Introduction to Mindfulness: A 7 Week Course in Paris
Why Mindfulness?
Mindfulness meditation is the practice of being aware of what is here and now in a loving, accepting, welcoming way, rather than being somewhere else like we often are - in the future, in the past, in our to do list, in our pain or in our stories. Like any sports or music practice, mindfulness is a skill we can learn and it strengthens over time as we keep practicing.
Hundreds of studies show mindfulness decreases symptoms of stress, depression, anxiety, pain; improves sleep, focus, memory; decreases the use of abusive substances and more. All the brilliant health impacts aside, mindfulness makes us more present, resilient and joyful; it helps us get to know ourselves, and it transforms our relationships.
Why This Course?
This 7 week course will give you the fundamental concepts of mindfulness with a heavy focus onpractice so that you discover the concepts for yourself.
Small class sizes (8-12 people) will allow you to share and learn from other people's experiences, as well as practice mindful communication.
The course will set you up for a continuous home practice beyond the course, and show you how to bring mindfulness into your daily life.
Course Structure
Weekly classes of 2 hours in central Paris
5 - 20 min per day home practice between classes
Additional practices to bring mindfulness into daily life
Audio recordings of meditations taught in class to use during your home practice
Handouts with key concepts
Optional learning material (articles, videos, book excerpts)
Silent retreat at the end of the course (3 hours long)
Email, text or call support throughout the course
What You Will Learn
Week 1What is mindfulness? What is compassion? Anchoring on the present moment
Week 2Stress & trauma-sensitive mindfulness Resourcing for inner strength Mindfulness of feeling tones Mindfulness of the body
Week 3Mindfulness of emotions Standing meditation Lovingkindness meditation
Week 4Mindfulness of thoughts Walking meditation Compassionate breathing
Week 5Managing Difficulties with Mindfulness (RAIN) Eating meditation Gratitude meditation
Week 6Meditating longer with less guidance Coherence breathing Self-compassion break Arriving in our lives with mindfulness
Week 73 hour silent retreat with sitting and walking meditations to deepen your practice
Who Can Join?
This is a multicultural and non-sectarian course, open to everyone from all walks of life and all identities of ethnicity, color, national origin/ancestry, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, religion, physical or mental disability, medical conditions, military/veteran status, or marital status. Multicultural & Mindful Dialogue Guidelines are taught and reminded at every meeting.
No previousexperience with mindfulness or meditation is required. If you do have some experience, this is great, and the course will still give you a shared learning environment and a solid structure. (See FAQ for more on this.)
A sufficient level of English is needed as the course will be taught in English.
Course Dates, Times and Locations
Tuesday evening 19:30-21:30
First 6 classes
To be announced soon
7th class (silent retreat)
To be announced soon
Last day to register early with 10% discount
To be announced soon
Last day to register
To be announced soon
If the above dates don't work for you, you can get on the waiting list to be notified when new classes open for registration. New classes open every 6 weeks.
Fees, Payment and Discounts
To ensure that everyone can find more wellness regardless of their financial situation, you can pay for the course in proportion to your ability. (See the FAQ section below for more information.)
The suggested sustaining price for the course is 299€. This fee covers the rental of central spaces in Paris, 12 hours of teaching, 3 hour of silent retreat, 9 hours of recorded meditations, handouts and learning material.
If you don't have the means, you can contribute an aid price of your choice between 0 - 299€. You can also pay in several payments.
If you have the means and you would like to support others with less means, you can contribute a supporting price of your choice between 299 - 399€.
If you are paying sustaining or supporting prices (299-399€), you can also benefit from an early registration discount of 10% (see early registration dates above) and referral discounts of 10% for every friend you bring to the course.
At the time of your registration, a deposit will be asked to confirm your commitment to the course. The deposit will be 20% of the total amount you have chosen to pay. This deposit is refundable until the end of the first class. Your remaining total will be collected at the end of the first class.
Cancellation Policy
You can cancel for free until the end of the first class and get a full refund. This is to recognize that mindfulness is not for everyone (you can test it by coming to the first class), and to recognize that life conditions may change (sickness, moving etc.).
