About us
Leadership
Leadership
At TRI Wisdom® Institute, we are grateful for the people dedicated to bringing our mission to life.
Laura Bartels
John Bruna
Mark Molony
Mission
Empowering all with skills that foster emotional strength, meaningful connection, and inner well-being is more than our mission, it is our heartbeat
BOARD
Meet our Board Members
Curt Westberg
Meghan Donahue
Jonathan Landon
Teachers
Our Certified Mindfulness Teachers
B
C
Steve Chan
Steve’s mindfulness journey formally began when he completed the Mindful Life Program’s Foundations course in 2019.
The mindfulness skills changed how he approached and engaged with life — especially through the cultivation of his values, learning the sources of genuine happiness, and the choices offered with where to focus one’s attention. Thus, to share these learnings, he trained to become an MLP Certified Mindfulness Teacher, completing the yearlong training program in 2022. He now enjoys teaching these valuable concepts to others, while continuing to develop his mindfulness practice on a daily basis.
Steve also is a physician trained in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, practicing in Sacramento, California. In addition to his clinical duties, Steve educates residents and medical students, delivers lectures to other physicians, served as a communication consultant, held various leadership roles, and volunteers on the California state Traumatic Brain Injury advisory board. Mindfulness concepts are essential for medical providers, and his goals include teaching medical professionals these skills.
When not working, Steve enjoys spending time with his family and friends; he is a proud father, husband, son, brother, uncle and friend. He also can be found jogging on local trails and visiting the weekly farmer’s market with his daughter.
Rita Clagett
Rita has practiced low-impact living in harmony with nature for thirty years. She lives off-the-grid in an adobe home, and cultivates food and healing plants as well as pollinator and wildlife habitat in her gardens. Her lifelong connection to nature led to an early recognition of the interdependence of all beings, which led inevitably to an interest in Buddhism, and ultimately to certification as an MLP Mindfulness Teacher. She has meditated daily since 2010, at least twice daily since November 2016, and now incorporates all aspects of MLP’s mindfulness approach into her daily practice. As a decade-long dream to offer meditation retreats at her homestead came to fruition shortly before the Covid-19 pandemic, an epiphany clarified her calling to share the benefits of mindfulness with friends, family, and those who aren’t yet either. In this time of ecological and societal upheaval, tenderness toward the planet and all its inhabitants, especially oneself, is more essential than ever.
A consistent daily mindfulness practice enables me to find a balance between grief and gratitude. I’ve always been an introvert and I’ve done a lot of ruminating, questioning, and harsh judging of myself. With mindfulness practice, I’ve learned how to introspect in a healthy, productive way that has transformed me from an anxious, self-critical mess into a joyful, relaxed person who is consistently more pleasant to be around, for everyone, including myself.
Mindfulness has helped me ask and answer so many questions that are essential to finding inner peace, equanimity, and genuine happiness. Observing my habits now, I can ask, Is this healthy or helpful? Is it in alignment with my values? Is it wise?… and choose my actions accordingly.”
Email: dukkaqueen@skybeam.com
Rachel Currier
Rachel is deeply committed to practices that cultivate awareness, holistic well-being, and personal transformation. Since beginning her own journey of inner growth in 2012, she has found purpose and fulfillment in supporting others as they navigate their own paths to flourishing.
Rachel is a certified yoga teacher, an MLP Certified Mindfulness Teacher, and a Mindfulness in Recovery facilitator. Her mindfulness practice serves as a rich foundation for all areas of her life—from parenting and family life to ongoing education and community service. She lives in Tully, NY, with her partner and their son, Jesse. In her free time, Rachel enjoys hiking, cooking, connecting with friends, and embracing her passion for lifelong learning.
D
Jeff DiSomma
Jeff found his way to mindfulness through his own recovery from substance use, discovering that lasting healing comes not only from abstinence but from cultivating awareness, compassion, and inner peace. His personal journey has become the foundation of his work, allowing him to connect authentically with others who are navigating their own paths of recovery.
Drawing on both lived experience and professional training, Jeff is passionate about helping individuals build resilience, develop healthy coping skills, and discover hope beyond addiction. He believes that recovery is about more than overcoming substance use—it’s about creating a meaningful, connected, and purposeful life.
