Mindfulness and Well-Being Programs

Mindfulness for Inner Resilience
Online Sessions on Wednesdays

The University of Miami Libraries offers introductory mindfulness sessions designed to support inner resilience in challenging times. These 45-minute online sessions introduce the fundamentals of mindfulness meditation and movement with periods of guided practice and opportunities for reflection and questions.

4:00 p.m. – 4:45 p.m.
Wednesdays
Registration is required.
Fall Semester sessions will begin on Wednesday, August 21, 2024.

The sessions are led by Kelly Miller, a Certified Mindfulness Teacher (MMTCP), Director of Mindfulness and Well-Being Programs, and Associate Dean for Learning and Research Services in the University of Miami Libraries, and Professor Scott Rogers, Director of the University of Miami School of Law’s Mindfulness in Law Program, and Gisele Rocha, a Certified Yoga Teacher (RYT® 200) and Manager in the Libraries’ Creative department. Guest teachers are also occasionally invited. Together with Vera Spika, the former Librarian for Nursing and Health Sciences, Kelly Miller and Scott Rogers established the Libraries’ initial mindfulness offerings beginning in 2016, and the program has been growing steadily since that time.

Breathe and Be
In-Person Sessions on Thursdays at Richter Library

Learn skills and strategies for living through challenging times with greater ease, sense of well-being, and belonging. The “Breathe and Be” Program offers 60-minutes in-person sessions that combine guided meditation, breathing, and conscious movement practices, as well as opportunities for reflection and questions. Facilitated by Guayana Paez-Acosta, MSc, a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT 500 hr.) and Founder and Director of the Athena Lab for Social Change, the Program fosters a welcoming, inclusive, and healing learning environment. No prior experience is needed.

10-30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Thursdays
Richter Library 1st Floor, Learning Commons, Flex Space B
Registration is required.
Fall semester sessions will begin on August 22, 2024.

Meditation Room in Richter Library

A Meditation Room is located on the second floor of Richter Library, Rm. 215E. All are welcome to visit the room for reflection, prayer, or meditation.

E-Books and Audiobooks

The University of Miami Libraries provides access to mindfulness and well-being resources available online. Browse a curated selection of e-books and audiobooks, and explore the catalog and public health databases for more options, including current research on mindfulness and well-being.

What is mindfulness?

“Mindfulness is awareness, cultivated by paying attention in a sustained and particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally. It is one of the many forms of meditation, if you think of meditation as any way in which we engage in 1) systematically regulating our attention and energy, 2) thereby influencing and possibly transforming the quality of our experience, 3) in the service of realizing the full range of our humanity, and of 4) our relationship to others and the world.”

            — Jon Kabat-Zinn, Mindfulness for Beginners: Reclaiming the Present Moment — and Your Life (2011)

Foundational attitudes that support and strengthen mindfulness include curiosity, kindness, gratitude and generosity, acceptance, nonjudging, nonstriving, letting be, patience, humor, trust, and a beginner’s mind.

Researchers have documented the benefits of mindfulness in several areas: 1) symptom reduction (reduction in anxiety and depression symptoms, improvement in quality-of-life outcomes among cancer patients, etc.), 2) improvements in biological markers (changes in cortisol measures in those with high stress levels, etc.), and 3) neuroplasticity (the brain’s ability to change in response to life circumstance and learning).

For more information on mindfulness and its roots in Buddhism, please see our University of Miami Libraries’ Mindfulness Research Guide.

Donate

The Libraries’ mindfulness sessions, meditation room, and related resources are offered freely for the benefit of the University of Miami community. If you would like to donate to support the Libraries in this work, please click here. Support for the Libraries and our community programming is greatly appreciated.

Collaborative Partners

The Libraries’ Mindfulness programs involve collaboration with partners at the University, including the University of Miami School of Law’s Mindfulness in Law Program and UMindfulness, and community partners, including the Athena Lab for Social Change.

Questions

For questions, please contact Kelly Miller (kelly.miller@miami.edu), Director of Mindfulness and Well-Being Programs for the University of Miami Libraries and a Certified Mindfulness Meditation Teacher (MMTCP).