Cindy’s Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Project
It all started when…
I was still quite young, just 11 years old, actually. I had just been confirmed in the Episcopalian church my family attended. The very next Sunday in church as we recited the Apostles and Nicene creeds, dutifully memorized, I realized I had absolutely no idea what the deeper meaning of these words were. None at all.
And so I decided I would just listen. It seemed somehow a violation of the sacred ceremony I was attending to speak words I didn’t truly understand, that didn’t have deeper meaning for me.
To this day, actually, I follow this rule. I truly appreciate spiritual ceremonies from all kinds of traditions and love to learn from different perspectives as I attend them. But if I don’t really understand the things that are being repeated by those in attendance—whether it is a Christian Sunday service, a yoga kirtan (spiritual celebration through song and chant) or a Buddhist ceremony—I just listen. This feels like the respectful and appropriate thing to do.
This was the beginning of my spiritual journey. Ever since that time, I have been a spiritual seeker, open to learning from many paths, each exploration deepening my own understanding of myself, humanity, this sacred planet on which we live, Nature, God/the Great Mystery/the Divine, and my own relationship to each.
My journey with meditation actually began when I was also relatively young, although it wasn’t until years later that I realized that’s what I was doing. In college, whenever I felt overwhelmed or confused, I would go into nature, find a quiet place to sit—and just be there, allowing my mind to clear, no agenda, no particular thought, no figuring things out. Just sitting. After 20 minutes or so, I was always amazed. Everything became so clear! So easy! So straightforward! The solution to a problem that was completely overwhelming just 20 minutes before was miraculously revealed. So amazing what can happen when we quiet our minds!
For many years after this time, yoga became my meditation. I loved moving my body and found that the rhythms and movement it provided allowed for body and mind to work together to calm and soothe body, mind and soul.
Then I discovered yoga philosophy and the rich and beautiful wisdom it provided, deepening my understanding of the psyche and how in order to see clearly—ourselves, others, our relationships, the world—we must lift the veils that cloud our vision, our understanding.
The physical and spiritual practices of yoga became the foundation of my meditative practices for many years. But over time, I began to feel like something was missing, that it was time for me to adopt a more formal sitting practice.
While on a personal spiritual retreat at the Osage Forest of Peace near Sand Springs, OK, I discovered one could have a spiritual direction session with one of the qualified staff. I noticed some resistance within myself—which so often on this journey is a sign to me that this is just what I need to do!—and so I made an appointment.
The experience touched me deeply and opened a new path before me. My spiritual director for the session was also a meditation teacher—the wonderful and gifted Paige Britt. Not long thereafter, I asked if she would be my teacher, and a new journey began. It became the perfect complement to my yoga journey—the ‘missing piece’.
That was in 2012. I was amazed at what I was discovering, how meditation was not just bringing calm to my life, but transforming the way I saw everything—in a truly beautiful way—awakening a deep joy and love for life within me—even more than I already had!
I wanted to be able to offer this to others. I had already previously been incorporating meditative tools in my work in the field of academic support services—with students with disabilities, testing anxiety, students preparing to study abroad, and those readapting to home as they returned from study overseas.
Now I found the skills and wisdom I was attaining were impacting everything I did—in both my personal as well as my professional life as an independent musician, yoga instructor, and life coach.
Soon I realized I would like to teach meditation in a more formal way, believing it was the best way for me to use my own inherent gifts and acquired skills to truly make a difference in this world so in need of healing.
I began exploring options and came across the Mindfulness and Meditation Teacher Certification Program (MMTCP) taught by Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach in its very first year of existence (2017). It looked truly perfect, but was quite expensive and was taught on location in California. The cost of the program itself as well as the additional cost of transportation, combined with the financial impact of my journey with ovarian cancer from which I was still recuperating, simply made it out of reach.
I began exploring other options, while also keeping tabs on the MMTCP program. I immediately enrolled in their prerequisite course (The Power of Awareness) and with the skills and knowledge I learned there, in addition to what I had already acquired through my own practice and life experiences, I began offering introduction to meditation courses in 2018.
Since the very beginning, students have told me how life-altering the courses have been, bringing them refreshingly new perspectives, deeper joy and happiness, and an awakened sense of the sanctity of life. I knew this was my path, something I wanted to seriously commit to. Something that could offer true healing to those with whom I worked.
And so I continued my research into certification programs. I learned that almost all meditation teacher certification programs required that I attend a week-long silent retreat. I began saving, and in 2019 attended a qualifying silent retreat in Estes Park. I knew it would be impactful—but had absolutely no idea just how much! It was literally one of the most beautiful and awakening experiences I have ever had—on so many different levels.
Unbeknownst to me when I signed up for the retreat, it turns out the retreat was actually specifically created as a qualifying retreat for those involved in the MMTCP program. By the end of the week, I knew for certain this was the program for me. While I had discovered a few other programs, none of them really had called to me. This one, however, was doing so in a very insistent way. The teachers, the teachings, the attendees, the orientation toward service and inclusivity, the spiritual depth, all of it felt so very right.
In addition, even though the cost of the program was higher than some of the other options, I believed this was also a practical choice. This program contained not just teacher training, but also guidance about how to establish and grow one’s professional practice as a meditation teacher. And it would connect me to some of the best teachers in the world—a global community of teachers in the mindfulness tradition.
Feeling more and more called to pursuing teaching meditation as my primary vocation, I committed myself to finding a way to make this dream come true.
Last year—just as soon as registration opened—I applied for the program, and was accepted. I also applied for a partial scholarship and was granted that as well.
This is my dream. I know with all my heart and soul this program will allow me to become the best possible teacher I am able to be.
I vow to you and all the world that I will take all I learn and offer it forward, whenever and wherever I am able to do so.
I thank you for being a part of it all!
With deepest respect and gratitude, I bow to you,
Cindy
