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Welcome!
I am so glad that your attention has landed here. I hope that you find some of what you are searching for within these pages.
Before you read on, I invite you to take a moment - to pause and gather your awareness. Maybe connect with your breath, your feet on the ground, maybe even look away from the screen and notice what is true in this moment. What do you see? What do you hear? How do you feel?
Noticing what you notice - noticing where you place your attention, this is at the heart of mindfulness practice.
Whether you are planting a seed, nurturing a tender sprout or deepening your established roots, now is the perfect moment to practice mindfulness.
Join Ananda at One Red Pine, a mindfulness practice in Freeport, Maine. Ananda offers classes, retreats and individual sessions, in-person and virtually.
The Gift of Attention
Are you looking for someone who is dedicated to offering warm, welcoming, inclusive and engaging spaces for growing mindful awareness, nurturing kind-heartedness and generating a sense of belonging? You are not alone. Give yourself the gift of attention. Yours and mine.
I believe that we quiet the reactive mind by observing and attending to ourselves, and we soften the heart by listening and caring for ourselves. In this way we grow the capacity to offer our true compassion to ourselves and to others. I believe these practices have a lot to do with healing, individually and globally.
I am here to offer guidance, support and attention.
In-Person Classes
Weekly practice in Freeport Maine. Pause, quiet the mind and soften the heart.
Virtual Classes
Pause, observe, listen deeply from where ever you are on this beautiful planet!
One Red Pine
There lives one red pine behind our house, at the edge of the gardens and just south of the forest.
She is magnificently tall and deeply planted in this place.
Long before they were cleared, she grew up embraced by sisters oak, maple, birch and balsam so her trunk is long and reaches for the sky as any New England forest tree will do.
The only red pine in sight, she whispers and calls to her beloved flock of chickadee and finch.
And patiently, she hosts a daily council of rambunctious crows.
From her outstretched palms she drops intricate timber flowers that scatter the ground at her feet, encouraging squirrels to gather and pause.
And in just one turn around the sun she weathers fierce winds and torrential rains, paralyzing ice and blazing sun, dense humidity, freezing blizzards and late summer’s stretch of stillness.
With unwavering grace, fortitude and the presence of enoughness, just rightness, nowness - she invites me to release my sorrows, put down the baggage I’m dragging around and just be my whole, beautiful, complicated, messy self. She invites me to smile and be the peace I'm searching for.
I hope there are friends and moments in your life that remind you to settle into your enoughness, into your true belonging.
CONNECT THROUGH STILLNESS
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Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between mindfulness and meditation?
Mindfulness is the practice of bringing your attention to and developing awareness of your present moment experience. Mindfulness can be practiced at any moment in your day, not just during meditation.
Meditation is a dedicated practice of focusing your attention. In meditation you intentionally pause for a period of time to focus your attention in a particular way, depending upon the style of meditation. Mindfulness meditation is a combination of the two.
I offer guidance and instruction in both mindfulness and mindfulness meditation.
What is the difference between self-care and self-compassion?
Self-care involves any number of practices and choices intended to support your overall health and well-being. Mindfulness, meditation and self-compassion can be part of a self-care routine.
Self-compassion is both a mindset and the act of responding to yourself with love, kindness, patience and understanding. A self-compassionate response is especially important during challenging and stressful times.
What are the benefits of practicing mindfulness and self-compassion?
I have studied and seen first hand the power of these practices to redirect the habitual patterns of our mind, calm our nervous systems and offer a pathway to befriending ourselves. Essentially, more presence, more kindheartedness and less judgement. With practice we become more responsive and less reactive to the ever changing influences within and around us.
Additionally, there is evidence that a regular mindfulness meditation practice can include (but is not limited to) the following benefits:
Reduces stress, anxiety and recurrence of depression
Improves memory and increases attention
Improves sleep and increases immune function
Lowers blood pressure and heart rate
There is an exciting body of evidence to support the power of meditation to re-wire the brain.
Read or listen to "Meditation Changes Your Brain: Here's How" here.
Can mindfulness and meditation be a form of therapy or used to address mental health issues?
Mindfulness meditation has been shown to have a direct impact on our overall sense of wellbeing. Most widely known for reducing anxiety and depression, mindfulness practice also supports nervous system regulation, healing trauma, addiction recovery and redeveloping healthy attachments. Mindfulness practices also supports us through grieving and loss. So yes, mindfulness practice can be a supportive, therapeutic and healing practice.
What mindfulness is not, is a replacement for medical intervention or clinical mental health counseling, if this is what you are needing.
I bring a trauma-sensitive approach to mindfulness and I am informed by my education, training and practice in somatic counseling psychology, but I do not provide clinical mental health support.
Do you need to be trained to teach mindfulness and meditation?
Technically there is not a standard of training or licensing process to teach meditation, although there are many training programs.
When looking for a mindfulness meditation teacher/practitioner, I would encourage you to find someone with a depth of experience both in their own practice and with a background or training in the unique work of guiding and holding others, in groups or individually.
In addition to a decades long practice and years of classroom and on-the-cushion teaching, I am a Certified Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness Practitioner and hold a Master's in Counseling Psychology.
I've never meditated before, how will I know what to do in the first class?
All you need to do is show up, I’ll guide you through the rest!
I begin each class with a intro to the flow of the class and I guide the practices throughout each session. You will not be left to guess what is going on or what will happen next.
I've tried meditating and I don't think I'm good at it. I couldn't clear my thoughts.
First, know that you are not alone.
It is a common misconception that the goal of meditation is to clear our minds of all thought. This is actually not possible and is certainly not a goal in the way that I offer instruction.
In mindfulness meditation we observe our thoughts when they arise. We strive to notice when we have become lost in thought and gently return our attention to the present, with curiosity and compassion for our wanderings.
Do I have to sit on the floor when I practice?
No. You may choose how you wish to be positioned during meditation.
During in-person classes chairs, backjacks, cushions, zabutons, yoga mats, yoga blocks and blankets are available.
During online classes you may choose the posture and/or seating that best supports your practice.
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