Pecha Kucha presentation on the Creating Balance course taught by Vicki Ellis, M.S. in Fort Collins, Colorado | Learn more: https://www.facebook.com/vicki.ellis.90
See the design documentation for this presentation at: http://jackieflynt.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/pechakuchadesigndoc.pdf
This Pecha Kucha presentation was created for the graduate course, Creative Designs for Instructional Materials, in the Information and Learning Technologies M.A. program at University of Colorado Denver.
21. Images Eckhart Tolle. (n.d.). In Wikipedia: The free encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Eckhhart_Tolle_front.jpg Microsoft Corporation. (2011). Images and More. Retrieved from http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/images/?CTT=97 References Eckhart Teachings, Inc. (2011). About Eckhart Tolle. Retrieved from http://www.eckharttolle.com/about/eckhart/ Meetup. (2011). Creating balance. Retrieved from http://www.meetup.com/Creating-Balance-Conscious-Spiritual-Transformation/ Meetup. (2011). Vicki: Organizer of Creating Balance. Retrieved from http://www.meetup.com/Creating-Balance-Conscious-Spiritual-Transformation/members/14215482/
Editor's Notes
Earlier this year as a volunteer at the Larimer County Detention Center in Fort Collins, Vicki Ellis began teaching her unique course called Creating Balance.
Whatbegan in January, with Vicki’s sharing with women inmates the personal inner peace and fulfillment teachings of author Eckhart Tolle, has developed into an exciting program in which Vicki combines principles of spirituality and neuroscience.
Vicki refers to these spiritual principles as “presence,” or mindfulness.
She applies knowledge of neurobiology from her master’s degree, along with understanding of presence from her extraordinary life experiences, in teaching inmates to achieve presence through “creating balance.”
Vicki’s volunteer work at the jail inspired her to pursue certification as an addiction counselor in order to better apply her neuroscience background and spirituality studies to the need for addiction treatment in the Larimer County community.
This spring, Vicki began coursework toward this certification at Turning Point’s Community Training Center in Fort Collins and Odyssey Training Center in Denver.
Although Vicki continues to volunteer two days a week at the jail, this summer she began offering the Creating Balance course to the public in Fort Collins.
Anyone can find details about the course and contact Vicki though visiting the Creating Balance group at Meetup.com.
I met Vicki this spring through an emerging Fort Collins support group for addiction recovery which intends to utilize teachings and practices related to mindfulness—as an alternative to 12-step programs.
Because the support group’s description was unusually compatible with Vicki’s passions for these spiritual principles, as well as her more recent studies in addiction counseling, she reached out to the group’s founder and attended its second meeting.
Enchanted by Vicki’s neuroscience knowledge and approach to both mindfulness and addiction recovery, I began taking herCreating Balance course as soon as it was available.
In the course, I’ve learned, what Vicki describes as, “the typical default settings…for the way we think.”
I’ve learned, in both a neurobiology and spiritual context, what thoughts are, what beliefs are,and how they’re different from facts.
The Creating Balance course has helped me tounderstand which areas of my brain are responsible for my perceptions, my reactions, and my emotions.
Not only does practicing mindfulness bring mental calm and serenity, it improves immune function and physical wellness through lowered stress levels.
Vicki explains that thoughts and beliefs are attributed to the “language center” which generally resides in the “left brain;” whereas presence is experienced by one’s “higher self” which generally occurs in the “right brain.”
So I’m learning how to redirect my brain's activities away from the typical, automatic behavioral patterns that we are all so accustomed to.
It should be no surprise that “left brain” dominance is taught and encouraged in our modern, Western culture.
Vicki says, “Strength comes from strife and conflict, spiritual growth is the silver lining of all hardships, and science is the path to understanding.”
Fortunately, our brains are plastic, which means we can develop the neuron cells in our right hemispheres and strengthen their connections to the left, thereby enhancing our lives through creating balance.