Jeff is a Certified Peer Support Specialist (CPSS), a Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor (CADC), a Tri Wisdom Certified Teacher, and a Certified Mindfulness in Recovery Facilitator. He has facilitated mindfulness and recovery groups, supported individuals in community-based behavioral health settings, and served in leadership roles within recovery organizations.
His teaching blends mindfulness, recovery principles, and practical tools that empower people to develop greater self-awareness, emotional balance, and lasting well-being. Whether working one-on-one or with groups, Jeff strives to create a welcoming, compassionate environment where people feel seen, heard, and encouraged to discover their own capacity for healing and growth.
At the heart of Jeff’s work is a simple belief: every person has the ability to recover, awaken to their inherent strengths, and build a life grounded in purpose, connection, and hope.
Contact: disomma5128@gmail.com
G
H
Richard Hayes
Richard Hayes is grateful for the opportunity to help others bring mindfulness into daily life through the practical tools and teachings of the TRI Wisdom Institute. As a full-time certified mindfulness teacher and Mindfulness in Recovery® Facilitator, he has worked with a wide range of populations, including individuals in mental and behavioral health, women recovering from trauma, military veterans, at-risk adolescents, older adults, and professionals seeking to integrate mindfulness into their personal and professional lives.
Working with such a diverse spectrum of people has deepened Richard’s appreciation for the resilience that mindfulness can cultivate. He is committed to making these timeless practices practical, accessible, and relevant for everyday life. His aspiration is to help students develop the mindfulness skills that empower them to live with greater clarity, purpose, resilience, and genuine well-being, leading lives that are both meaningful and fulfilling.
Website: fluxmindcollective.com
Email: fluxmind123meditation@gmail.com
Laura Hess
Laura Hess, ANP-C, MS has over 30 years of experience as a Nurse Practitioner, educator, and leader. After receiving her Masters Degree at UC San Francisco, she was an Assistant Clinical Professor at UCSF and UC Davis teaching Nurse Practitioner and Physician Assistant students. She was awarded “Teacher of the Year” by her students several times. She later practiced with Sutter Medical Group in Sacramento, providing comprehensive Primary Care to adults for over 27 years. Laura also held leadership positions for Sutter Medical Group. She served as a a communication coach for new clinicians and was mentor and lead recruiter for NPs and PAs.
Laura has always been passionate about promoting and meeting the needs of patients and colleagues with care and compassion. Her mindfulness practice has been a key component of her professional career.
Her personal mindfulness practice began over 20 years ago and has been a wonderful journey into self-understanding, growth, and transformation. Her practice has also been instrumental in accepting and working with physical challenges in her own life. In 2017 Laura was introduced to the teachings of the Mindful Life Program and chose to embark on their year-long teacher training. The concepts and teachings fulfilled her passion to share the teachings with others. She is now a Mindful Life Program certified teacher based in Sacramento, California and teaches with her husband, Kevin Walsh.
Laura loves being physically active in nature. She also enjoys reading and knitting. Her favorite activity is spending time connecting with family and friends.
Contact: lkmindfulness.com or Laura@hesswalsh.com
J
Judi Johnson
Judi Johnson brings her enthusiasm and dedication to serving others into this world from a lens of joy and gratitude.
She is an MLP Certified Mindfulness Teacher, a certified Mindfulness in Recovery® facilitator, a licensed advanced alcohol and drug counselor in the State of California, and an internationally certified alcohol and drug counselor with a passion for helping people. She is a woman in long-term recovery and has dedicated her life to helping others. Her current career, which spans several decades, has been focused on helping high-risk/high-need criminally involved individuals find their way to become responsible and productive, law-abiding members of society. Judi has spent her entire professional career helping others uncover their best selves.
