Years ago, I noticed that I was becoming increasingly irritable, hyper-sensitive, overreactive and I didn’t know why. Then one evening I was looking at my calendar, noticing that I didn’t have much coming up in the way of music work or creative projects for the next several months. Suddenly, a spontaneous inner-voice blurted out, “If I’m not busy, I’ll disappear!” Who or what, exactly, was feeling this existential threat, I wondered.
What was revealed to me in that moment was that I had been unwittingly cultivating an identity – a way in which I needed to see myself – for decades! and that I had been desperately clinging to it for validation and self-worth: the identity of ‘I’m busy’. It was this identity that had been – sensing its existence was being threatened by objective circumstances – was in fear for its life, and lashing out. And this was causing me, and those around me, to suffer.
Around that same time, the opportunity to learn how to meditate presented itself when a friend introduced me to Jeff Warren and the weekly sangha that was becoming the Consciousness Explorers Club. I decided I would learn how to sit and do nothing (which is what I imagined mediation to be at the time) in order that I might dive into what was below this identity: who or what was I underneath ‘I’m busy’, and could I connect with a fundamental sense of completeness in simply being alive – not ‘being busy’ – in sitting and doing nothing?
Through Jeff, I was introduced to Shinzen Young, and with that began years of residential retreats, workshops, and one-on-one training with Shinzen himself (as well as several other teachers along the way), and eventually Level 2 coaching certification from Unified Mindfulness. And while Shinzen has been my primary teacher over the years, my training and coaching are also informed and inspired by teachings of Zen, Advaita Vedanta, Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness, Attachment Theory, and Internal Family Systems.
As both a practitioner and a coach, my interest is in fostering a kind, loving curiosity and a sense of complementarity and allowing towards what’s true in our experience; illuminating blindspots, identifications, seeing where fixation, resistance, judgment, or denial of our experience might have us feeling stuck in our practice and in our lives.
Currently, I am a regular teacher with the CEC. I also lead workshops and courses independently, having worked with elementary school classes, university classes and student organizations, as well as in the corporate workplace. I recently had the privilege of co-teaching a week-long virtual retreat with Shinzen in March of 2021 and will soon be embarking on UM’s 3rd and final level of teacher training – as a student and a mentor.
When I’m not meditating or facilitating, I work as a musician, a motion-graphics designer, and on occasion I still get to flex my BFA training as an illustrator.
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.