Course Introduction

In this video, which starts with the trailer you may already have seen when enrolling for this course, I will explain the structure of the course to you and what you might get out of it. Take the time to understand this. As Leiden University’s study tips reveal, understanding a syllabus will contribute to your success in an online course.

People come to the study of Mindfulness for all kinds of reasons; I’m curious to know what brings you here. Perhaps you’re someone who already has a Mindfulness practice and you’re keen to know more about it? Perhaps you’re someone who has heard a lot about this mysterious thing called ‘Mindfulness,’ but you’re suspicious or skeptical about it, so you want to see what all the fuss is about? Is it really something real? Just a fad or fashion? Does it really cure all our ills? Perhaps you’re a student of psychology, or philosophy, or politics, or you’re an entrepreneur or a therapist?

Whoever you are, and whyever you’re here, you’re very welcome. I look forward to learning about and from you as we embark on this adventure together. ‘De-Mystifying Mindfulness’ was first launched in 2016 and, since that time, it has been honoured by the participation of more than 200,00 people on various platforms. During these years, we have listened carefully to the views, feedback, and needs of the participants, which have prompted us to make a series of changes and additions to the course. Thanks to the generosity of our donors (through our voluntary ‘dana’ box), we had the resources we needed to make the additions.

This course from 2016 was updateds substantially in 2021, with additional voices of experts not mentioned in this video. In particular we want to acknowledge the work of:

• Dawn Scott, Spirit Rock & Barre Centre for Buddhist Studies

• Sydney Spears, University of Kansas

• Elisabeth Stanley, Georgetown University

• Susan Woods, Centre for Mindfulness Studies

• Patricia Rickman, University of Toronto

• Jeff Corntassel, University of Victoria

The result of these updates, we hope, is a responsive and relatively comprehensive guide to de-mystifying mindfulness; a side-effect might be that the style of presentation might sometimes seem a little inconsistent – we hope that isn’t too disconcerting for you.

Please note: This may seem like a very overwhelming big course, but you should feel free to skip material and exercises marked as extra. Though not all material is compulsory you should mark them as completed to ensure you get your certificate if you so wish.

Good luck with the course, and best wishes for your new adventure!