Mindful Mondays: Free Drop-In Sessions

Mindful Mondays are free drop-in sessions held on Zoom from noon to 1 p.m. Central. Our experienced facilitators will guide you through a series of mindful movements and meditations that will leave you feeling rejuvenated. No prior experience or special clothing is necessary.

To increase the accessibility of Mindful Mondays, a recording is made available to all registrants for one week after the session concludes.

Register for Spring Sessions

Questions or comments? Please reach out to the Bakken Center's community relations office if you have questions about our mindfulness programming ([email protected], 612-625-8164). We welcome the opportunity to connect with you! 

To make disability-related accommodations, please contact the Bakken Center's community relations office ([email protected], 612-625-8164).

Overview and More

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What to Expect

We rotate through various modalities of gentle, mindfulf movement. Please check the Mindful Monday's registration webpage to learn the specific mindful movement planned for each week's session. Prior to each session, as best you can, you may wish to secure a space that will accommodate mindful movement and where you won't be easily interrupted for the duration of the hour-long session

How to Prepare

To help you plan and prepare for the mindful movement portion of each weekly session, the following is a list of considerations and/or supplies you will want to have on hand:

  • Qigong: Space to stand and move your arms freely.
  • Lying down yoga: A blanket, yoga mat, or a large towel, and space to lay down and stretch out on the floor.
  • Chair yoga: A chair, preferably without wheels.
  • Standing yoga: Space to securely stand and move your arms freely. If possible, you may wish to stand on a yoga mat or on an uncarpeted floor to enhance a sense of stability when practicing standing yoga.

Facilitators

Mary Margaret Anderson, Yoga, Mindfulness and Group Fitness Instructor

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Mary has spent 35+ years in spandex teaching yoga, mindfulness, group fitness and training instructors in every kind of wellness adventure. Her passions as a teacher are LOVE, fun, laughter, kind energy, and getting the uninterested interested. She has trained extensively in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, yoga, meditation, Spin, cardio dance, laughter yoga, and a boring braggy list of things you never heard of. Catch her reading, recycling, biking, drinking coffee & tea and laughing with her husband, Skip. She recently sold her yoga studio after 20 years and loves chocolate, veggies, butter, being outside and her family—(including her lovely husband, 4 kids and 5 grandkids).

Alvina Brueggemann, Ph.D, Quality Improvement Consultant for the Mental Health & Addiction Service Line at M Health Fairview

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Alvina has a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology, with a post-baccalaureate certificate in Complementary Therapies and Integrative Healing Practices. She has participated in a variety of yoga/meditation practices and has taught yoga/meditation in numerous settings. Most recently, Alvina has taught meditation to teens/pre-teens in the Juvenile Justice Center and Common Ground meditation center, as well as to adults in a non-profit yoga studio. Alvina has led stress reduction sessions in college settings, and served one year as president of the University of Minnesota Mindfulness Club while attending graduate school. Her passion for teaching extends to college students whom she teaches as an adjunct lecturer in Holistic Health Studies and Psychology. Alvina explores justice work through an employee resource group focusing on leadership opportunities for BIPOC employees at M Health Fairview.

Susan Flannigan, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Facilitator

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Susan completed extensive Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teacher training through the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts, founded by Jon Kabat-Zinn. She received her MBSR Teacher Certification designation from Brown University’s Mindfulness Center and is included on the Center’s Registry of Certified MBSR Teachers, representing an international community of teachers and leaders in the field of MBSR and mindfulness. She also has training in Mindfulness Based Chronic Pain Management and training in Trauma and Healing.

Mariann Johnson, Mindfulness and Wellbeing Instructor

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Mariann Johnson is a wellbeing and mindfulness instructor for the University of Minnesota Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing. Prior to joining the Bakken Center, Mariann taught mindful leadership, mindfulness at work, and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) in a number of business, corporate and community settings throughout the United States. Mariann has practiced mindfulness meditation for over 25 years and studied with national and international leaders in the field. She completed extensive MBSR teacher training through the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts, founded by Jon Kabat-Zinn, and received her MBSR Teacher Certification designation from Brown University’s Mindfulness Center and is included on the Brown University's Registry of Certified MBSR Teachers, representing an international community of teachers and leaders in the field of MBSR and mindfulness.

Tenzin Namdul, TMD, PhD Assistant Professor | Director, Tibetan Healing Initiative Program at the Bakken Center

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Dr. Tenzin Namdul is a medical anthropologist and a Tibetan Medicine doctor, driven to understand mind-body relationship in studying aging and memory through the lens of biocultural and Tibetan medical paradigms. He incorporates his wide array of training into translational science to examine how cultural values and practices shape the ways in which individuals age and die and care for others who are dying. For his doctoral research, Dr. Namdul examines how Tibetan medical doctors, Buddhist practitioners, and lay people’s perspectives about death and dying translate into their care for dying individuals and their own dying process. Specifically, he explores the Tibetan Buddhist contemplative practice called tukdam—a meditation an adept practitioner indulges in after a clinical death—through ethnographic study and shows how it informs and shapes both the sociomoral fabric of life and the sense of wellbeing at the time of dying among Tibetan refugees in southern India.

Chance York, Integrative Health and Wellbeing Creative, YMCA of the North, Show Host, Outside Chance, TPT - Twin Cities PBS

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After purchasing the book, Yoga for Dummies: Pocket Edition, Chance quickly noticed the benefits of regularly practicing yoga, including reduced stress and soreness. For 15 years after this first purchase, he acquired more yoga books, practiced on his own, and eventually enrolled in the school at Radiant Life Yoga. He has worked with students of all ages and abilities in studios, schools, corporate offices, fitness gyms and private settings. Consciousness—with practice—is the ability to observe the workings of the mind and body to identify habits and limiting beliefs and how they relate to our physical and emotional health. Our energy, and our purpose in life is revealed through the practice of studying inward. Yoga—defined as union—benefits everyone. His teaching is considerate to you as an individual, while his knowledge of the ancient practice and contemporary research, center on a perspective of connectedness and harmony.

Other guest facilitators