If you are reading this article, then you probably already know that dancing has psychological as well as social, cognitive, and emotional, not to mention physical benefits.  But did you know that our body has its own language?  That each organ, vessel, tissue, and muscle has a voice and that we can use the mind body connection to become fluent in the language of our body? 
 
This is different from body language which we know to make up about 80% of what we express.   Body language is a nonverbal communication where feelings and emotions are expressed physically.  This might take the form of an eye roll to express disdain, a dropped jaw to express amazement, or raised shoulders to communicate confusion or misunderstanding. 
 
I am talking about the feelings and emotions that may be hidden, trapped, or even silenced in the body.  Where does our voice go when we have been forced to silence it?  What happens to our desires and needs when they are shown not to matter?  Do they disappear?  No, they become part of our bodies’ internal communication. 
 
As a dance therapist, I see this in my practice all too often.  A client might have a physical ailment that is not described by a physical injury or issue.  Instead it seems to be a manifestation of psychological distress; a psychosomatic symptom.  One basic example that most of us have experienced is a tension headache.  Here is a physical symptom of an emotional trigger.  Now, what about an individual who has been sexually abused?  Often times, there is an inability to verbally process what has occurred.  Either the words are not accessible or the person cannot confront what has happened.  Take a moment to sit with the fact that the body is talking.  The body has so much to say if we only give it the opportunity, but we feel the need to express verbally through formal language and if that is not present, then we must wait until it is or assume everything is “ok.”
 
In dance/movement therapy, we utilize the mind body connection to allow the body to do the talking.  The ability to be mindful and aware of what our body is saying is not an easy task and can even invoke fear or anxiety.  It’s important to know that when words are not accessible or enough to communicate the severity of a situation, that the body can speak for itself.  We are all using our bodies to communicate, relate, and be in this world on a daily basis.  Using the body to express what is already there can rejuvenate, uplift, and open an individual to his/her full potential.
 
Know that whatever you may be going through, your body is carrying it.  The ability to connect the body and mind allows for a more holistic approach to mental health, greater compassion, empathy, and even safety.  If dancing is your release, your path to healing, then embrace all the movement your body does every day.  Finding a way to connect to your body’s internal language can free your mind to express what has always been there and create space for what’s to come.   

Erica Hornthal, MA, LCPC, BC-DMT, is the founder and CEO of Chicago Dance Therapy, which is dedicated to providing dance/movement therapy and clinical counseling to individuals, couples, families and groups. Erica received her MA in Dance/Movement Therapy and Counseling from Columbia College Chicago.  She is passionate about helping individuals of all ages increase their quality of life by emphasizing the mind-body connection to enable growth and healing.  As a movement therapist, Erica uses body movement every day with her clients to provide the means of assessment and the mode of intervention in therapy.  Her work has been highlighted in Social Work Magazine, Natural Awakenings, Fox, WGN, and WCIU. 
 
Twitter: @EricaHornthal @CHIDanceTherapy
Instagram: chicagodancetherapy
Facebook: www.facebook.com/chicagodancetherapy
Website: www.chicagodancetherapy.com

                  A friend of mine from grad school was talking about Dancing Mindfulness one day.  When she was describing the concept I can remember thinking “Wow, that sounds like something I would really enjoy!”  As soon as I got home that evening I went to the Mindful Ohio website to look up more information. The first thing I came across was the video showing others engaged in the practice. It was that very moment I knew I wanted to try a class.  Funny enough, even though I desperately wanted to attend a class I was terrified.  For a couple months I kept thinking “Ok, this is the week”, but sadly it was not. 

                  In January 2014 I attended the Self-Care for Helping Professional workshop.  It just so happened that Dancing Mindfulness was included in the day.  I can vividly remember enjoying myself until “Wake Me Up” from Avicii was played.  At that very moment I became incredibly overwhelmed by emotion.  I did not fully understand what was happening to me.  Before leaving that day I talked to Jamie about what I experienced.  She was able to normalize the situation for me which gave me a great sense of comfort. Even though I was nervous about the same thing occurring again I started to regularly attended classes.  There were many times when I did become quite emotional but I was able to accept that part of myself. In fact, I ended up downloading the Avicii song after the workshop and was able to work through feelings I had been holding on to for a long time.

