above: The Community Mindfulness Project seeks to bring the extensive benefits of meditation to underserved communities across Fairfield County.
How meditation led a group of four from New Canaan to create a community of mindfulness accessible to all.
The founders of the nonprofit Community Mindfulness Project (CMP) may have met by chance, but certainly not without purpose.
New Canaan residents Will Heins and Nick Seaver got to know each other in 2009 at one of the first-ever Mindfulness in Education conferences. Soon after the pair began meditating together along with Nick’s wife, Michelle Seaver, and fellow enthusiast Erika Long, who Heins knew from their work together in education advocacy.
“We had each experienced the profound benefits of meditation and began a regular practice together with others in the community, and valued the strength that comes from that,” says Michelle.
The positive results of mindfulness practice are plentiful: stress reduction, improved mood and immune system function, clearer thinking, less chronic pain, lower heart rate and blood pressure.
As the group continued to meet, “we were inspired to make mindfulness training accessible to more vulnerable communities,” Michelle says.
CMP was officially born in 2014. More than ten years later, the org offers trainings to address burnout and trauma and hosts public meditation sessions to residents throughout the county.
With the assistance of other non-profit partners, CMP has helped fill the gap between the demand for and supply of mental health support through school instruction, library programs, workshops and online sessions. To date, CMP has served more than 40,000 across the county.
“As an antidote to the mental health crisis, mindfulness training enables us to both connect with ourselves and others to cultivate healthier hearts and minds,” says Michelle.
“I feel unbelievably lucky to sit in circles with people from all walks of life, and watch them start out curious, and learn new information about how their brain and nervous system work,” says Long. “Then [they] get to experience how meditation and mindfulness can help them lead healthy, joyful lives. I wish everyone could witness those moments!”
CMP in Stamford
Through its relationship with building one community (B1C),
CMP supports the local immigrant population with programs for adults and children alike.
CMP partners with the ferguson library to offer free weekly community mindfulness-based sessions every Tuesday from noon to 1 p.m. All are welcome.
Along with liberation programs, which serves the recovery community, CMP has led six-week courses offered to both patients and staff focused on stress reduction.
For the full suite of local offerings, visit communitymindfulnessproject.org.