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Learner Reviews & Feedback for De-Mystifying Mindfulness by Universiteit Leiden

4.8
stars
1,548 ratings

About the Course

Interest in meditation, mindfulness, and contemplation has grown exponentially in recent years. Rather than being seen as mystical practices from ancient Buddhism or esoteric philosophy, they are increasingly seen as technologies rooted in evidence from psychology and neuroscience. Mindfulness has become the basis for numerous therapeutic interventions, both as a treatment in healthcare and as a means of enhancing well-being and happiness. For millions around the world, mindfulness has become a life-style choice, enhancing and enriching everyday experience. Mindfulness is big business. But, what actually is mindfulness? Is it really good for you? Can anyone learn it? How can you recognize charlatans? Would you want to live in a mindful society, and would it smell like sandalwood? What does it feel like to be mindful? Are you mindful already, and how would you know? Evolving from the popular Honours Academy course at Leiden University, this innovative course combines conventional scholarly inquiry from multiple disciplines (ranging from psychology, through philosophy, to politics) with experiential learning (including specially designed ‘meditation labs,’ in which you’ll get chance to practice and analyze mindfulness on yourself). In the end, the course aims to provide a responsible, comprehensive, and inclusive education about (and in) mindfulness as a contemporary phenomenon. During the production of this course, we have been supported by Willem Kuyken, Director of the University of Oxford Mindfulness Centre, and Stephen Batchelor, co-founder of Bodhi College. And we gratefully acknowledge the contributions made by Mark Williams, co-developer of Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), and Rebecca Crane, Director of the Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice at the University of Bangor. We have recently added expert advice from Dawn Scott (Spirit Rock & Barre Centre for Buddhist Studies), Sydney Spears (University of Kansa), Elisabeth Stanley (Georgetown University), Susan Woods (Centre for Mindfulness Studies), Patricia Rockman (University of Toronto) and Jeff Corntassel (University of Victoria). "A deep and profound dive into the ethical, social, psychological, and philosophical implications of modern-day mindfulness practice. The course is not for the faint of heart, perhaps, but it is also full of practical, guided exercises for the uninitiated! Thank you for redefining my relationship to Mindfulness in a completely new and thought-provoking way" 28 april 2021 "The course enabled me to explore the mindfulness construct at its deeper lever from philosophical, psychological and political lenses. The mindfulness labs were very useful in practicing the skills of being mindful." 23 nov 2018 "i took this course after a period of time when I was trying to practice mindfulness and meditation, but with doubtful success. The course answered many questions to me, and I needed that to keep me motivated. It really helped me understand the origins and, more importantly, benefits of mindfulness practice and made me persist in my attempts. I'm really glad I took the course, I find it interesting, well taught and very useful for all those seeking deeper explanation in why trying mindfulness." 9 Oct 2018 "I have taken other courses in other online platforms. However, this has been one of the best courses I have found online." 3 Oct 2018 "I really like the invitation to us, the learners, to rethink our preconceptions and beliefs, and then make our own judgement about mindfulness. The overall tone was very friendly and open, resources very useful." 12 Dec 2017...

Top reviews

SM

Jul 20, 2020

A course that will open your mind and heart. I thoroughly enjoyed it and learnt so much about Mindfulness and how I want to incorporate it into my daily life, relationships and personality. Thank you!

DM

May 6, 2022

Very detailed and comprehensive history and background of mindfulness. The different schools of thought and the approach to these different ways of providing midnfulness.

Thanks for the teachings!

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551 - 575 of 592 Reviews for De-Mystifying Mindfulness

By Mick H

Nov 28, 2016

A great MOOC. A good blend of academic material - very well presented - and useful meditation praises.

By Roseanne B

Jul 24, 2020

I would've given 5 stars but think the allocated time to read and absorb material was far too short.

By ANA C M C

Nov 8, 2020

Very good course. A little bit structured for me but I found it very helpful. Congratulations.

By smriti k

Jun 29, 2017

This is a good course to start your mindful practice. I loved all the meditations.

By Martin S

Apr 29, 2018

A thorough course on a timely topic with a lot of practical meditation exercises.

By Nicole T

Aug 4, 2020

I liked the meditation labs a lot, but the course itself was very technical

By Nicole M

Feb 24, 2020

reflective and quirky - supported a more in depth training I had prior

By Louis A K H T

May 2, 2019

This course has really taught me a lot about what is Mindfulness.

By Phillip A C

Sep 18, 2017

with no way to contact a mentor I struggled in a few of the labs.

By Cheryl S

Jul 26, 2022

A good start to learning about mindfulness and how to practice.

By Plamen P

Mar 9, 2017

A practical introduction to mindfulness.

By Vivian G C

Jun 21, 2021

very interesting and challenging !

By Kristina R D

Jul 2, 2017

I would have liked more quizzes.

By Anupama

May 27, 2021

Excellent Course

By David A S M

Jan 20, 2021

Maravilloso.

By Neha A

Nov 20, 2022

Good course

By Zoha F

Jun 29, 2021

very useful

By Deleted A

Apr 15, 2018

Good

By Willem

Aug 1, 2017

R

By Christine R

Oct 2, 2022

It's a great start though this course definitively requires improvement. It needs to be better balanced - it centres too much on one person who is taking far too much space.

The course would benefit from being shortened; speakers need to be more concise, more pertinent. Making their presentation less of a chat over coffee and more of an attempt to convey their message simply by using less words. It’s almost as if they suffer from verbal diarrhoea. It would be helpful to reduce the length of the audios by 20-30%. The 20-30% gained could then be used to widen the reach of the course – dealing with issues that were not raised.

The number of bugs - or perhaps small errors is a better way of referring to them - needs to be very much reduced - more proofreading - more cleaning up - less repetition! Removal of misleading "helpful" suggestions relating to downloading audio – there is so much feedback saying this isn’t possible. It simply doesn’t work! It's time for the release of the next version :-)

By Edvard T

Sep 12, 2018

I understand the course title reads ‘dy-mystifying’, but I expected that there would be more on the ‘positive side’, i.e. what mindfulness ‘is’ based on facts and scientific findings rather than spending so much portion of content talking about what mindfulness ‘isn’t’ which I don’t think really necessary.

Also, there are opinions presented as knowledge, that needs to be mindful of.

By Krisztián M

Mar 3, 2017

Long and unbalanced course. The first weeks are long with too much materials, that I think, should be separated to more weeks, than last weeks has no any new materials just short discussion prompts. Maybe it is my fault, but I waited for something else, this was my first philosophy and mindfulness course.

By BACHIR K L

Apr 29, 2021

A little too in depth and heavy sometimes. I missed more practical language and practices. Good in general, but sometimes I lost track and was difficult to follow the videos with full attention.

Really light assessments but interesting peer revisions.

By Sreya D

Jul 19, 2020

The ideas shared in the course are very informative. However it is quite lengthy and becomes disengaging after a while

By Erkin K

Jan 14, 2018

Concept and subjects very good, his stable voice and his sometimes hard English makes you sleepy