                  During a few of the classes Jamie talked about facilitator training.  I knew the training was something I really wanted to do but again I began to put myself down.  I talked to a variety of friends, family, and mentors and all of them encouraged me to sign-up.  I decided to take their advice and it ended up being the best decision I had ever made. I truly believe that weekend changed my life and still impacts me in a positive way.  The connection I had that weekend and continue to have with the other facilitators is something I cannot describe.  The best explanation I can give is that connection you have with your best friend that you have known for years. There was another important piece of the weekend that let me know I was meant to be there at that moment.  During our first “dance” as a group Jamie played a beautiful version of “Wake Me Up” by the cast of Glee.  I remember smiling and thinking that song would be included in my first community class I facilitated.

                  I knew that Dancing Mindfulness changed my life and I wanted others to have the same experience. I currently work as a Clinical Counselor and proposed the idea of adding a “Creative Movement” group (Creative Movement is Dancing Mindfulness just under a different name) for clients. The response I have gotten from other counselors at the agency has been amazing! My group jumped from one person to 8 people in a matter of two weeks! The clients have responded positively and tell me every week “Please do not take this group away.”  Additionally, I had the opportunity to facilitate my first community class two weeks ago and of course “Wake Me Up” was on the playlist. I keep continuing to grow as participant and as a facilitator each week.  If someone asked me what Dancing Mindfulness means to me I would have to use a line from “Wake Me Up”, which is “All this time I was trying to find myself and I didn’t know I was lost.” I truly was not aware just how much I needed Dancing Mindfulness in my life to reconnect with myself!

I discovered Dancing Mindfulness at age 5 although I don’t believe it’s creator Jamie Marich was born yet.  It was a common day. I was invited over by some older teenage girls to come play “American Bandstand” in their makeshift playhouse….an abandoned school bus carcass discarded at the end of their driveway (If the Harler girls from Mathias Drive in Columbus ever read this please contact me as I want to thank you for saving my life). I can remember it like it was yesterday when the 45rpm began whirling on the little plastic record player and they encouraged me to “strut my tiny stuff” down the aisle of the bus to the thumping sound of “These Boots are Made for Walking”.  Without knowing it I embodied my first Element of Dancing Mindfulness: breath.  As I was given permission to show up fully in a non-judging environment I felt myself inhale fully and exhale completely.  Unbeknownst to me I had been holding my breath since birth as if to guard myself from harm.  As they smiled and cheered me on I remember, for the first time ever, I felt joy inside of me well up until it overflowed to the point I had tears pouring out of my eyes.  My face had spent many of my short 5 years covered in tears but never from joy.   I couldn’t contain this new feeling nor did I want to. I felt foreign freedom and sense of letting go as I danced, shimmied, swayed and of course strutted.   This dance brought me intense elation, a lightness of Spirit.  For the first time ever I wasn’t trying to be good enough, smart enough, perfect enough.  In fact I wasn’t striving at all.  I just was.  I was one with my body, my breath, the amazing sounds.  I caught myself giggling like the other girls I would enviously watch on the playground at school and I didn’t even know why I was laughing.  I do now.  I had touched my innocence.  I must share I didn’t have much to laugh about at that time.  I was growing up in a home ransacked by alcoholism.  I began escaping to the “playhouse” every chance I got.  I would hide in a hedgerow in my backyard which gave me a perfect view to the school bus and like a panther I would sit crouched and wait until I saw signs of life near the bus and pounce out into the open hoping the Harler girls (and not my troubled and intoxicated mother) would see me and ask me to dance.  But all too soon the Harlers moved and with them went my safe haven in which to thrive.  My short lived freedom was sweeter than anything I had ever known but it was over.  My hedgerow hideout was also soon discovered and I was no longer allowed to disappear.  I soon found sanctuary in a tree but soon I was told was for “boys” and made to get down-and stay down.

After that my “her-story” is not unlike many other women that I know.  I grew up in the tender yet tumultuous 60’s-70’s with a lot of family secrets.  By age 11 I began discovering substances that would bring me fleeting feelings “similar” to that of the abandoned bus dances and the safety of the hedgerow bliss I had enjoyed.  That discovery caused over 20 years of self-destruction including full blown alcoholism by the time I was 14.  