After a experiencing a significant personal loss in early 2018, she was introduced to the Mindful Life Program at a local wellness fair. After taking the MLP program’s Foundations Course several times, the timing was in perfect alignment for her to attend the first certification cohort for Mindfulness in Recovery® facilitators. She came away from the training for that certification with a deep desire to bring this life-changing program to as many people as possible. Her extensive experience in working in the criminal justice system brought the realization of just how much good these programs could bring to all areas of that industry, and to the world at large. Taking this knowledge and these skills back to her adult Drug Court program in San Diego County was a pivotal point in her decision to learn more and dive deeper into a year-long intensive program of personal growth and insight found in the Mindful Life Program Teacher’s Certification program.
In her typical loving and caring way of being, she is excited to offer TRI Wisdom® Institute 4 Keys and Foundations Courses and Mindfulness in Recovery® Courses to others. These courses are available to anyone via Zoom and to those in San Diego County area in person.
Email at jujohnson5@gmail.com.
K
Marcus Kirkman
I am a native of North Carolina. After residing in Charlotte for 25 years, I recently relocated to the beautiful mountains of Western North Carolina where Asheville is now, home. I am a retired Navy Veteran and Senior Chief Petty Officer with 22 years of Honorable service. Over the course of my life, I have had the opportunity to experience successes both in the Military and Corporate America. For 17 years I was a Network Analyst for AT&T and in 2015 the company informed me that my department was closing and offered a severance package. I accepted. It was a defining moment of purpose in my life to pursue what I am passionate about: Mental/Physical/Spiritual Well Being, Healing, and Humanity.
In 2016 I began my own journey of personal growth and healing when I discovered the Mindful Life Program. It has transformed my Life; whereby I have experienced transformational healing at the deepest levels along with Spiritual growth that sustains me daily. As a Certified Mindful Life Program Teacher, Certified Mindfulness in Recovery® Facilitator, Life/Wellness Coach, and Certified Ayurveda Wellness Counselor, my passion is becoming an active partner in the lives of individuals who are seeking to discover meaning and purpose in their lives.
It is my firm belief and conviction that our highest self awaits us, within us. It doesn’t live within things external to us but within; awaiting us to discover our best selves, our authentic selves. Life provides us with this opportunity to “Become” every day. Our invitation is to, listen to life with wise discernment. I am forever grateful to John, Laura, and Mark for their support, their teachings, and their personal lives which embody Mindful Living all of which have prepared me to be of service. I am excited about the opportunity to serve as a catalyst for personal growth, development, healing, transformation, and purposeful Living.
I currently reside in Asheville, NC with my beautiful wife, Allison and we’ve decided to make Asheville our forever home. We have two wonderful children and two grandchildren.
Email: momentum.mk42@gmail.com
M
Mindy Meiering
Mindy Meiering is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Life Coach, & Co-Founder of Inhabit, a world-class retreat center currently under construction on the island of Hawai’i. She divides her time between Colorado and Hawaii and lives with her husband, Patrick, and their two sweet rescue dogs.
From 1996-2010, she practiced Social Work full-time in a variety of health care settings and has supported thousands of patients and families during some of their most difficult and challenging moments.
Today, in her coaching work, Mindy works with many types of people with just as many dreams and goals. She supports her clients to build a bridge of clarity, courage, and focus – from the life they currently have into the life they truly want. Mindfulness is a common thread woven into the tapestry of all the work she does.
Mindy’s interest in mindfulness began over ten years ago after her father had a series of strokes. This, combined with the intensity of her work at the time, led her to seek new ways of coping and managing her stress. She began to meditate and devoted time to formal meditation retreats each year, cultivating the practices that continue to be crucial to her overall well-being.
In 2014 she was introduced to the Mindful Life Program and immediately resonated with MLP’s comprehensive teachings that are universal, practical, and accessible to all. Since then her practice has deepened and flourished, allowing her to navigate two years of infertility treatment, a cancer diagnosis, and some major losses, all with courage and equanimity.
Mindy’s love for teaching is apparent. Few things give her greater satisfaction than witnessing a participant in one of her classes deepen into their mindfulness practice and flourish within the MLP Program. Her students have described her as “openhearted, positive, supportive, and sincere” and as someone who “truly cares and is at all times interested in making sure I walk away with a love for this practice and a passion to follow it each day forward.”
Mindy teaches in Durango, Colorado and the Big Island of Hawai’i. Learn more about Mindy at her website or email: hello@mindymeiering.com.
