting beliefs about what is possible, while working within the confines of certain rules and structures. They must find creative ways to work together, genuinely support one another, and be true leaders, listeners, and teammates. They are highly dependent upon each other for both physical and emotional safety, as well as the chance for success. As they struggle to learn how to more skillfully relate to these experiences, there are many moments when it might seem easier to give up, or to give in to fear, anger, or apathy. These are the same internal challenges the guys are constantly grappling with in the midst of their everyday lives.
The meditation and yoga program introduces the guys to the simple (but not easy) and transformative tool of mindfulness in a variety of forms and practices. Presence, awareness, and attention are other words used to describe or understand what mindfulness is. By learning how to be more fully present and aware of what is happening in any given moment, by learning how to place one’s full attention on now (being mindful), there is the potential to make choices and take actions that bring more fulfillment and do less harm to oneself and others. In other words, when one can be more aware of the anger, or the fear (or whatever is arising), and be more present in the direct experience of it without simply reacting to and acting from it, other possibilities can emerge. Recognizing these other possibilities is in many ways the hallmark of the Challenge Day. The guys experience overcoming obstacles and adversities that are potentially limiting, to move through both the inner and outer difficulties with the support of their internal resources and the group as a whole. Invariably, their words during the day’s closing circle speak to their feelings of gratitude, accomplishment, pride, satisfaction, enjoyment, and a (re)discovered faith in their wonderful capacities as individuals and as a team.
CHALLENGE LEARNING:
·Builds self confidence
·Builds self trust as well as trust in others
·Mentally challenging activity that requires creativity, physical strength, stamina and focus

What We Teach

Council

We often begin and end our classes with a council session, a speaking and listening circle adapted from Native American ceremonial circles. In this format the teens sit in a circle where everyone can see everyone else. Council is formally opened with a dedication, during which a candle is lit to signify the formal beginning of the process. During council a ‘talking piece’ is passed around: whoever has the piece has the floor, and all other participants practice actively listening to them. The person with the talking piece is encouraged to speak in an unrehearsed way about what is true for them–either in relation to a specific topic, or to simply share what is on their heart and mind. We encourage participants to speak without an agenda, and with sincerity. When participants have the full attention of the group and the opportunity to express themselves in a confidential and explicitly non-judgemental environment, they often find themselves speaking about deeply personal matters. Each participant has the opportunity to speak his/her piece and be heard and acknowledged by the group. At the end of Council there is a closing dedication, and the candle is extinguished to signify the formal end of the circle.

Some of the benefits that this technique offers are:
•Develops empathetic listening skills
•Encourages a sense of group participation and belonging
•Creates a safe environment for honest personal sharing and exploration of difficult issues
•Promotes mutual respect among youth of diverse backgrounds
•Provides the opportunity for positive self-expression

For More information about Council, check out our Youth Speaks section.