Events

The CLS Mindfulness Program is delighted to invite you to our annual silent retreat this year at the Garrison Institute in Garrison, New York, from the evening of Friday, February 20, through midday on Sunday, February 22.  Students, staff, faculty, and alums are all welcome to attend. 

This mindfulness retreat will be an opportunity for CLS students, faculty, staff, and alums to explore the benefits of intentional deep mindfulness practice in the beautiful setting of the Garrison Institute, overlooking magnificent vistas of the Hudson River.  A good part of the retreat will be conducted in silence, a unique chance to put aside the usual distractions of technology and even interpersonal interaction.  It will be an invitation to pause and to welcome silence as we journey inward, using a beginner's mind, to explore our thoughts, feelings, and sensations, and, with a lot of guidance by experienced teachers, process them in a constructive way that will hopefully allow us to access peace, clarity, and awareness.  

All students, faculty, staff, alums, and teachers are invited to participate, whether or not they are new to mindfulness practice.  Those who have previously attended Mindfulness Program sessions will likely recognize most of the practices: sitting meditation, walking meditation, mindful movement, mindful eating, loving-kindness, all guided, along with group teaching and opportunities to ask questions and discuss.  Participants who, for any reason, need to come out of silence during silent periods will be free to do so, and to seek support from staff members.

Participants in mindfulness retreats often report benefits of reduced stress and anxiety, improved attentional and relationship skills, and increased emotional resilience and coping behaviors, weeks and months after the retreat.

Please apply here to come join us and experience this adventure together! Please note that there are a limited number of spaces available, so we encourage you to apply as soon as possible, but no later than Wednesday, February 4, at 2:00 PM.

We are also delighted to share that Dr. Patricia Bloom and Kim Thai will be our guiding teachers during the retreat and Magi Pierce will be teaching yoga. See teacher descriptions below. 

Dr. Patricia Bloom is a physician who has been involved in academic internal medicine and geriatric medicine in New York City for the past 45 years. She is currently a Clinical Professor in the Department of Geriatrics at Mount Sinai Medical Center, where she served as both the Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs for the Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, and the Director of Integrative Health Programs for the Martha Stewart Center for Living. She is a Certified Teacher of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, and has been teaching Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction and mindfulness workshops to people with a wide range of medical, psychological, and social stress since 2006. She is currently a co-Director of The Center for Aging in Uganda/Kisoro Elders Project and the International Longevity Center-Uganda.

Kim Thai (she/her) is an interdisciplinary mindfulness writer and teacher. As an Emmy-award storyteller and a proud Queer kid of Vietnamese refugees, she has uplifted marginalized voices across different mediums for almost 20 years. Her personal essays on identity, healing and social justice have been published in New York Magazine’s The Cut, Newsweek, Buzzfeed and more. She is a certified yoga and meditation teacher and currently a student in Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh’s Plum Village Buddhist tradition, exploring how we can liberate ourselves from oppressive systems and release embodied trauma through mindfulness. She is currently working on a memoir/mindfulness book on how to reclaim power and joy in the world regardless of what identities you hold. You can follow her work by subscribing to her mindfulness newsletter Just One Breath, where she invites us to see how every moment is an opportunity to transform the world around us.

Magi Pierce has experienced first hand how ease in the body enables ease in the mind. Her teaching style is founded in her long time study of applied anatomy and she is passionate about making her classes accessible: if you have a body, you are prepared and welcome here! Magi has taught yoga full time since 2008: her website is magipierce.com. “

If you have questions about this event or upcoming events, or if any disability accommodations would help you to participate fully in these events, please contact Nicole Lavacchia ([email protected]).  Columbia University makes every effort to accommodate individuals with disabilities, so please let us know if any changes, for instance to the format of the sound system, would be helpful.