Tag archives: mindfulness

A Volf with Sheep’s Grace at All Saints and More Spirituality Matters
By Steven Libowitz   |   March 10, 2026

Miroslav Volf, Henry B. Wright Professor of Theology at Yale Divinity School and the founder and director of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture, comes west for a special Sunday event at All Saints-by-the-Sea on March 14. The event, part of All Saints’ “A Living Room for the Community” series, consists of three lectures […]

Longevity Living with Petra Beumer
By Zach Rosen   |   March 3, 2026

Longevity is less a sprint toward the finish line and more a quiet devotion to how we spend our ordinary days. Petra Beumer openly describes herself as a recovering “Type A high achiever,” shaped by a culture of rigor and accomplishment. Over time, she began to notice the toll that constant striving takes: burnout masked […]

Taran-osaurus Teaches Techniques Through Stories
By Steven Libowitz   |   September 9, 2025

Third-generation Montecito resident Taran Collis, a certified Yoga Therapist and Ayurveda Wellness Counselor, spent almost two decades teaching yoga and wellness to adults at La Casa de Maria and the Montecito YMCA before the debris flows from the Thomas Fire and later the pandemic interfered.  What also changed things was having a son. Within a […]

School’s Out… And In
By Steven Libowitz   |   June 24, 2025

The summer session at SBCC’s School of Extended Learning – known fondly as Adult Ed in days of yore – is already underway, with a number of classes geared toward raising the spirit, awareness, or body-mind intelligence – both in person and online – with weekly or one-day options. The good news is that it’s […]

AHA!
By Steven Libowitz   |   February 20, 2024

Roxana Petty is understandably proud that AHA! is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2024, marking a quarter-century since the nonprofit’s founding as a small summer program just a few months after the infamous Columbine High School massacre. In an effort to reduce the possibility of such a tragedy happening in Santa Barbara, AHA! (which stands […]

AHA!
By Steven Libowitz   |   October 17, 2023

AHA!’s (Attitude. Harmony. Achievement.) multi-faceted programs have been rapidly expanding nearly a quarter-century after the organization’s founding in response to the shooting at Columbine High School back in 1999. The proof is in the post-pandemic pudding, which emerged late last month when some of AHA!’s after-school programs got underway.  “The demand for what we’re doing […]

Loving Your ‘Lurps’: New Book Offers Breakthrough
By Steven Libowitz   |   December 7, 2021

Radhule Weininger’s new book, Heart Medicine: How to Stop Painful Patterns and Find Peace and Freedom — at Last, features a brief forward by the Dalai Lama and another longer, more personal one from colleague Joanna Macy, the prolific author, environmental activist, and half-century-plus scholar of Buddhism. Additional pre-publication praise has come from locally beloved […]

Pandemic Pounds: A Mindful Solution
By Nick Masuda   |   May 27, 2021

Petra Beumer, owner of the Mindful Eating Institute in Santa Barbara, is also in the digital detox camp, but also knows that there are many in the South Coast community looking at themselves in the mirror and aren’t happy with the pandemic pounds they’ve added over the past 14 months. According to the American Psychological […]

Stress Strategies
By Ann Brode   |   October 1, 2020

You know that high stress levels aren’t healthy. You can feel it. Instead of being relaxed and steady, you’re uptight and agitated. It’s hard to focus; it’s hard to sleep. Just Googling “stress” turns out to be, well, stressful. Unfortunately, news sources tell us that things aren’t going to let up anytime soon. So, what […]

The AHA! Moment: Coping with the Coronavirus’ Psychological Fallout
By Steven Libowitz   |   May 7, 2020

AHA! has long received kudos in town for its success in equipping teenagers, parents, and educators with social and emotional intelligence and strategies to serve as an antidote to everything from apathy to despair. In addition, AHA! has had great success interrupting hate-based behaviors such as bullying. The organization’s programs have become touchpoints for transforming […]

Sheltering in Love Workshop
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 30, 2020