Melissa Mose
Melissa Mose, M.A. Ph.D. (c) is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and has been in private practice since 1995. She primarily treats anxiety, addiction and trauma using Internal Family Systems, ACT and CBT. Melissa began to study meditation thirty years ago, is a certified MLP mindfulness teacher and has a meditation and mindfulness practice that supports her daily life, her recovery and her work with clients. She is the proud mother of a 16-year-old daughter with whom she loves to hike, read and listen to music.
Website: MelissaMoseMFT.com
Dr Assaad Mounzer
Dr. Assaad Mounzer is a motivational speaker, an author, and a talented coach. He is a Board-Certified Urologist who experienced burnout and made a successful transition to becoming a Certified Life Coach and a Certified MLP Mindfulness teacher.
He is a member of ICF (International Coaching Federation) and he holds a master’s degree in Spiritual Psychology with emphasis on Consciousness, Health and Healing. Part of his mission is to assist professionals who are experiencing the negative effects of stress regain their enthusiasm, build resilience to prevent burnout, and live a meaningful life in alignment with their values and purpose. He uses his understanding, compassion and caring to support his clients, to clarify their goals, and reach their potential in their personal and professional development. He is the author of two books: a poetry book “Secrets buried in the sand”, and his book “Burnout to Engagement”, explaining the physiology of stress, the importance of self-care, and how mindfulness can promote neuroplasticity and improve emotional intelligence. He believes that people are experiencing a lot of stress and need to learn new skills to build their emotional intelligence, enhance their self-esteem, and live a more meaningful life.
He says about himself:
“I am a student of life. I am your partner in discovering new opportunities for personal and professional growth. I am an expert in compassionate listening, and I walk with you the extra mile, to support you in clarifying your goals, and taking effective actions, to reach your potential in your personal and professional development.”
Dr. Mounzer teaches in Bluefield, Virginia and Moorseville, North Carolina.
Learn more about Dr. Mounzer at his Website: mindfulmdcoaching.com
Email: assaadmounzer@gmail.com.
N
Katie Nicoll
P
Dan Piquette
Dan Piquette is but one of over 8 billion people doing his best to learn how to live, without a comprehensive instruction manual. He has, however, certainly learned what not to do. For many years he sought happiness and meaning through pleasurable experiences and the accumulation of property and wealth. As these failed to provide depth and weight to a then unfulfilled life, baffled, he became plagued with stress, anxiety, depression and a general dissatisfaction for life. Despite having what society promised as the goods for security and happiness; career, house, family, money and toys galore, he turned to medications which gave him an illusory sense of peace, ease, happiness, purpose, and meaning. In Dan’s case, it turned out that he was just masking deeper issues that were keeping him from finding true happiness and meaning in his career as a nurse and his role as a father and husband.
Dan is a caregiver. He thoroughly enjoys caring for others. But because he did not know how to care for himself, only others, Dan started to deteriorate mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually in 2000 following a climbing accident resulting in three surgeries and the use of crutches for almost a year. His use of prescription medications turned to abuse. Dan lost his 20 year career as a nurse, his wife of 23 years divorced him, and most of his personal possessions were stripped away. Now sober in 2008, removed from everything he believed to be the source of happiness and meaning, he could not reconcile his new sense of peace and freedom. He was forced to evaluate his conception of life and how one finds happiness, purpose, and meaning. It turned out the deeper issues leading to his self-destruction stemmed from his misunderstanding of the true source of happiness and not acting in a manner deserving of self-respect.
Dan returned to school and received double Bachelor Degrees in Environmental Studies and Environmental Biology. He then pursued and earned a Master’s Degree in Environmental Philosophy, Food, and Social Justice. During this stint in school, Dan was introduced to meditation and mindfulness. Assisted by the wisdom gained through this meditation and mindfulness, what Dan discovered from his 6 year academic adventure is that the external environment is a reflection of our internal environment. The external environmental concerns and atrocities are a result of [collective] personal inner turmoil and conflict. With his new understanding that real change begins from within, Dan now considers himself as an internal environmentalist.
