The Mindful Campus Programaims to co-design and implement mindfulnessand compassion-based programming to support undergraduate student wellness at CU Boulder.
To increase the impact and relevance of these practices to students, we employed participatory research methods to forge collaborations among diverse experts. Together we collaboratively designed scalable, sustainable mindfulness- and compassion-based resources driven by the best available scientific evidence, contemplative practice wisdom, and the practical needs of our campus community during these challenging times.
Our work paves the way for sustained wellness on our CU Boulder campus and highlights the power and promise of Youth Participatory Action Research and co-design methods to expand the relevance and scale of contemplative practices such as mindfulness and compassion for individual and collective impact.
8-Week Series
We invite all students, staff, and faculty to participate inthe Mindful Campus Program’s (MCP) 8-week series. The program advocates for mindfulness and compassion-based practices and resources for the practical needs of our campus community. Being part of the 8-week series will make you eligible for a micro-credential* in mindfulness and community engagement from CU Boulder as well. No prior experience in meditation required.
Please join usthe weekof September 16, 2024 untilthe week of November 4, 2024:
Tuesdays:VIRTUALLY 4:00-5:00 PM
Thursdays:VIRTUALLY 2:00-3:00 PM
For more information andto sign up, click
Please see our downloadable flyerhere
If you have any questions regarding the micro-credential, please contact Shubham Sapkota atshubham.sapkota@colorado.edu.
Community of Practice
The Mindful Campus ProgramTeamis delighted to provide a weekly space forCommunity of Practice (CoP). Practitioners, beginning and seasoned,can gather and engage in a variety of contemplative practices throughout the year. Please accept our invitation to pause, restore, and embrace mindfulness. Practices will be led by the Mindful Campus team, along with other facilitators from across the country, and will vary based on the background and style of each facilitator.
WHEN:Every Wednesday, 12:30-1:00 PM
WHERE:At the Crown Institute building or virtually
Speaker Series
The Renée Crown Wellness Institute’s Mindful Campus Program is excited and honored to announce the offering of a Speaker Series for the 2024 academic year. We are looking forward to inviting both local and national mindfulness leaders to engage with our communities.
Good Grief - A Sangha for Healing and Transformation
September 20,2023, 4:00-6:00PM MDT
Reggie is the founder/chief serving officer of Active Peace Yoga. His yoga and meditation practice have served as a sanctuary of peace and perspective while navigating the stresses of being a black man in the world, serving in pressure filled jobs at the height of politics and have helped him navigate complicated emotions (anger, grief, disappointment) to find and nurture peace of mind and ease of spirit.
Reggie nourished his early yoga practice in the rich yoga culture of Denver and Boulder, Colorado. As a teacher, he shares his practice in service to helping people from all walks of life navigate this thing called life with more creativity, authenticity, peace and ease. He has extensively studied with leading teachers in yogic, meditative and dharmic disciplines while also remembering that the best teacher is an eternal student. He is a graduate of the 2023 MMTCP (Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program) cohort.
Through Active Peace Yoga, he offers asana and meditation classes to help others nurture peace of mind, creativity, equanimity in spirit and physical health - helping people nurture well-being as foundational, rather than an afterthought. Reggie has taught Members of Congress, Congressional Staff, major labor unions, leading progressive organizations and individuals from all walks of life - simple tools for managing stress and bringing peace to mind, body and spirit. Active Peace also offers strategic guidance on creating healthier cultures and organizational norms rooted in wellbeing, compassion and results.
In addition to his yoga teaching practice, Reggie has held many senior strategic and logistical roles across a variety of fields, ranging from global marketing, digital and community organizing, government relations, international education to Presidential campaigning. He is a featured speaker on political strategy, new consciousness, wellbeing and social justice, and civic engagement for leading publications, podcasts and platforms including: Be Here Now Network, The Hill, Mind and Life Institute, SoundsTrue Foundation, Upaya Zen Center, Wanderlust, the Wellbeing Project, Yoga Alliance, and Yoga Journal.
Reggie's life work sits at the intersection of bringing more peace and balance to activists; guiding the wellness community toward being more engaged, concerned citizens; and, enhancing the well-being of all walks of life. Achieving this balance is how we catalyze transformative change in our society, which we are desperately in need of at this moment.
He received a B.A. in philosophy from Yale University and an MBA in international strategy from the Vlerick Business School in Belgium.
You can find out more at .