My return to movement didn’t come for another 46 years. I had a span where my life resembled a bad country song.   In 2007 within months my dog (the ultimate confidant) died, my dad died (he had been my hero my whole life; the only steady, constant person in a pool of insanity), my only child moved 700 miles from home to try and rebuild a relationship with his father and I got divorced.  I was thrown into premature menopause from the stress according to my physician.  Everything that had ever made sense to me was suddenly gone. The following few years were a roller coaster of emotion.  I had deep and powerful spiritual beliefs and practices yet I found myself struggling.  I entered a relationship with a wonderful man, a spiritual partner, and yet I found it growing more difficult to give of myself.  Then as if on a death wish type mission I made some career decisions that although looked good on the outside from an intellectual perspective yet was a horrible fit for me. My gut, my heart, told me not to make the change yet I didn’t see any other way.  My heart had endured so much pain in recent years and without even knowing it I had at some point given up trust in it.   I began plummeting deeper and deeper and I rapidly sunk into a depression deeper and darker than I had ever known.  I no longer had the sweet ease and comfort brought on by mind altering substances.  I was raw and it was real and I couldn’t find relief.  I had developed a beautiful meditation practice as part of my 12 step recovery program and during this time I couldn’t quiet my mind no matter how long I sat.   It was during this time that a friend in casual conversation mentioned going to a Dancing Mindfulness class.  Something on the visceral level sparked. I am convinced it was Divine Intervention in answer to the screams of my soul begging for help night after night.  Instantly following her mention I went online and unfortunately found there wasn’t a class anywhere near me but I immediately ordered the DVD available.  Well....let’s just say I haven't missed a day of movement since.  I began taking  “Dancing  Mindfulness” breaks each hour at work (a perk of the less than stellar fitting job was a solo office where I could close the door and dance).  I would close my office door and “drop in”.  I found my breath again.  My spirit.  A new story began to emerge.   At the end of those sanity breaks I felt like I could go on. These mini Dancing Mindfulness moments gave me the energy and clarity and connectedness to my Mind, Body & Spirit I needed.  When I got home at night I would dance as best I could for 20 minutes trying desperately to follow along with the instructions on the video learning about the Attitudes and Elements.  On days when I didn’t have to go in early I would start my day dancing.  Me!  A woman who was on the floor 2 months prior curled up in a ball wondering if suicide was once again my only option?  

I followed an inner nudge and began researching training classes only to find there was one being hosted in the near future by the Dr. Marich only 2 hours from my home.  Until my training  I would dance day after day in my basement after work.  I started developing an insatiable desire to share the technique.  It didn’t make sense.  I had never even stepped foot in a Dancing Mindfulness class.  I followed this nudge and miraculous financial, physical and emotional synchronicities began appearing culminating in me being certified as an instructor.

I knew this is what I wanted to do but fear and inadequacy keep me in it’s grip.  I had tried to teach “other” movement forms before and just couldn’t get off dead center.  I feared this would once again be my story.  I decided to continue my personal practice.  As I began training deeply on my own I found myself suddenly devastated by a mysterious back injury.  In the first days following the injury I missed dancing more than anything as I lay day after day on the floor.  Some days all I could do was focus on the rhythm of the dance of my breath or do my best to embody the vibration of  sound.  In my mind I would tell a new story by visualizing  my cells moving inside my body healing the inflammation, pushing the bulging discs back in place, soothing the angry muscles in my hips.  Some days all I could do was as the creator of this movement, Dr. Marich,  had taught me in training “think of the floor as your canvas.  Your body the brush.”  I would mindfully move one leg, then the other.  I would gently arch my back with a crescendo of music.  During this challenge I had no choice but to practice acceptance and non-striving.   As soon as I could so much as stand upright, I tapped into the element of “beginners mind” and began to mindfully stand for 5 minutes, 10 minutes, as long as I could and sway listening carefully to my body’s needs.  I was literally teaching myself to listen to my inner wisdom and trust that my body, with its now weakened spine and damaged hip structure, would support me in a new and glorious way.  I learned unique ways of moving and I embraced this meditative form of movement like a hungry child with a fresh orange.  I devoured every drop of soul nectar available.   Daily I practiced non-judging as I fell short of my ego’s goal to return to full movement each day.   Slowly, dance by dance, moment by moment, as all the elements and attitudes fused together I not only found physical health but my spirit healed in miraculous ways.  I have danced in witness each morning as the 53 year old woman I am has organically merged with the enchanted 5 year old school bus queen of the strut.    I write this 12 weeks post injury.  I have regained full range of physical motion from my daily practice and much more importantly I have regained full range of motion in my heart.  As the technique began shining a light on my truth I found that the grief I experienced in 2007 had hurt so much I had slammed the door on my heart shut.  With each session the door begins to crack open a bit.  A little more light enters.  Today Dancing Mindfulness has not only flung the doors wide open but I am blinded by the light of healing I have experienced.  In 2015 my hope is to share this incredible mindfulness in motion.  To share the thrill of a truly holistic personal experience.  The ultimate experience of self discovery;  becoming one with myself.   