In 2017, Dan became a certified instructor of the Mindful Life Program’s Mindfulness Foundations Course. He has also recently started his own business, the Turning Leaf Foundation. Its mission is dedicated to improving environmental well-being through inner growth and development. Dan believes that as each of us grow in understanding and awareness, as we define what a meaningful life is for ourselves, as we act in accordance with our values, as we improve ourselves, the environment improves. After all, as John Francis states, “We are the environment.”
Besides being with friends and family, Dan enjoys hiking, riding bikes, spending time on the Oregon coast, being of service, and petting his cat, Lhotse.
R
Derralyn Rennix
Derralyn Rennix, DVM is a graduate of Upaya Institute and Zen Center’s Buddhist Chaplain Training Program. Dr. Rennix is a companion animal veterinarian, as well as a hospice patient care and bereavement support volunteer. She is a certified meditation and mindfulness teacher and instructor of Cultivating Emotional Balance, the Mindful Life Program, as well as Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach’s two-year Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program. She serves as a mentor to chaplaincy candidates. She also facilitates practice groups and mentors individuals in non-violent communication and mindfulness. She offers trainings to cultivate personal and professional well-being, emotional balance, compassion, and resiliency through MEaningful Life, LLC. Dr. Rennix advocates self-care and finding ways to strengthen connection and healing through the human-animal bond, shared experience, interdisciplinary collaboration, and nature so that we may best serve as caregivers to all beings.
Email: meaningfullife207@gmail.com
Jessica Rose
Jessica Rose is excited to bring mindfulness into everyday living with the tools provided by the TRI Wisdom® Institute. As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and San Jose State MSW University Field Faculty, she has experience working with people from many different walks of life on a variety of issues. After working with people suffering trauma, stress, and serious health issues, she values the resilience that mindfulness can help develop. She is committed to teaching the practical, accessible, and universal tools provided by the Program. Her hope is to bring students better understanding, tools, skills, and personal meaning to their lives.
Email: jessrose.mindfulness@gmail.com
Sam Ruffino
In 2012, after many years of sleepwalking through life, Sam reached a point where he was ready to learn and grow in new ways. Although he had practiced meditation for many years on his own, it wasn’t until he was introduced to the Way of Compassion Dharma Center and the TRI Wisdom® Institute, both led by his teacher, John Bruna, that he discovered the guidance, wisdom, and practical tools he had long been seeking.
Over the next two years, Sam experienced profound personal transformation through dedicated study and practice. Inspired by these changes, he enrolled in the Mindful Life Teacher Training Program, completing the year-long course and becoming a certified teacher in 2018.
Sam brings authenticity, humor, and enthusiasm to his teaching. Drawing from his own hard-earned lessons and life experiences, he creates an engaging and relatable learning environment while demonstrating that meaningful transformation is possible for anyone willing to practice. His passion is helping others cultivate the mindfulness skills that lead to greater resilience, well-being, and a more meaningful life.
Sam currently teaches mindfulness courses throughout Colorado’s Vail Valley, including Gypsum, Eagle, Edwards, and the surrounding communities.
S
Cindy Schmidt: MPT, CYT, Reiki Master
Cindy Schmidt, a Certified Mindful Life Program Teacher, and Jungian Life Coach incorporates her additional training in Women’s Health Physical Therapy, Yoga, and Reiki to empower you to transform and heal on a deep level. She lives and explores the amazing mountains in beautiful Durango, CO with her partner Brad, dog Rigz, and cat Santi.
Cindy first began incorporating meditation and mindfulness into her life over 15 years ago following a personal health crisis, compounded by the stress of a divorce. She found her way back to health physically and mentally through the techniques and wisdom offered through the practices. She met John Bruna close to 10 years ago which brought her to the Mindful Life Program. Cindy completed her teacher training with the Mindful Life Program in 2015 and finds the skills invaluable not only in her own life but also in working with her clients. She now has a passion for sharing the benefits of the Mindful Life Program through teaching workshops in Durango, CO, and beyond.
