My Teaching Aspirations

In my role as a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) instructor, my aspiration is to awaken participants' curiosity to what might be possible through cultivating an open-hearted and compassionate stance in the present moment. I seek to create an environment in the class that invites participants to access greater stillness, to befriend themselves, and thereby open to new ways of meeting the stress that is a part of each human life. In MBSR class, we are all teachers; we are all students.

"Mindfulness asks us to simply see, to open to ourselves and, in so doing, to open to the world, learning to be with whatever presents itself."
~Saki Santorelli, past Director of the UMass Center for Mindfulness, 

My Training

Linda F Brown, PhD, HSPP is a clinical psychologist who began teaching MBSR in 2011. Since then, she has taught more than 50 mindfulness classes in the community, for research studies, and for IU's employee wellness program. In her private practice of psychology, she specializes in mindfulness-based therapies and in helping people with chronic illness to live their richest and fullest lives. For the past 10 years, she has been a member of a research team at Indiana University School of Medicine that is testing mindfulness interventions for quality of life in cancer survivors. She has had a personal mindfulness meditation practice for over 20 years. 
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Dr. Brown is a fully certified MBSR instructor through the Center for Mindfulness at University of Massachusetts and has participated in additional teacher training through the Mindfulness Center at Brown. 

My Personal Practice

I experienced what I will call a mid-life crisis in the late 1990s when I began wondering why I was still experiencing dissatisfaction even though my life contained nearly all of the things I had believed would make me happy. Most things in my life were seemingly moving along pretty well--so why was happiness still so elusive? My search for answers eventually led me to read about mindfulness. I began taking a stab at meditating as a do-it-yourselfer, doing the best I could by reading about it. It was interesting and somewhat helpful--at least relaxing--but I did not stick with it. Then I came across the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn and his MBSR program. This approach really resonated with me and I took a class, which solidified my meditation practice. Thus I have had a personal mindfulness practice since 2002. I eventually decided to make MBSR a part of my research in graduate school. Maintaining a consistent daily practice has been challenging in the context of a busy life; yet I have found greater peace and meaningfulness through my mindfulness practice. It is clear to me that this will be a lifelong journey. I feel so very privileged to have the opportunity as an MBSR instructor to walk alongside many others who are on a similar path.