KORU MINDFULNESS PROGRAM
Helping you manage stress
Stressed? Worried? Not sleeping well? Missing moments of joy? KEEP READING...
The Koru mindfulness program (https://student.korumindfulness.org/about.html ) was designed to help young people build skills to handle the stress and pressures of everyday life--school, relationships, work, family--you name it. If you struggle with managing your feelings of stress and a periodic sense of overwhelm (by the way, you're DEFINITELY not alone), this 4 week class might be the perfect fit for you.
It's true, there are numerous meditation practice sites and mindfulness apps out there, but Vanessa was impressed by the fact that Koru is evidence-based; in fact, the Koru curriculum was developed by two psychiatrists practicing out of Duke University's student counselling center. After more than a decade of research (actual empirical data! STATS!) and experience working with young adults, its founders designed this mindfulness program and the app with which it is paired. (Want to check the research? Click the link https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4016159/ )
The founders discovered...
"10 minutes a day of mindfulness practice for four weeks had a significant impact on [their] students' lives, helping them sleep better, feel less stressed, be more mindful, and have greater self-compassion." (Rogers, H., M.D. The Mindful Twenty-Something. Oakland: New Harbinger Publications, 2016.)
Koru aims to help you begin to grow your mindfulness/meditation "muscle." Just like your physical body requires practice to build muscle, it's the same with developing your mindfulness muscle. You wouldn't walk into the gym and expect to dead lift 400 pounds if you've never lifted an empty barbell which is why in week 1 of Koru, the meditation practices are "light"--only 3 minutes and 5 minutes in length. Over the 4 weeks of the program, the guided meditation sessions gradually increase in length. GUESS WHAT? There is evidence to prove that meditating actually changes your brain (in a good way), and learning how to focus your attention on the present-moment can help you GET HAPPY while also increasing your self-compassion (READ: help you be more kind to yourself).
What does the program look like?
- 4 consecutive weeks
- 75 minute sessions (1/week)
- use of the Koru app (smart phone or android) for access to guided practices and information
- 2x/week support for your practice from Vanessa ("check-ins" through the app)
- small class size (in person or from an online platform)
Contact Vanessa to find out when the next session starts.