Learn more about Cindy at www.wildnewway.com or email cindy@wildnewway.com
Deborah Sussex
Deborah (Deb) Sussex (she/her) is a certified teacher with the Tri-Wisdom Institute’s Mindful Life Program and a trained teacher with the Center for Mindful Self-Compassion. She has been teaching mindfulness and meditation to adults since 2019 in a variety of on traditional settings, including workplaces, community programs, online courses, and one-on-one consultations.
Deborah’s path into mindfulness grew out of both curiosity and life’s unexpected challenges. After she and her husband experienced serious cycling accidents during their first years in Durango, Colorado, mindfulness and self-compassion became more than practices, they became practical companions for navigating pain, uncertainty, healing, and everyday life with greater steadiness and kindness.
In 2016, Deborah founded Creative Nature Coaching™, a practice rooted in the belief that every person’s creative nature is unique, vital, and worthy of tending. She integrates mindfulness, meditation, and self-compassion into her coaching/workshops, helping artists,
professionals, and individuals navigate life’s challenges, and the creative process itself, with greater clarity, resilience, and self-compassion.
Before becoming a mindfulness teacher, Deborah spent many years as an outdoor educator, wilderness expedition leader, professional photographer, and multidisciplinary artist. Those
experiences continue to shape her teaching, inviting people to slow down, pay attention, and reconnect with their own innate wisdom. She has a lifelong fascination with psychology, the
contemplative traditions, and understanding the mind, and she loves attending meditation retreats that continue to deepen both her practice and her teaching.
When she’s not teaching, you’ll likely find her mountain or road biking, cross-country skiing, hiking, making art, or exploring the mountains with her Border Collie. Her favorite indulgence? Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Almonds.
Learn more at deborahsussex.com.
Dusty Sylvanson
Dusty Sylvanson is a Certified MLP Mindfulness Teacher whose life is fully engaged as a father, husband, teacher, and carpenter. He owns and operates a small residential construction company in Gunnison, CO, where he lives with his wife Jessica and son Kai. Together, Jessica and Dusty host classes and events in their home studio, The Here & Now Center.
A carpenter from a young age, Dusty found a love and calling for the mountains in his early 20’s. He began teaching outdoor education as a NOLS instructor and had a rich, colorful career teaching wilderness medicine for the Wilderness Medicine Institute (WMI) throughout the western USA, Alaska, Nepal, and India. It was through teaching wilderness emergency medicine that a passion and enthusiasm for teaching arose from deep within him.
Dusty’s life journey has been filled with many trials, tribulations, and triumphs. He has lived on the streets and volunteered in Himalayan villages. He has experienced broken hearts and failure and he has also had experiences beyond his dreams. He has also been in financial crisis and also found himself in a state of fiscal aptitude and success. He has been been involved with tragic accidents involving death and intimately participated in the birth of his son. All of these experiences have helped him gain a greater understanding of the true source of our genuine happiness.
The deep despair, anxiety, and depression he once experienced has transformed, through the support of mindfulness practice, into an ever-deepening state of genuine well-being and flourishing. Ten years ago Dusty met his guiding teacher, John Bruna, and since then has deepened his path of meditation and mindfulness. As his studies and practice with John and other teachers deepened, a new understanding, clarity, and passion began to arise within him.
Dusty is an engaging, excitable, and natural teacher. The evolution that has taken place within him on his transformational path is felt in his sincerity, humor, and passion to share the skills and tools offered by the Mindful Life Program.
He teaches courses in Gunnison in Colorado.
Email: dusty@sylvanheart.co
Jessica Sylvanson
Jessica Sylvanson is a mother, wife, practitioner of acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, business owner, and now mindfulness teacher. Learning mindfulness has only helped all the areas of her life to come into more balance and harmony. She has owned and operated her own business with Here and Now Acupuncture since 2006 in Gunnison Colorado. She started studying meditation in 1998 at Naropa University and continued with various teachers in the disciplines of yoga, shamanic journeying, and meditation. She met John Bruna when he was a monk around 2008 and began studying meditation and mindfulness with him regularly along with her husband Dusty. Her son was born to she and Dusty in 2014.