When one year comes to an end and another begins, I am called to take an inventory of my blessings. The time of transition is perfect for this task.  As 2014 becomes 2015, one major blessing warms my heart more beautifully than any other: Dancing Mindfulness. Although I am credited as the founder of the formal class-based practice, my gratitude is not that I developed it… quite the opposite. My heart brims with gratitude for those in my life who have taught me how to dance mindfully this year. When I developed the class-based practice in 2012, my original vision was for little separation between facilitators and dancers. I wanted to cultivate a true community where we are inspired to learn from each other.  This vision truly came to fruition in 2014, and for that, I thank you!

In 2014, even though my team and I worked hard to offer seven live facilitator trainings across the U.S. and launch a distance-based program to those interested internationally in the practice, my most precious gratitude came when people shared with me how they are cultivating personal dance practices in their lives. To me, having a personal dancing mindfulness practice, just like we might have a personal yoga or sitting meditation practice, is a critical component of facilitator success. Of course, personal practices are open to everyone! My heart radiated as I heard people share with me stories of going to beaches and public places with their iPod docks, blasting music, and letting the dance of now cultivate mindfulness and its attitudes. My heart sang as I heard tales of people carving out personal spaces in their house to take a mindful journey, and sharing the attitudes and elements of dancing mindfulness with their children during play. My heart wept with tears of such pure joy when we were in Puerto Rico a month ago. My team’s mission for this trip was to train a group of 10 local women in Puerto Rico as facilitators. Yet during the practice class, as these trainees moved so effortlessly and mindfully to the music of artists from their homeland and helped me to do the same, something became very clear to me. These women didn’t need me to teach them Dancing Mindfulness, these women are dancing mindfulness… in their hearts, in their souls, and in the beauty of their heritage that they so generously shared. In one beautiful moment at Centro Buen Pastor in Guaynabo (the location of our training/retreat), as we moved in the group practice and I listened to the women singing along around me, it struck me: Dancing Mindfulness belongs to all of us. It is a practice we can all access, even if we haven’t realized it yet. Dancing Mindfulness is not only a practice, but a way of life that makes sense to so many of us. For many of us Dancing Mindfulness offers a template for exploring, for moving past our zones of comfort. For others, to dance mindfully offers a path of liberation from the inside-the-box ways of practicing spirituality and meditation that so many of us feel pressured to accept. Whatever Dancing Mindfulness may mean to you, know that it belongs to you.

I had the privilege of visiting with my dear friend and collaborator Mandy Hinkle a few days ago. Mandy went through the facilitator training program, although the birth of her beautiful daughter Sofia earlier this year became the major focus of her life. There is no doubt in my mind that Mandy is going to continue to do amazing things as both a yoga teacher and a Dancing Mindfulness facilitator in the coming years. Mandy shared with me that she sometimes gets down on herself because she doesn’t craft time to formally go into her yoga space at her house to practice Dancing Mindfulness, and getting to classes has been nearly impossible. Yet when we discussed this idea of dancing mindfulness as a way of life, something resonated. She shared that she does dance around the house, in her kitchen, moving from place-to-place; she dances with the radiant Sofia. The dancing offers her an anchor in joy, and that is perhaps the most vital part of what in means to practice dancing mindfulness…no matter how specifically you are practicing it.

Some of the greatest moments I’ve experienced this year have also come in what people have shared with me online. People, either in my professional or circles of acquaintances or people who have stumbled onto our pages online, are becoming inspired to move. I had another one of those tear-filled, spiritual goose bump moments the other night when Andy, a professional psychologist friend of mine shared that even though he is an introvert who doesn’t dance, he is inspired to follow our leads and give organic movement a try, to simply respond to music that resonates with him. Andy wrote, “Dancing is always a good idea.”

