Trini was first up. Very nice "Hello Everyone," re-iterating confidentiality and "safe space." Introduced Rossy who introduced the skill via first 3 slides. ~CB

Overall, in kicking the session off, you did beautifully in terms of creating a warm and welcoming space in terms of tone and use of language. All of these elements contributed:
• Check-in with participants regarding their wellbeing
• Inviting their input and questions.
• Reminder to turn off cellphones.
• No wrong answers in CIT.
• Reminder that confidentiality and other safer space guidelines remain in place.
• Established a kind of “no judgment” zone.
• Welcoming and wonderful kudos to last week’s facilitators and their good work.
• Hats off to partner and her good work.
• During session, consistently started by asking for participant input (definitions, etc.)
• Exemplary use of participant feedback, echoing it back and weaving it into debriefing moments (the “pause” we all need before sending emails when agitated and then elaborating on it)
• Affirming of participant feedback, even when it wasn’t very consistent with CIT.
• Good handoffs to partner, indicating trust and respect, both great elements of safety.
• Invitational reminder to do formal practice of skills over the upcoming week
• Excellent friendly and warm closing and brief introduction of next week’s skill
• Shared personal experiences in an authentic way
RK

Did a good job with definition slides 5, 6, and 7 Heedfulness, Mindfulness, and Awareness, and good discussion on summary slide 8, emphasizing not necessary sequential, but a dynamic skill. ~CB

• Very well. Used stove image for heedfulness to make analogy with kids and stove that was immediately meaningful to anyone who’s tended children.
• Gave a nice “poetic” touch to the mindfulness slide of “lit up” neurons, comparing the points of lights to our values that, when we are being mindful, light up in the moment so that we remember to honor them, then bringing back a participants’ input about rewiring the brain. Wonderful and dynamic continuity of the metaphor.
• Perhaps a bit more participant input on the Awareness part of that set of slides – but also good moving on, because time may have been running short after spending a bit extra on metaphors ;0).
• Called attention to the “heedfulness, mindfulness, awareness circle” as a whole by asking if any could exist without the other.
• Good telegraphing of the skit activity, asking what would happen if one were missing.
• Wonderful work using the “dog on a leash” slide to expand the metaphor by comparing it to a protractor or string on a pencil, all drawing a circle that represents our sphere of values.
• Good analogy using the weightlifter slide to illustrate Ethical Mindfulness and the capacity to do harm if we aren’t heedful.
• Really good work opening with participant engagement on the violin slide by “Who plays an instrument?”
• Used both the weightlifter and the violin slides to illustrate the necessity of building a foundation of practice for mindfulness.
RK

N/A. Can't remember and my notes don't include whether she explained the CP at the end, but she gave a wonderful metaphor of the "runner." [I could definitely identify with that…was my CP during busiest years of private medical practice! ~CB]

• Fantastic summary of the counting thoughts activity, as part of training the mind, using the dog being distracted by a “Squirrel!” reference/meme from the movie, “Up!”
RK

NA

See above. Exceptional presentation of the definitions of three elements of Ethical Mindfulness, slides 5.6.and 7. ~CB

• Showed great enthusiasm for the material that she would be sharing during class
• Stood back and let conversations, input, and “thinking out loud” happen when participants became engaged.
• Went to group to ask what “Training the Mind” means to them (also good safer space elements).
• Use of metaphor and analogy throughout was exemplary (see many examples above).
• Clarified and affirmed input when there was confusion about the object of attention can be in the Training the Mind, “dog on a leash” slide.
• Demonstrated comfort with silence, allowing time to ensure that participants were truly finished sharing.
• Good segues into sharing relevant personal experience
• Demonstrated excellent familiarity with and command of materials.
• Use of open-ended questions
• Began and ended the session with gratitude, beautifully bookending it for participants.
RK

NA

More engagement with CIT's exercises for Skill 2. However, she worked very well with Rossy in this regard. KUDOS to both Trini and Rossy. ~CB

• Question used to open the “heedfulness, mindfulness, awareness circle” might have been a bit too advanced as an opener, as evidenced by the length of the silence after it was posed (or, maybe the silence needed to be a bit longer; none of this is an exact science ;0) so, just notice what happens if you open the “EM circle” slide in the same way the next time you facilitate that particular slide (as a fully certified CIT course facilitator!).
o Because it may be too soon for participants to feel like they have a grasp of the whole, three-part concept at this point, perhaps it might have been better to use another phrase to stand in for the term “Ethical Mindfulness.” So, instead of opening by asking how we could achieve “Ethical Mindfulness” (or, perhaps stated adverbially, how could we be “ethically mindful”) if any of the three components were missing, perhaps it would be less intimidating to use something like “honoring our values” and ask, “How might lacking heedfulness, mindfulness, or awareness interfere with our ability to honor our values in the moment?”
• This is not really an improvement I’m suggesting you make, but perhaps more of a caveat: In using the weightlifter slide in a novel analogy about EM and its importance relative to our capacity to do harm without it (which really was lovely), may have sidelined the point this slide is meant to make: That mindfulness is difficult for most people and will take a great deal of discipline and practice to develop, much like a weightlifter…and, because it’s sometimes more important to get through all the material than to share even wonderfully creative analogies and metaphors (and I can tell you this from personal experience ;0).
RK