Ancient and Contemporary Healing Modalities
September 20,2023, 4:00-6:00PM MDT
Solwazi teaches mindfulness meditation classes and leads meditation retreats and workshops throughout the U.S. and worldwide. He has practiced mindfulness meditation for over 25 years, focusing on Vipassana since 2003. He graduated from Spirit Rock's Community Dharma Leadership Training and Spirit Rock's four-year Retreat Teacher Training. He is a mentor with the Sounds True Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program. He is also an ICF-certified professional coach and a graduate of the Rolf Institute of Structural Integration and the Thai School of Complementary Health in Chaing Mai, Thailand. Lastly, Solwazi was the guiding teacher for the Prison Buddhist Ministry Program in a Federal Prison in Englewood, Colorado, for over five years.
The Power of Ceremony: Indigenous Contemplative Practices, Neurodecolonization, and Indigenous Mindfulness
February 21, 2024,4:00 - 6:00 PM MDT
Michael Yellow Bird, PhD, is Dean and Professor of the Faculty of Social Work, University of Manitoba, anda member of the MHA Nation (Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara) in North Dakota, USA. Michael Yellow Birdis a certified, internationally trained mindfulness meditation teacher, professional, and scholar and has been practicing mindfulness meditation since 1975. Heis a Member of the Mindfulness Council of Canada Board of Directors, a Member of the Global Compassion Coalition Board of Directors, a Member of the Brown University Mindfulness Center External Advisory Board, and a Member of the Council of Elders for Indigenous Mindfulness Practices. He is a mindfulness consultant and trainer to many organizations, programs, and communities, and serves as a Decolonial Contemplative Mentor and Scholar.
He has held faculty appointments at the University of British Columbia, Kansas, Arizona State, Cal Poly Humboldt, and North Dakota State University. His research focuses on colonization, decolonization, healthy Indigenous aging, mindfulness, contemplative practices, compassion, Arikara ethnobotany and traditional agriculture, and the cultural significance of Rez dogs.
He is the author of numerous scholarly articles and the co-editor of four books: For Indigenous Eyes Only: The Decolonization Handbook; For Indigenous Minds Only: A Decolonization Handbook;Indigenous Social Work around the World: Towards Culturally Relevant Education and Practice; and Decolonizing Social Work. He is the co-author of two books: A Sahnish (Arikara) Ethnobotany (2020) and Decolonizing Holistic Pathways Towards Integrative Healing in Social Work (2021). He is currently co-authoring two books, Arikara Traditional Agriculture and Decolonizing the Social Work Curriculum, and is working on three books, The Memoirs of a Mindful Rez Kid, Rez Dog Meditations: Contemplative Practices for Healing People and the Lands, and A Rez Dog Manifesto: Rediscovering the Sacred Connections in the Time of Climate Change.
Building Compassion and Joy From the Inside Out
April 12,2024, 12:00 - 1:30 PM MDT
The challenges of growing up black and female in apartheid South Africa have been the foundation of the Rev. Nontombi Naomi Tutu’s life as a motivational speaker and activist for human rights. Those experiences taught her that our whole human family loses when we accept situations of oppression, and how the teaching and preaching of hate and division injure us all. The human rights activist’s professional experience ranges from being an economist and development consultant in West Africa to being a program coordinator for programs on Race and Gender and Gender-based Violence in Education at the African Gender Institute at the University of Cape Town. In addition, the Rev. Tutu has taught at the University of Hartford, the University of Connecticut and Brevard College in North Carolina. She served as Program Coordinator for the historic Race Relations Institute at Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn., and was a part of the Institute’s delegation to the World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa.
Growing up the “daughter of Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu” has offered Naomi many opportunities and challenges in her life. Perhaps one of the greatest struggles was the call to ministry. She knew early in life that the one thing she would never be was a priest. She always said, “I have my father’s nose, I do not want his job.” It refused to be silenced, even as she carried her passion for justice into other fields. The call to preach and serve as an ordained clergyperson continued to tug at her. Finally, in her 50s, she responded and went to seminary. She is an Episcopal priest who most recently served as Associate Rector at All Saints, Beverly Hills.She started her public speaking as a college student at Berea College in Kentucky in the 1970s when she was invited to speak at churches, community groups and colleges and universities about her experiences growing up in apartheid South Africa. Since that time, she has become a much sought-after speaker to groups as varied as business associations, professional conferences, elected officials and church and civic organizations.
Rev. Tutu has established Nozizwe Consulting. Its mission is to bring different groups together to learn from and celebrate their differences and acknowledge their shared humanity. As part of this work, she has led Truth and Reconciliation Workshops for groups dealing with different types of conflict. She is the recipient of four honorary doctorates from universities and colleges in the U.S. and Nigeria. She has served as a curate at Christ Church Cathedral as a Canon Missioner for Racial and Economic Equity, and as a Canon Missioner for Kairos West Community Center for the Cathedral of All Souls in Asheville, N.C.
If you have any questions, please reach out to mindfulcampus@colorado.edu