New classes open every 6 weeks. Get on the waiting list to be notified when registration opens!
Hi, I'm Zeynep! I've been practicing mindfulness for the past 9 years and teaching it for the past year to individuals and businesses in Paris and online. I am a trainee of world-renowned teachers Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield, and will complete my 2 year certification program in February 2021. In 2019, I've taught this Introduction to Mindfulness course to 47 students.
Mindfulness has been the most helpful wellness practice for me over the years. It has decreased my stress, increased my resilience, deepened my awareness and compassion for myself and others. I feel lucky to be a mindfulness teacher and am very excited to share this amazing gift with you!
Being born and raised in Istanbul, and having lived in St. Louis, US for 4 years and in Paris for 3 years, I consider myself a blend of Turkish, American and French cultures. I speak Turkish, English and (an improving) French. My gender pronouns are she/her/hers. I care deeply about multiculturalism and I make it a big part of all my classes and communities.
My teaching approach is:
Focusing on real-world applications of mindfulness
Focusing on direct experience of concepts
Sharing and learning from others in small groups
Moving from scientific evidence
Bringing teachings to life with literature and stories
Making wellness accessible to all by asking participants to pay what they can afford to pay
Creating safe learning environments with mindful & multicultural communication guidelines
So perfect as an introduction course, it opened my mind to new concepts and ways of seeing life. I loved the spontaneity, humbleness, good energy during sessions. I left classes so light, peaceful and grateful. Thank you because I could pay what I could afford to pay and like that I was able to join the course. Love your recordings, your handouts, and all good energy you put into this course. I hope I can continue practicing what you taught even if 5 minutes a day. - Gabriela
I valued most the community, the joint learning, the feeling of intimacy and space while discovering new things about myself, the progress we've made without really feeling the pressure, the lovely and patient teacher, and the location. I salute your courage to help some "lost" souls finding their ways to a happier every day life! I feel blessed having you as my mindfulness teacher, and can't wait to practice with you again. - Julie
During the meditation course with Zeynep, I learned to break free from my own negative perceptions and self-evaluation which had me in state of paralysis and despair. As a result, I found myself opening up communication channels, finding clarity and understanding the power of compassion and feel more capable of forging my own pathways. - Verena
The course was wonderful, I just wished it would have lasted longer! This course succeeded my expectations (the clear and detailed handouts, the recordings, the practice sessions, the 3 hours retreat, and Zeynep's warmth). - Maria
It is very well organized course. The structure of the group and guidelines were so helpful. - Seren
Everything was thought out to the tiniest detail and very well organized! It was a beautiful course. I would consider joining a second course that builds up on this one. - Eda
I really liked this course and especially valued focusing on myself for a moment, and accepting myself and situations around me. - Alex
You explain everything so well and the course feels very balanced. It was a wonderful start of my journey to mindfulness. - Delia
The course is brilliant. I really enjoyed the course and was surprised that everything we’ve learned really works. I’d say this another step forward to a person I’d like to be thanks to you. Thank you Zeynep for your time and energy, I couldn’t wish better teacher or better quality of content. It was really great and inspiring. - Emilie
I really loved how open, kind and caring everyone was. It felt like a safe space from day one! - Gaby
I liked how everyone was very open to this course and welcoming. We all learned how to listen. - Antonio
It is a perfect and simple introduction to mindfulness. I really appreciated the content, the simplicity and the diversity of the people (the multicultural aspect). - Elige
This course is going to introduce you to a life-changing skill which will help you appreciate life + yourself. I'm so happy I got to connect with myself! I valued how kind and wonderful Zeynep was. She introduced it in such a beautiful way. - Zara
A great introduction to mindfulness - inclusive and a very safe space. This course would have been an extremely useful addition to therapy for me a few years ago. - Sarah
Learning how to be kind to yourself gives you back your space. - Denise
This course gives a lot of useful tools to face life. - Florence
This course teaches a scientific method to practice meditation, creating new pathways in the brain to develop positive thinking by staying in the present, awareness and compassion. The course was well structured, the content was shared at a good pace and there was a nice balance between theory and practice. - Nadia
You made me come in touch with meditation in a friendly way and this is priceless! The course has given me a different perspective of what meditation is and made me want to go into the practice every day at any time without struggling. Getting more in touch with oneself, getting to know and explore the universe that resides within us without hesitating only closing the eyes. The way you teach makes it easy to follow meditation, to really work deep, and choose from different meditations based on what I feel like during any occasion. - Mariana
The combination of theory and practice, the non-sectarian approach, the fact that it was a safe space. All of the above transformed the course and made it into more. Thank you! - Hamid
Here's Sandra, a student of the course in 2019:
Here's Mariana, a student of the course in 2019:
New classes open every 6 weeks. Get on the waiting list to be notified when registration opens!
