Cheatham County residents Renee Faber and Steve Vann have teamed up with a combined 56 years of experience to offer an online program of mindful living and meditation.
Your Wondrous Mind makes available to members a community forum in which they can share their progress, questions, struggles, and encouragement.
According to Faber and Vann, the single biggest obstacle for meditation is habit. Keeping that in mind, Your Wondrous Mind (YWM) offers four live sessions per week to help members begin to develop routines of meditation and to stay committed to their practice.
YWM also offers a growing library of guided audio recordings that members can choose from, which allows them to listen to what best suits their needs on a particular day.
The first week is free, to allow newcomers to explore all that Your Wondrous Mind has to offer.
As part of the many Your Wondrous Mind benefits, Faber and Vann are currently working on offering outdoor meditation in the parks in the area as well as guided mindfulness walks.
The online program received its name from the duo's recognition that the nature of the human mind and human spirit is "wondrous." Through their observations over the years, they have both seen that when someone allows themselves to be still, to breathe, and to relax into the present moment, anyone can experience that wonder.
Knowing the vital importance of stress-reduction on brain health, both Vann and Faber have found that meditation and mindfulness are a very clear and direct route to relaxing the mind and body.
Vann is a licensed professional counselor, and has been counseling for 36 years. He has used techniques related to what people refer to as mindful meditation with his clients for years. He is now certified in Mindfulness Facilitation, and is pursuing training in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), the widely recognized and scientifically researched approach to mindful practices.
“I took an MBSR course to learn some techniques with which I could better help my clients. I had no idea how powerfully this course would improve and deepen my own life, mentally, physically, and spiritually,” he says.
Faber has been studying yoga and meditation since college, and has taught meditation for over 20 years. It is evident to her that meditation is the single most powerful method to soothe the mind and keep the body healthy.
She credits meditation practice for her ability to abide in peace through years of infertility challenges.
"I believe without my meditation practice, I would have easily slipped into self-pity and dark sadness with the loss of my desire for children. It is my meditation practice that keeps my mind and heart integrated into a wholeness, and this allows me to live in joy and peace," she says. "Life is really wondrous, beautiful, and amazing, and when my mind is calm and balanced this is so evident.”
Both Faber and Vann are committed to being available to members and encourage questions.
For more information or to join, visit www.yourwondrousmind.com.
