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No matter how educated or how skillful we are, we will face barriers towards our goal because of our Psychological patterns, nature or nurture. Awareness (Mindfulness) and Insights (Mindfulness, again) helps to reset our behavior and start toppling the barriers.

What is Mindfulness?

As a trained Psychology professional I have held many hats: Student, Practitioner, Entrepreneur, Teacher. The common thread running through all my endeavors has been Mindfulness as a tool for wellbeing, intuition, creativity, and resilience.

Does this sound extreme?
I would personally interpret it to mean:
Life un-Mindful is life short of full living.

A Student

After having a career in Computer Information Systems, I went back to school to get my formal education in psychology and Mindfulness because I realised how we are prisoners of our own psychological conditioning. I felt I had to formally learn the skills to change it for myself and for others.

  • I received my Masters in Clinical Social Work in 1997.
  • I became in Licenced Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) in 2001.
  • I trained in EMDR -- a technique to combat debilitating effects of traumatic experiences - from 2003 to 2010.
  • I trained in Mindfulness and teaching Mindfulness based psychological programs - Basics of Mindfulness, MBSR, MSC -- from 2004 onwards to present and ongoing.

A Practitioner

The following outlines my journey as a practitioner of psychology and Mindfulness, from 1997 to present.

  • I have worked in social service agencies as a Psychotherapist and Psychological Consultant in Los Angeles area, including South Asian agencies (e.g. SAHARA, SAN) to help them to set up their domestic violence program. I did this type of work from 1997 to 2004.
  • I practiced psychotherapy as a private practitioner in the Akasha Center for Integrative Medicine in Los Angeles from 2001 to 2013.
  • In my practice, I combined EMDR and Mindfulness to successfully help people to combat limitations in life, especially in the following areas: 1. Stress, Anxiety, Phobias, Social Anxiety, 2. Relationship issues, 3. Loss in life and depression that accompanies it, 4. Low Self Esteem.
  • I spent over an year in Indian School of Business (ISB) from June 2004  to August 2005, with my husband and two kids, as a psychology consultant, working with students on issues such as stress, relationships, and competition.
  • Since 2013 onwards, I have not been practicing psychotherapy with individual clients. I have been focusing more on my Entrepreneurial endeavor, teaching, and organizing programs, all in the area of Mindfulness, in various settings.

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An Entrepreneur

I launched my Mindfulness app and website called "2meditate" in 2015 after two years of conceptualizing, designing, collecting the content from various meditation teachers, and developing it into a usable product on all platforms.

After a three year long successful run as a teaching tool until May 2018, 2meditate app and website are on a hiatus, waiting to resurrect in a new format. Meanwhile, the tutorials and meditations are available on my YouTube channel 2meditate.

The purpose of the 2meditate app is to create a community of global mindful meditators in which any two or more meditators can meditate together from many corners of the world by finding each other on the map and listening to the same guided meditation simultaneously. They can chat with each other after meditating together. The app contains a list of guided meditations in the voice of well-known mindfulness teachers for various purposes such as better sleep, anxiety reduction, living kindness compassion, self-compassion and so on. The meditators can choose any meditation to listen to, either as a group or solo. For new meditators, they can view my quick and easy tutorials on Mindfulness.

To listen to guided meditations, subscribe to the YouTube channel-2meditate

A Teacher

I have conducted workshops in many areas such as relationships, stress management, cross cultural parenting over many years since 1998.

Over the years, the main thrust of my teaching has become Mindfulness.
Let me give some examples.

  • I taught a four week long workshop titled "Power of Mindfulness" at Akasha Center for Integrative Medicine, offered once every few months.
  • During and after launching my App and Website 2meditate, I did many presentations in a variety of settings such as universities and schools, in the US and in India, including at UCLA and ISB. The presentations all included different aspects of Mindfulness such as Creative Thinking, Stress Reduction, Building Compassion.
  • I taught an online Meditation Camp in association with a Coursera course on happiness taught by Dr. Raj at ISB. The camp was held everyday for six weeks meant to teach all aspects of Mindfulness practice to an international audience. Check out the actual sessions in the next tab "Mindfulness Camp". This camp was followed up with online mindfulness classes for almost 2 years.
  • I have taught 8 week long Mindful Self Compassion program online as well as in other settings such as Akasha Center (2016) and Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles (2017).
  • At  University of California San Diego (UCSD), I developed and taught a quarter long class (for credit) titled "Practicing the Science of Mindfulness" to the undergraduates in the Spring of 2017 and the Winter of 2018. I also taught a workshop on compassion to the undergraduates Resident Assistants at UCSD in the Summer of 2017.
  • At Center For Mindfulness at UCSD, I designed and taught a four week long workshop titled Heart of Mindfulness once every 3 months, from September 2016 to August 2018.

A Mindfulness Camp

Online Mindfulness Camp
Index For The Six Week Long Aloha Mindfulness Camp By Dr. Swati Desai Offered By Dr. Raj As A Bonus To His Happiness Course.
  • Session 1 Introduction to ALOHAF Mindfulness Camp
  • Session 2 First steps to Mindfulness with a cup of tea, coffee or another object.
  • Session 3 A bit of history, research study, a story on Mindfulness & a meditation.
  • Session 4 A Mindfulness Activity, meditation and a story on Mindfulness.
  • Session 5 A long meditation on listening to music and talking about Mindfulness.
  • Session 6 A bit of history, research and study, a story on Mindfulness & a meditation.
  • Session 7 The start-off of Mindfulness Meditations.
  • Session 1 The origin of Mindfulness plus the “Walking Meditation”
  • Session 2 Breath Awareness Meditation Method 1
  • Session 3 Breath Awareness Meditation Method 2
  • Session 4 Breath Awareness Meditation Method 3
  • Session 5 Breath Awareness Meditations deferred methods plus some stories
  • Session 6 Meditation with Goenkaji and some more talking on Mindfulness
  • Session 7 How Mindfulness came about and meditation
  • Session 1 Comparing other kinds of Meditations to Mindfulness Meditation
  • Session 2 Deliberation on the 2Meditate app and reviewing the Camp so far
  • Session 3 Self Compassion and Acceptance
  • Session 4 Self Compassion and Dr. Kristin Neff’s Scale
  • Session 5 Self Compassion
  • Session 6 Self Compassion Continued……
  • Session 7 Self Compassion Continued part 2……

Testimonials

The acclaimed director of films such as Amu, Margarita With a Straw, and Pink Sky
Stress Reduction and Mindfulness

“Dr. Desai is a highly effective teacher of meditation practice. Over a 50-minute lunch presentation at a daylong conference, she led 200 student affairs and higher education professionals on techniques for being more mindful and self-compassionate. Feedback from conference attendees was extremely positive and well received.”

- Cynthia Davalos. Chief of Staff, Office of the Vice Chancellor, Student Affairs at UC San Diego

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