Mindfulness
“What makes you think work and meditation are two different things?”
As a busy professional you don’t want to miss out on opportunities, yet you’re not quite sure how to juggle it all.
Start by discovering the benefits of practicing mindfulness—they’re plentiful and useful in our hectic daily lives:
- greater focus and clarity of mind
- reduced stress and emotional reactivity, increased choice
- increased empathy and compassion
- improved immune functioning, and improved decision-making
- Increased mind-body awareness supports slowing down to speed up
Training in mindfulness takes the form of learning to enter and dwell in states of deep relaxation and awareness, and to bring these qualities into every aspect of our professional and personal lives.
If we can learn to see change as an integral part of life and not as a threat to our well-being, we will be in a much better position to cope effectively with stress.
Mindfulness is an intentionally focused awareness.
A way of paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.
While this notion may seem simplistic, especially in our complex world, attending to the constant activity of the mind for a few brief minutes can yield powerful and even surprising information.
Operating “mindfully” — in the moment an event occurs — enhances the ability to both identify and minimize sources of stress while enhancing competencies that build resiliency.
Mindfulness practices enhance the ability to deal effectively with conflict, to communicate about what’s important, to enjoy each moment as it comes, especially if those moments are difficult.
Individuals regularly practicing mindfulness experience less stress, more resiliency and a greater sense of clarity, balance, energy and zest for living.
Research has shown that mindfulness practices:
- Increase cognitive clarity and creative thinking
- Enhance leadership capacity
- Improve complex problem-solving and decision-making
- Enrich emotional intelligence & attunes social intelligence with others
- Foster enhanced self-awareness of the mind-body connection
- Aid in mood regulation and immune system management of a wide range of physical concerns.
If you hope to more effectively integrate your work and life, to enhance your resilience to stress, and to embody the results above, commit to developing an ongoing mindfulness practice. You can begin today.
Spring Class
Upcoming Spring 2025
Oak Brook 22
1301 West 22nd St, Ste 715
Oak Brook, IL 60523
Search for Chris Johnson on the Mindfulness App
Start your journey to a more relaxed and healthier state of mind with The Mindfulness App. Whether you are just starting out or experienced in meditation, The Mindfulness App will help you to become more present in your daily life.
What is Mindfulness? Can it help me?
Listen as Chris gives an overview of the 8-week MBSR course & invites you to join!
This mindfulness based stress reduction (MBSR) course will provide you with a research-rich, pragmatic, proven way to approach life’s stresses, transforming them into resiliency. You’ll engage your life more fully — at home, at work, in your community.
Over the course of this 8-week MBSR course you will learn to attend to yourself, to train your attention and to cultivate somatic, daily practices as a solid foundation for being fully present in every moment.
Spring Class
Upcoming Spring of 2025
Oak Brook 22
1301 West 22nd St, Ste 715
Oak Brook, IL 60523
A Mindful Course™ teaches you the practices of mindfulness in weekly sessions available in Chicagoland.
Course Curriculum
The core curriculum for A Mindful Course™ is based on more than 30 years of research from The Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Healthcare and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
The Center for Mindfulness serves as an umbrella organization for the Stress Reduction Program founded by renowned author Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn in 1979. It’s dedicated to the integration of mindfulness meditation practices into the mainstream of medicine and healthcare, education, corporate leadership and the workplace, criminal justice, and sports and entertainment.
Chris Johnson, PsyD., has taught this course for eighteen years in the Chicago area.
Course Cost
The course fee of $500 covers everything you need for the course: weekly classes, audio files for practice, course materials, a full-day retreat. Early Bird fees available until Orientation meeting. Check additional Bring-A-Buddy Discounts.
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- Tap into hidden resources of energy & a zest for living fully.
- Cultivate self-awareness & acceptance; enrich your emotional intelligence.
- Foster awareness of a healthy mind-body connection by addressing physical and emotional issues & moving through them.
- Develop a daily discipline of meditation & relaxation.
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- Focus your energy on creating positive solutions to situations that tend to worry you.
- Integrate practical skills into your daily routine that will refresh and revitalize you at work & at home.
- Work with your mood regulation & strengthen your psychobiological and immune system.
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- Increase your cognitive clarity & improve your decision-making skills.
- Connect with yourself & others more authentically.
- Tap into your creative & intuitive capacities.
- Achieve a greater sense of physical and emotional balance & control.
Course Schedule
- Mandatory Orientation session
- Eight Thursday evenings, from 6:30-8:45 p.m.
- All-day Retreat
Course Content
- Interactive instruction in Mindfulness Practices
- Sitting & Walking Meditation
- Somatic Awareness Practices
- Gentle Yoga & Movement Practices
- A Full Day of Mindfulness
Download Orientation Docs
“One of the key practical lessons of modern neuroscience is that the power to direct our attention has within it the power to shape our brain’s firing patterns, as well as the power to shape the architecture of the brain itself."
Dr. Dan SiegelMindfulness Clients
I really enjoyed our Mindful Leadership retreat and find myself reflecting on learnings from that day, especially that mindful leaders are more empowered to hold ambiguity, an essential skill these days. I’ve been using what I’ve learned to help shape my conversations, first by centering myself and then inviting others to do the same.
Chris was the exact right person to work with our Senior Leaders. I believe the progress made in those two days and the commitment to the work that continues is a direct result of our team’s confidence and trust in Chris’ ability to guide us
A Mindful Course™, an 8-week MBSR offer, came highly recommended. I found Chris’ teaching style friendly, creative, accessible, useful. I’m much more patient, resilient, and poised while engaging the challenging aspects of my work and life.
I’m now on an even keel with my own health as well as with my congregation, relating with more creativity, ‘grace under pressure,’ and a sense of humor. Without the mindfulness skills I learned from Chris, I would surely be struggling more and finding less satisfaction in my work. I am profoundly grateful for having learned from Chris.
You know the phrase, ‘that hit the spot,’ usually preceded by a satisfied sigh, or a ‘um hum’ kind of sound? A Mindful Course™ hit the spot, the hungry spot in my life. The hunger to find rest, to pause, to breathe. And, in the space created by rest, pause and breath, my life came back to me. Many thanks for Chris for being the best teacher!
The guidance of Dr. Chris Johnson and practicing mindfulness has helped me to accept the inevitable uncertainties and ease the stress in my life. I now find myself less anxious and reactive. The benefit has been an improvement in my way of thinking and health. It has been noticed by my family and co-workers. For me, I hope it will be a continuing practice. Since each course has given me added insight, I plan to sign up for a fourth!
At ‘Celebrating Life. Celebrating Uncertainty: Mindfulness Skills for Success’ an event for our nursing leaders, I learned how mindfulness can help me deal with & face conflict. What an eye-opener! And, that it can be developed as a daily practice. Practice, practice, practice!
Working with Chris, I began to appreciate that my capacity to lead and transform my organization could only increase through others. At first “mindfulness” sounded to me like squishy overused synonym for group hugs and undisciplined leadership. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
I’m very thankful that I was open-minded enough to listen, read and learn about the science behind Chris’s Core Presence Coaching™ process, based in mindfulness practices. By acknowledging and appreciating the need to connect with others, and practicing mindful awareness, I was able to engage more deliberately with co-workers and lead in the organization.