Jessica has found mindfulness to greatly impact her life in all areas. She has experienced depression and anxiety which run in her family, and she has found great alleviation from both her mindfulness practice and mindful community. These practices have helped her overcome chronic low self-esteem and engage more with the world in general. Every area of her life has improved and she feels clear on her inner goals along with more internal flourishing. Her relationships with her son, husband, family, friends, and clients have improved and continue to flourish. There are always ups and downs and this is true for everyone, but she has tools that help her always at her disposal now.
This program comes along with the special gift of a mindful community – others who have taken courses and are involved at a deep level in their own practices. This continues to inspire, uplift, and motivate you as a practitioner and gives you the power to really create new lasting habits and transform your life. Jessica looks forward to sharing this wonderful program with many others and continuing to practice mindfulness together. She and her husband Dusty Sylvanson both teach in Gunnison Colorado and online.
To see current classes go to www.hereandnowcenter.com.
For Jessica’s acupuncture practice visit www.hereandnowacupuncture.com.
You can also reach her at (970) 641-6095.
T
Aaron Taylor
Aaron Taylor: In January of 2014, I was introduced to the Mindful Life Program during a weekend Mindfulness Foundations Course. During this time, I was taken by the simple yet powerful recognition that there were tools for me to improve my mind, just like I improve my body through the tools of diet and exercise. The tools in the Mindful Life Program have led me to shift from a life of just pursuing pleasure to one of creating what I have been looking for the whole time: genuine happiness. I believe it is a human right to have inner flourishing and lasting happiness, and that is why I enthusiastically engaged in the Mindful Life Program Teacher Training in 2017. I am excited to share the wisdom and compassion of the Mindfulness Foundations Course and to engage with others who wish to cultivate a meaningful life and genuine happiness. Each day I wake up to the recognition of how precious an opportunity I have, and I am passionate about helping others discover their own inner flourishing and genuine happiness. Peace, and BIG Love!
Taro Thomas
Taro Thomas deeply enjoys leading a meaningful life, cultivating genuine happiness, and spreading loving kindness and compassion in his life and to others. As a Certified MLP Mindfulness Teacher he is grateful for this opportunity to share these practices that can be learned through the MLP Foundations Course. These practices include cultivating genuine happiness, developing emotional well being, consistent meditation, living in accordance with your values, and learning valuable daily practices that are encouraged at The Mindful Life Program.After years of working in the corporate world training people how to use software and hardware systems, he currently is a General Manager of a golf course. Seeing the benefits of cultivating genuine happiness and well being have far outweighed seeing a good golf swing.
Having lost the ability to live in accordance with the values he grew up learning, in 2003 he transformed his life and began a new way of living. His gratitude for cultivating these values back into his own life shows in his teaching. Bringing values back such as honesty, respect, humility, trustworthiness, and integrity and cultivating new ones such as compassion, discipline, attentiveness, balance, stillness, selflessness, and wisdom has brought him to this invigorating time in his life.
Over the last several years Taro has helped others in recovery or simply struggling with life discover ways to bring their own values into each day of their lives just as he has learned to do in his. The sudden loss of his father in May of 2005 encouraged Taro to redirect his spiritual path. He has searched to find teachings that would help with suffering, relationships, and balance. One meeting with John Bruna in 2011 at a retreat definitely had a huge impact on his next path in life. That has him here today ready, and qualified to share his life with you, your life with him. Thanks to the Mindful Life Program, Laura, John, and Mark, he has the capability to teach you these ways of living a mindful life.
Taro teaches in San Clemente, Newport Beach, and Encinitas California. Please get in touch via email: taro.mindfulness@gmail.com.
W
Kevin Walsh MD
Kevin Walsh, MD is a retired physician who has been in clinical practice for over 30 years. He started his career as a primary care physician before becoming an Addiction Medicine specialist at Kaiser-Permanente in 1999. In addition to clinical practice, Kevin has been active in clinical education, teaching other healthcare professionals communication skills, Addiction Medicine, and pain management. He has had a daily mindfulness practice since 2009 and has been an MLP-certified teacher since 2018. Kevin is deeply committed to helping others learn, understand, and practice mindfulness to live a healthier and more fulfilling life.
Website: www.lkmindfulness.com
Z