These dates don't work for me! When are the next classes starting? New classes open every 6 weeks or so. You can get on the waiting list to be notified when new classes open for registration.
Is there an info session where I can meet you and try mindfulness? You can treat the first class of the course as the info session. You can register, pay your deposit, come to the first class, learn about and practice mindfulness. If at the end of the first class, you'd like to discontinue the course, I'll be happy to refund your deposit.
Is this class recorded? This class will be audio recorded for my assessment as a teacher under my teacher certification program, MMTCP. Your voice will not be shared or used for purposes outside my assessment as teacher. It will not be used commercially, or shared with public in other ways.
What happens if I have to miss a class? The six classes build on top of each other and I strongly recommend you do your best to be there for every class. If you need to miss a class due to other commitments, you will have the readings, handouts and meditation recordings to practice with at home and I will work with you individually to catch you up on what you missed. In rare occasions, I might be able to share a recording of the teachings with you (only my voice sharing the teachings, not the voices of other students in the class). These recordings will therefore not give you the full classroom experience with peers.
I have been meditating by myself for a while (with an application, videos, books). Is this course suitable for my level? Yes! If you some familiarity with the most basic concepts of mindfulness and you have developed your concentration to a certain extent, this is great! You can expect this introductory course to still give you many concepts and practices you haven’t seen before, help you meditate longer (up to 30 min) and diffuse mindfulness into your everyday life (mindfulness of walking, standing, day to day activities etc). The course is also totally different from meditating by yourself in that it allows you to share and learn with peers. This co-learning gives you inspiration, strength and support. The course also gives you more structure, with each week building on top of one another, and more resources such as home practices, reading material, or journaling questions. No matter your previous experience with mindfulness, I believe this course will deepen your practice, and you can keep using your tools (app, videos, books) on a daily basis for continued practice and learning beyond the course.
Why is there a sliding scale? Wellness practices are often not financially accessible. When we go through difficult times (losing a job, health problems, refugee status) or when we have less disposable income (student, low income status), wellness becomes even less accessible even though we may be needing it more. This becomes a vicious cycle. Strongly believing in equity, I try to make my courses accessible to everyone, by offering financial support to those in need. Sliding scale means participants can pay for this course the highest amount they can afford to pay, based on their specific situation and needs.
How can I use the sliding scale? Please indicate your financial situation and need for support in the registration form. I kindly ask that you consider the full amount you can pay (as opposed to the amount you want to pay). By paying the highest amount you can pay, you are helping others be there, and you are honoring and sustaining the costs and efforts of preparing this course.
Can I use the sliding scale even though I can afford to pay the full price? This course is very fairly priced based on the costs and efforts that go into it, as well as the price of similar wellness practices. By paying the full amount, you are helping others be there, and you are helping me continue teaching mindfulness. Thank you so much for this. :)
Can I benefit from the 10% early registration discount if I also ask for financial aid? If you need financial aid, the amount you pay will be based on what you can afford to pay within your financial circumstances. The early registration discount will not apply.
How can I be sure this 7 week course is right for me? You can watch this short video to help you assess if this course is right for you. And you can always feel free to contact if you'd like to chat further.
New classes open every 6 weeks. Get on the waiting list to be notified when registration opens!
