Bonsai Garden Meditation Program

Improve your health, provide relief from chronic pain, and to increase enjoyment of life.

Meets on Mondays for One Hour Beginning at 9:30 AM
Cost: $40/month (members); $50/month (non-members)
Location: Heathcote Botanical Gardens Phone: 772-464-4672

Heathcote Gardens is happy to announce that we have begun to offer a new weekly meditation program based on groundbreaking scientific inquiry in how transforming the mind can change the brain and body. A growing understanding of how positive qualities such as attention, concentration, clarity, cooperation and kindness can affect the brain has allowed scientists to develop interventions that nurture these capacities in children and adults so that they can be more attentive, focused, loving, forgiving and compassionate.

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction

This weekly group meets on Mondays at 9:30 am for an hour to practice an integrative mind/body approach designed at the UMass Medical Center in 1979 to reduce stress, anxiety, depression, fatigue, pain, high blood pressure, and many other symptoms. Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) helps improve emotional wellbeing, and helps create greater energy and enthusiasm for life. Three decades of scientific research suggest that training in MBSR can positively affect participant’s ability to reduce medical symptoms and psychological distress while learning to live life more fully. Recent studies show that MBSR may provide relief from chronic inflammatory conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and asthma.

This ongoing experiential program focuses on using contemplative techniques in a safe, supportive, and deeply engaging learning environment. Participants will learn and be guided in mindfulness meditation practices, gentle stretching and body movement, and engage in group dialogue andmindful communication exercises. Weekly home-practice will be encouraged to assist you in integrating mindfulness into your everyday life. No experience is necessary. New members welcome at any time. Come as you are. Please note that classes are held outside but under cover. Dress for the weather and bring a chair, mat, or cushion.

Online Payment

About the Instructor

Program conducted by Robert Anderson, MSW, a clinical social worker and experienced group leader. Robert has taught Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction in clinical settings for patients experiencing difficulties with long-term chronic pain, to adolescent substance abuse recovery patients, and to children and adults in individual psychotherapy. Robert has recently developed and delivered several mindfulness-based programs including “Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction for Educators” for the St. Lucie County Schools, an adolescent program, “Lighting the Lamp Within: Mindfulness Based Anger Management for Teens ™”, at Pace Center for Girls, and “Our Mindful Child™” for students at White City Elementary School. Robert is known for being direct, and compassionate. He enjoys helping others increase their sense of wholeness and well-being in the world, and to find peace and contentment in the midst of life’s difficult challenges. His teaching is clear, concise, and secular.