Discovering Sanity: Solitary Confinement Mindfulness Study Course
Solitary confinement, often used in prisons, can be a source of anguish and madness, but one principle that could very much help someone in that situation is mindfulness. With the right instruction, one can develop a sitting meditation practice as a way of working directly with the mind in this intensified circumstance.
Based on studying and practicing the methods in our book, Discovering Sanity: Mindfulness Practice in Solitary Confinement, we offer a through the mail study course that focuses on how to develop a sitting meditation practice in solitary confinement. This is “secular mindfulness,” so there’s no religious philosophy, metaphysics, foreign vocabulary, or scripture involved. Instead, the course focuses on how to work with the body and the mind as they are right now, without some highly specialized or abstract beliefs.
The course offers a lot of detail in how to cultivate a sitting meditation practice, identify and understand confused states of mind, and work with obstacles and conflicting emotions. It also provides further methods for training in mindfulness such as walking meditation, body scanning, sensory awareness, and tools for dealing with trauma symptoms.
Each section of the course has an introductory letter, with a set of questions and practices. Our meditation instructors review the answers and comment on them, write back a personal letter to the student, and they send back as well a standardized sheet of commentary on the topics in the section. The course also comes with a source book providing further material and background.
If you’re interested in contacting us concerning the course, you can reach us at:
Mindfulness Peace Project
6800 N. 79th St., Suite 200
Niwot, CO 80503