Community Education for Personal Growth and Transformation

The New Earth Institute of Southwestern College is now offering a new branch of courses that we are calling, “Community Education for Personal Growth and Transformation.” These courses are designed for the general public as part of the college’s commitment to raising the collective consciousness as we usher in a “New Earth” that awakens us to humanity’s greater purpose. Never before has Southwestern’s unique curriculum, reflecting our values of creativity, compassion, self-awareness, personal responsibility, and service, been available to the wider community.  It is our hope, that by sharing certain elements of our transformational graduate courses, that we will be able to contribute to the soul development of individuals as well as the greater good for all.

To view and register for our current course offerings, please click on the link below!

Register for Community Education Courses

Spring Registration is available for the following:

Title: Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)

Instructor: Kita Mehaffy

Bio: Kita studied Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) at the University of California San Diego in their Professional Training Institute’s MBSR certification program. She carries a love of the earth and the many peoples and cultures that make our planet so extraordinary. Her first career was in health care where she taught meditation for stress relief to patients and retreat clients. After many years of meditating using various methods, Kita decided to explore MBSR. Along with specific meditations, she learned how to cultivate mindfulness in a way that addressed re-visioning our relationships with ourselves and the world around us. It changed her life, and now she is grateful to teach others simple and profound ways to take control of their own stress, enhance their well-being and find their own place of resilience through presence of mind.

Cost: $350

EGPT 2404 Section 1: Tuesdays, April 2 – May 21, online class from 6:00 – 8:30pm. Retreat on Saturday May 11th from 9:00 – 3:00 pm (no cap)
EGPT 2404 Section 2: Thursdays, April 4 – May 23, in person class from 6:00 – 8:30pm. Retreat on Saturday May 18th from 9:00 – 3:00 pm (cap at 20)

Register for Community Education Courses

MBSR, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, is an evidence-based program designed to help us harness our own innate capacity to cope with the anxiety and stress of life’s challenges. You will learn formal meditation practices and informal methods that support resilience, calm, a non-judgmental presence of mind and heart, and overall sense of wellbeing.

Developed in 1979 by Jon Kabat-Zinn of the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, he defined MBSR as “paying attention on purpose, moment-by-moment, nonjudgmentally.” Originally used to address pain-relief for UMass patients, ongoing studies have also shown positive outcomes for the management of high blood pressure, insomnia, anxiety, stress, depression, and the overwhelm that can come from everyday life experiences.

Classes are 8 consecutive weeks, 2 1/2 hours long, with an additional 6-hour silent retreat on the weekend after week 6 or 7. Each class will include a discussion of the principles of MBSR, small and large group sharing, meditation, and some form of gentle movement to keep us grounded in our bodies. The classes build on each other so attendance at most if not all of the classes is highly encouraged.

RECENT COURSES