Boundary Research for the Alternative Life
My English teacher taught me to meditate in 1969, and I was initiated formally in 1973. Since then, I have worked in Theatre, Art, Music, and Film, with the great fortune of working in all those mediums professionally. I credit my ability over the years to remain calm, creative, and professional directly to my meditation practice.
Learning to listen and untangle those diverse strands within a room, a project, or a person, and then to nurse those inchoate notions and ideas, bring them to fruition… on time, on budget, and on schedule. To be able to work as hard as a man, and to be the first woman in the world to do my job in film, I meditated.
First with TM, then with a TCM practice of Tai Chi Juan (for defense) learning to meditate thru movement. In 1993 I took my vows as a Soror with the Rosicrucians, the only western mystery school that would let a woman become a member at that time. Continuing to work too much in a difficult industry, in 2015 I was retired by my body saying NO, and I was diagnosed with MS.
In 2017 I started exploring the idea of a formal practice within UM. Training to be a coach in 2019 and graduating in 2020, while simultaneously studying Creative Writing at the University of Toronto, which I will be graduating from this year.
Emerging from this intense period of personal transition, and our collective post-pandemic reality, I hope to share what I have learnt from my life-long adventures in meditation, creativity under pressure, and living your best life with a chronic disease. Colouring outside the lines of convention.
Julianna received her BA in psychology from Duke University. As founder, president, and head trainer of Unified Mindfulness, she is dedicated to disseminating Shinzen Young’s comprehensive mindfulness meditation system through the creation and presentation of educational programs and teacher-training certification programs.
Dr. Hunter serves as associate professor of practice and is the founding director of the Executive Mind Leadership Institute at the Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management, Claremont Graduate University. He also serves as visiting professor at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, where he developed and co-teaches the Leading Mindfully executive education program..
Dr. Eisendrath serves as chief psychologist and president of the Institute for Dialogue Therapy, P.C., where, as a Jungian analyst, she offers psychotherapy with individuals and couples, psychoanalysis, supervision, and training.
Dr. Vago serves as the research director of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine and the director of the Contemplative Neuroscience and Integrative Medicine (CNIM) Laboratory at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He is an associate professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and the Department of Psychiatry.
Stella is a psychologist, professor, and Zen practitioner. She became a formal student in 2008 in the Soto Zen tradition. She teaches courses in mindfulness based psychotherapies and the psychology of compassion at the Union Institute & University. She also co-facilitates a family program and young adult program at Shao Shan Temple, in Woodbury Vermont.
Dr. Creswell serves as a tenured associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University. He is also the director of the Health & Human Performance Laboratory at Carnegie Mellon University.
Dr. McCormick currently serves as director of education at Unified Mindfulness. In 1975, he received a B.A. in psychology from the University of California Santa Cruz, where he was part of Dr. Elliot Aronson’s research team that examined cooperative approaches to reducing interracial conflict and academic performance problems in newly integrated school, and made Honors in Psychology, College Honors, and Thesis Honors.
UnifiedMindfulness.com is the official teacher training platform for Shinzen and the Unified Mindfulness System.
Created over 50 years of research and testing by Shinzen Young, Unified Mindfulness is a system of meditation that’s easily researchable by science, with clear terminology and rigorous precision around concepts and procedures.
The Unified Mindfulness system is a comprehensive, robust and refined support structure that any individual at any stage of meditation practice can rely on to go deeper in their insight and their ability to share it with others. It is also a secular form of meditation, which means it’s not religious in any way so anyone, of any faith, can do it.