Dancing is always a good idea… for those of you who can embrace that and use it as a path to present-centered living, wonderful! Keep it up into 2015. For those of you who are scared of organic movement, like Andy identified… know that you can always start with your breath. That is the foundation of dancing mindfulness practice. Consider that your breath is part of a larger dance, and by connecting with that breath, you are connecting with the dance. Cultivate curiosity and see where it takes you in the new year. Maybe you’ll catch yourself moving along to a certain sound or piece of music that comes on…that’s your start. Just be in the moment with it and release judgment. The exhale is always available to you to release judgment. If you’ve had a horrible experience in the past with dance or if it’s a trigger to you in any way, feel free to reach out to us on the main Dancing Mindfulness facebook page…the community is here to offer you ideas for support.

As 2015 unfolds, I look forward to connecting with all of you who dance mindfully. Whether you are formally part of one of our groups, or if , like Andy, you are inspired to experiment with your own personal explorations and wish to connect with us online…I honor your journey with dancing mindfully. Let’s make “dancing is always a good idea” our mantra for the new year!

Dance on,

Jamie 

Originally published on StartAgain Media

“It’s better to be a first-rate version of yourself than a second-rate version of someone else.”  -Judy Garland 

 Several of my friends and colleagues have active sitting meditation practices in either Buddhist traditions or the more secular spin-offs like mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR). When I hear them gush over the spiritual fruits of their chosen meditation practices and how such practices change their lives, I could get an inferiority complex or shame myself for resisting such discipline. Notice, I said could.  Today, I chose not to. In recovery, I’ve learned that becoming something I’m not, even if there is the hope of some spiritual promise at the end, is not authentic (and incidentally enough, not very spiritual). Everything about me always longed for spiritual, not religious, connection, so being raised in two pretty rigidly religious churches came with its challenges (Dad was Evangelical, Mom was Protestant). In my rebellion after leaving their home, I sampled just about every spiritual/religious practice out there that resonated even slightly with my values. At one point I became a devout Catholic myself (engaging in many silent contemplative practices within Catholicism).

Vipassana meditation and mindfulness entered my life through several clinical channels, and as a result, I pursued studying some of these traditions in their own right. At one point, I briefly worked with a Buddhist teacher. For many years, I’ve taught my clinical clients how to meditate and how to use mindfulness-informed interventions for wellness. To say that my spiritual identify is an “amalgamation” is the understatement of the year. Through my spiritual evolution, I have learned that sitting for hours on a cushion, contemplating contemplations, going on silent retreats, chanting repetitively, and thoroughly scanning my body parts while laying down is not how I achieve the spiritual harmony that I seek. Although I will engage in these practices when it seems genuine for me to do so, and I have nothing but respect for people who engage in these practices authentically, I’ll be frank—they don’t get me to that state of balance that I seek. Dancing, however, does.

            “But dancing isn’t meditation!”

If you hold such protestations, it’s okay. I’ve heard them before. I am used to people with more traditional practices turning their noses up at me, and I have fielded my share of snide comments. I’ve heard people say things like, “Dancing Mindfulness is great, but as a way of carrying mindfulness into the world.” Although Dancing Mindfulness is a way to carry mindfulness into the world, for me, Dancing Mindfulness is so much more than that. Dancing is the crux of my mindfulness practice, just as sitting on a cushion for hours coming back to the moment with your head may be your foundation. And guess what? I’ve found that engaging in vigorous dance meditation allows me to come back to seated meditation with much more meaning, just as some people may need to engage in a vigorous asana yoga practice before they can deeply relax and quiet the mind.

One of the criticisms that I’ve heard about Dancing Mindfulness, at least the incarnation of it that I’ve developed and teach is that the practice is too noisy, too lyrical. That we can dance mindfully to Madonna or Eminem as easily as we can to Kirtan or devotional chant offends many, yet it is genius to many. For me, it makes perfect sense to dance to high-energy music from a variety of genres in a meditative way where, if I catch my present-moment awareness wandering and judgment creeping in, I gently draw my attention back. Interestingly, I notice that the more I engage in this practice, the more comfortable I am with silence in my daily life. As a clinical counselor, silence is a skill that I have to use in my sessions with people.  Allowing for silent spaces in the practice of therapy is when real change happens. I've found as an educator and lecturer that pacing and navigating the spaces between words and pauses is a skill vital to effectiveness. At a talk this past week, an attendee came up to me and said, “Thank you for your pacing. Thanks for not being afraid of silence.” I just about burst into tears when she shared this because of some criticisms I’ve faced about Dancing Mindfulness being “expressive” and not allowing for enough quiet. Yet it’s always made total sense to me that the more expressive and creative that I can be with my meditation practice, the more comfortable I become with quietness and stillness in my life and in my counseling/training vocation.  

