Dr. Franklin teaches Mindfulness Meditation, also known as Insight or Awareness meditation. She offers private instruction for beginners in a six-week course and offers private or semi-private ongoing weekly meditation for those who’ve completed the beginner’s course. Click here for current group offerings. If you are interested in learning mindfulness meditation or interested in subscribing to Dr. Franklin’s monthly e-mail newsletter to receive information about upcoming group classes, please contact Dr. Franklin at drfranklin@opendoortherapy.com. What is Mindfulness Meditation? To be mindful is to be conscious, more awake, more informed about how one lives one’s life, and meditation is the practice of conscious breathing. Mindfulness meditation, therefore, is using the breath to inform us of how we are living our lives. Why Meditate? The short-term and long-term benefits of meditation have been well researched and documented and are gaining more attention from modern-day neuroscientists than ever before. Regular meditation practice brings inner calm, stillness, and peace to our lives. Meditation preventively reduces stress, anxiety, depression, anger, and overall reactivity and teaches us new coping skills. Physical pain and chronic illness are better managed with a regular meditation practice. Meditation has been known to improve sleep, mood, energy level, and relationships. Learning Meditation Meditation is in theory a very simple practice but it feels difficult for many because it involves teaching the old dog called our mind new tricks. Learning new tricks requires lots of repetition. It’s often helpful to practice meditation with others, especially as you begin to practice. If you have never before meditated or are unfamiliar with mindfulness meditation specifically, Dr. Franklin’s 6-week beginner’s course is a gentle introduction into the practice and the application of mindfulness meditation to your daily life. If you are interested in starting a mindfulness meditation practice on your own, check out the books listed in Dr. Franklin’s Recommended Reading List. Here’s what a former student had to say about mindfulness meditation: “Meditation has given me perspective on my own life. I can slow down and listen to my thoughts and my body from a place so deep inside that it feels like I'm on the outside looking in. I look at myself with detachment that frees me from my own harsh critic. Put another way, it allows my thoughts to just come and I accept them as they are, without judgment, as if I were listening to a friend. This is an incredibly powerful tool. I understand my motivations, both positive and negative, so much more clearly than I did before.”