October of 2015, I decided to open my own small side business, From Within Wellness, devoted to mindfulness coaching in Des Moines to both school-aged children and adults. This is a work in progress as I’ve decided to go back to school, learn to teach it, spread it throughout the Midwest and de-mystify what mindfulness is and how science is proving the enormous array of health benefits. More about my path to mindfulness here.
We are busier, faster, over-connected, high-tech/low touch, distracted, stressed out, burned out as ever before, and it’s making us sick and tired…literally. Paraphrasing Dan Harris’ book, 10% Happier: Back in the 1940’s if you told someone you were “going for a run” they would’ve asked you, “Who’s chasing you?” Now, we go to the gym for exercise and feel guilty when we miss a workout. The same thing is happening with mental training and focus, resiliency, attention span, cultivating non-judgement, compassion and kind-heartedness towards ourselves and others. I believe this quiet revolution will be the next public health movement. We have a grip on physical fitness, now it’s time to work on our mental muscle. It’s about self-care and working from the inside out; being in wiser relationship to your life, your relationships, and living moments more fully. It’s learning to objectively respond rather than to reflexively react to all of life’s crap.
Danny Beyer was kind enough to allow me to do a guest post to his blog here. He’s an expert in networking (more about that in his book, The Ties That Bind) speaker, fundraiser, and a kind and generous person.
I’m currently taking classes to teach mindfulness in Des Moines and plan to introduce this to schools, corporations, and the community within the next few months. Please “like” my Facebook page, follow my blog, check out my website to learn more about mindfulness and my path to it, or message me for more info. It’s exciting, exhilarating, nerve wracking, exhausting and frightening all in one to be finally following my passion and purpose in life. Thanks for the support, everybody! – Allison