Barbara Rose Sherman – a Yoga Alliance E-RYT-500 Certified Instructor who is also a UCLA Trained Mindfulness Facilitator (TMF) and UCLA Mindfulness Awareness Practices affiliated instructor as well as a Certified Meditation Teacher (CMT) – invites everyone to join her online to nourish and nurture yourself during the coronavirus crisis. Sherman will lead a restorative […]

Surfing Cyberspace in Search of Loving Kindness
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 2, 2020

With COVID-19 concessions confining almost everyone to their homes, Santa Barbara meditation teacher Radhule Weininger, Ph.D., just keeps expanding her ongoing offerings to the community to gather, connect, and share silence and guided meditations together. The weekly schedule produced by the clinical psychologist and teacher of Buddhist meditation and Buddhist psychology now includes events on […]

More MAPS
By Steven Libowitz   |   February 27, 2020

Sherman, who has facilitated twenty-three yoga-meditation retreats in Montecito before La Casa de Maria fell victim to the 2018 mudslide, will also lead a “MAPs I for Daily Living,” her first offering of the introductory course from acclaimed, scientifically-based UCLA program here in town since last summer. The MAPs I course provides insight into the […]

Mindfulness for the Yoga Practitioner
By Steven Libowitz   |   February 27, 2020

Barbara Rose Sherman is a Yoga Alliance Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher 500 who is also a Trained Mindfulness Facilitator through the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior and a UCLA Mindful Awareness Practices Affiliated Teacher. Now she’s bringing her experience in drawing from the two spiritual practices to a teacher training weekend available […]

Soup Snags Weininger
By Steven Libowitz   |   February 13, 2020

Popular Santa Barbara meditation teacher Radhule Weininger found herself needing to arrange for a new location for her weekly downtown gatherings after her longtime location at the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum was unable to continue to host. After a short stint at the Museum of Contemporary Art at Paseo Nuevo, Weininger’s weekly meditation night […]

The Practice of Inquiring Deeply
By Steven Libowitz   |   February 6, 2020

Marjorie Schuman, Ph.D., a local clinical psychologist, meditation teacher and author, settles into The Sacred Space for an experiential workshop providing an introduction to the method of “Inquiring Deeply.” The meditative practice of asking questions has been used for thousands of years to develop intuition, inspire awakening and connect us more deeply to the sources […]

Full Moon Evening Retreat at the Beach
By Steven Libowitz   |   February 6, 2020

On the evening of one of the most important holidays in Theravadan Buddhism – Magha Puja – Santa Barbara Buddhist Meditation Meetup is hosting a mini mindfulness retreat outdoors by the ocean. Under the gorgeous, silvery full moon, participants will practice sitting and walking meditation, talk about the history of Magha Puja, and reflect upon […]

Spirituality Matters
By Steven Libowitz   |   December 26, 2019

A Burning Bowl Bye-bye to ’19 Despite the fact that its ministry is in transition, Unity of Santa Barbara will again offer its popular annual releasing ritual known as the Burning Bowl Ceremony on New Year’s Eve in the sanctuary. Burning Bowl is an ancient fire ritual that serves as a symbolic way for people […]

The Mental Floss of Mindfulness
By Steven Libowitz   |   December 12, 2019

While decades ago, meditation and mindfulness might have been considered a New Age distraction for woo-woo Californians, the practices have clearly been adopted as mainstream by individuals, businesses, families and other organizations. The medical, emotional, and spiritual benefits are palpable, but perhaps still somewhat difficult to grasp. Integrating those two has been a two-decade-plus passion […]

The Divine Mess: Laughter is the Best Medicine
By Steven Libowitz   |   November 14, 2019

Sarah Taylor has been acting since high school, but was always interested in the serious roles. She didn’t get into performing stand-up comedy until many years later, right around the same time her own struggles led her to investigate Buddhism. “It was very odd, because I had a real pull to just sit and practice […]