UAMS Mindfulness Program to Offer Online Meditation Courses

LITTLE ROCK — The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Mindfulness Program is offering online courses to the public during May and June that teach introductory skills for meditation and mindfulness.

Three courses are being offered this spring. The course lasts four weeks, with one 75-minute class each week. Upcoming course dates include:

• 5:30-6:45 p.m. (Tuesdays) May 16 – June 6 with Ellis Widner at this registration link

• 6-7:15 p.m. (Wednesdays) May 17 – June 7 with Shedelle Davis at this registration link

• 5:30-6:45 p.m. (Tuesdays) June 13 – July 6 with Shedelle Davis at this registration link

The course, called Koru Mindfulness, is an introduction to mindfulness meditation and stress-management skills. These skills help participants fully experience life moment-to-moment with kindness and without judgment. It helps participants learn to increase self-compassion while finding balance in life.

The May 17 course is the UAMS Mindfulness Program’s first Koru Mindfulness Basic

Course for Black, Indigenous and People of Color. The curriculum is the same four-week 75-minute curriculum as the Koru Mindfulness Basic Course.

The UAMS Mindfulness Program’s certified instructors have taught Koru Mindfulness to students, faculty and trainees at UAMS since 2017. Now, the course is also available to the public.

The course is free and open to the public, with a sliding scale of suggested donations to support the ongoing work of the UAMS Mindfulness Program. All participants receive the Koru Mindfulness app of guided meditations and learning materials, while donors also receive the book that goes along with the course and a UAMS Mindfulness Program T-shirt. Details about the course and donations can be found on the UAMS Mindfulness Program website.

This course will be conducted in a virtual format over the Zoom platform.

To register, visit Mindfulness. UAMS. edu/ koru- mindfulness, use the registration links listed above for the individual courses, or email the UamsmindfulnessProgram@uams.edu.

Koru Mindfulness is a popular and widely used program on many college campuses in the United States. It was developed by Holly Rogers, M.D., a psychiatrist from the Duke University Student Counseling Center, and her colleagues. It is now an independent organization with hundreds of teachers worldwide.

Elements taught in the course include:

• Breath Meditation

• Belly Breathing

• Dynamic Breathing

• Body Scan

• Walking Meditation

• Gatha Meditation

• Guided Imagery

• Labeling of Thoughts

• Eating Meditation

• Labeling of Feelings The UAMS courses are be taught by certified Koru Mindfulness teachers from UAMS. Additional courses and dates with our other certified instructors will be announced on the Mindfulness. UAMS.EDU website. Pele Yu, M.D., directs the UAMS Mindfulness Program.