Mindful Origins – Presence, Trust, Awakened Heart, and Interconnection Session 4: The Interconnection of All Things

Mindful Origins – Presence, Trust, Awakened Heart, and Interconnection

In keeping with the Bascom’s annual theme, the 2023 Mindfulness Series will explore the origins of mindfulness through the lens of interconnection. Art and mindfulness each offer humanity the opportunity to step beyond isolation and into belongingness. Viewing art, communing with nature, or practicing mindfulness can facilitate transformative experiences of oneness – a felt sense that we are a part of a whole, of something larger.

At its inception, mindfulness is trust in life unfolding occurring when we are present with an open heart. When we are open-hearted, we hold immense capacities for tender compassion, profound love, and renewed joy. Taken together, inter-related presence, loving awareness, and trust allow us to experience and understand the strength of and basis for the innate connection among all things.

Join Debra at the Bascom on June 9th, 16th, 23rd, and 30th from 9:30-10:30 a.m. to practice mindfulness. Take home simple strategies designed to enrich your relationships with self, others, and the world.

No previous experience with mindfulness or movement are needed to benefit from the series. The sessions are free of charge. Each session is available as a stand-alone class or as a part of the integrated series. Please register in advance for individual classes or the entire series.

Session 4:  The Intterconnection of All Things

To drop into being means to recognize your interconnectedness with all life, and with being itself. Your very nature is being part of larger and larger spheres of wholeness.”
— Jon Kabat-Zinn

Through beauty, majesty, and our attentiveness, nature opens us to a sense of oneness. After engaging in practices of loving kindness, we will move into nature’s abundance for a walking meditation. Dependent upon the weather, we will choose to walk on the museum’s trail or veranda. We then will discuss ways to incorporate informal loving kindness and walking meditations as a part of daily activities.

Presenter Biography

Debra Alvis, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist, a certified therapeutic yoga educator, and mindfulness teacher. Her work in wellness spans three decades. Debra is a sought-after international speaker and consultant. She has offered Morning Mindfulness at the Georgia Museum of Art for the last eleven years and has served as a mindfulness consultant and leadership trainer for the National Association of Art Educators.

In her teaching, Debra integrates mindfulness and gentle movement to support people in enhancing and maintaining well-being. Through wellness consultation, continuing education seminars, and community presentations, she has trained thousands of community members and healthcare professionals in mindfulness and resiliency. She especially finds joy in sharing mindfulness tools that deepen our relationships with each other and with our world.