I’ve found it comforting to learn that I am not alone in my experiences. Dr. Christine Caldwell (2014), director of the somatic psychology program at Naropa University in Boulder, CO recently coined a term called bodyfulness. Bodyfulness is achieved in practices like yoga, somatic experiencing, Qi Gong, dance, and other practices that add another dimension to the practice of mindfulness by more fully encouraging awareness of the body. Caldwell identifies what she terms anti-somatic bias in more traditional mindfulness practices, and saw a need for this new term. Reading that she too had experienced such bias was incredibly validating. I achieve mindful awareness and its fruits by engaging my body and letting it creatively flow. This truth clicked for me over several stays at one of our country’s popular yoga and health centers several years ago when I first discovered the genre of conscious dance. The discovery of conscious dance was one of the great gifts of my life. From those powerful retreats, I formally crafted and named Dancing Mindfulness as a legitimate mindfulness practice. Some people feel that with Dancing Mindfulness, I am pushing the boundaries of what constitutes mindfulness. I disagree with this assessment. The way I practice mindfulness simply cannot be confined by the traditional boundaries that several ancient schools of thought and more systematized secular programs like MBSR establish.

For me, there are infinite combinations of ways to meditate and achieve mindfulness.  Even Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of MBSR, writes: “Meditation is any activity that helps us systematically regulate our attention and energy, thereby influencing and possibly transforming the quality of experience in service of realizing the full range of our humanity and of our relationship to others in the world (2003; 2011).” He and many other modern-day mindfulness scholars routinely teach that any human activity can be engaged in mindfully, whether that be yoga, walking, jogging, chopping wood, carrying water, or doing the laundry. Dance is not so frequently mentioned in these comments of “everything can be practiced mindfully.”  Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised, considering that Western society, in the face of many liberal evolutions in value, still seems to be more emotionally, creatively, and sensually repressed than ever. I could go on and on with my feelings on this, but I don’t want to seem that I am forcing dance meditation on you, any more than I want you to force sitting meditation on me. There are so many paths home. Why limit ourselves to one? Why judge others if the path that resonates the best for them doesn’t meet your conceptualization of what mindfulness and meditation should be?

Holly Rivera, one of our Dancing Mindfulness facilitators, has engaged in many traditional Buddhist practices for the last decade and continues to be involved with Buddhist spiritual communities. She recently shared a beautiful reflection that helped me to answer my own questions:

I have definitely found that Dancing Mindfulness has helped my meditation           practice. I can focus a lot better and find it easier to quiet my mind. I think that        once you can learn to bring yourself back to the now regardless of surrounding, it   makes it that much easier to focus when you don't have to work so hard to stay present.

 Every person is different and benefits differently from mindfulness. I find it          unfair to judge one form of mindfulness "better" than another. This just leads to        categorizing people as "good" or "bad" based on the way they are able to be           mindful. Sounds a lot like when we would teach only memorization in school and        called kids who were auditory or visual learners "stupid."

In researching the experiences of Asian woman (both nuns and laywomen), Buddhist teacher Martine Batchelor (2013) concluded that the specific techniques of meditation used do not seem to matter as much as one’s sincerity in pursuing the Dharma. May we all move forward honoring each other’s sincerity in their chosen practice(s).

REFERENCES

Batchelor, M.  (2013).  Meditation and mindfulness.  In J. M. G. Williams & J. Kabat-Zinn (Eds.), Mindfulness: Diverse perspectives on its meaning, origins, and applications (pp.  157-164).  New York: Routledge/Taylor Francis. 

Bhikku, B. (2011). What does mindfulness really mean? A canonical perspective. Contemporary Buddhism, 12(1), 19-39.

Caldwell, C.  (2014).  Mindfulness and bodyfulness: A new paradigm.  The Journal of Contemplative Inquiry, 1(1), 77-96. 

Kabat-Zinn, J.  (2003).  Mindfulness-based interventions in context: Past, present, and future.  Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 10(2), 144-156. 

Kabat-Zinn, J.  (2011).  Mindfulness for beginners: Reclaiming the present moment-and your life.  Boulder, CO: Sounds True Books.