November 4 – December 16, 2026 

 

Live on Zoom

Wednesdays 6 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. ET

Integration Sessions Fridays 12:30-1:30 p.m. ET

 

 

 

The work is worthy. And often, the pace is not sustainable.

The people who hold the front lines of social change – caseworkers, advocates, organizers, legal aid attorneys, youth workers, crisis responders – are navigating enormous external pressure while being asked to show up fully for the people they serve. The cost is familiar to anyone in this work: chronic stress, secondary trauma, and burnout that drives experienced, deeply committed people out of the field – and leaves communities without their most experienced and committed champions.

Resilience is not a personality trait, and it is not one more thing to feel behind on. It is a set of learnable skills. For more than two decades, the Garrison Institute’s Contemplative-Based Resilience (CBR) Project has taught cutting-edge evidence-based skills to humanitarian aid workers, service providers, and caregivers around the world, on a simple premise: be well to serve well.

Session one opens Wednesday, November 4, the evening after the midterms. After this tumultuous period, Changemakers will spend the following six weeks holding their clients, communities, and colleagues through exhaustion or uncertainty. This course is where you come to resource yourself to sustain and expand your capacity to serve, lead, and build the future those communities need.

 

THE STRUCTURE OF THE COURSE

 

Six weeks, structured around our Contemplative Based Resilience Project  the “ABCs of resilience”: Awareness, Balance, and Connection. Every 90-minute session includes a brief guided practice, a teaching from an internationally recognized contemplative teacher, small-group discussion with your own colleagues and peers, and a closing integration and application session where leaders from across the social impact world answer the question at the heart of the program: how do you resource yourself? Each week ends with one small, concrete practice to try in your real life and work –  and each new session begins by asking how it went.

You’ll learn with faculty including Sharon Salzberg, Kaira Jewel Lingo, Oneika Mays, Atman Smith, Ali Smith and Andres Gonzalez, alongside CBR teaching faculty and guest leaders from frontline organizations.

WHAT YOU’LL LEAVE WITH 

 

A working understanding of the science of stress, secondary trauma, and burnout; a toolkit of brief, portable practices tested in your actual workweek – not on a retreat cushion; a personal and team resilience plan; a cohort of colleagues who share the practices and the language; and continued access to session recordings, a guided practice library, and the program community after the course ends.

 

Sharon Salzberg is a meditation pioneer, world-renowned teacher, and New York Times bestselling author. She is one of the first to bring mindfulness and lovingkindness meditation to mainstream American culture over 45 years ago, inspiring generations of meditation teachers and wellness influencers. Sharon is co-founder of The Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA, and the author of twelve books, including the New York Times bestseller, Real Happiness, now in its second edition, and her seminal work, Lovingkindness. Her latest release is a children’s book, Kind Karl, is from Shambhala Publications. Her podcast, The Metta Hour, has amassed seven million downloads and features interviews with thought leaders from the mindfulness movement and beyond www.sharonsalzberg.com

 

 

Kaira Jewel Lingo is a Dharma teacher with a lifelong interest in spirituality and social justice. Her work continues the Engaged Buddhism developed by Thich Nhat Hanh, and she draws inspiration from her parents’ lives of service and her dad’s work with Martin Luther King, Jr. After living as an ordained nun for 15 years in Thich Nhat Hanh’s monastic community, Kaira Jewel now teaches internationally in the Zen lineage and the Vipassana tradition, as well as in secular mindfulness, at the intersection of racial, climate and social justice with a focus on activists, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, artists, educators, families, and youth. Based in New York, she offers spiritual mentoring to groups and is author of We Were Made for These Times: Ten Lessons in Moving through Change, Loss and Disruption and co-author of the forthcoming, Healing Our Way Home: Black Buddhist Teachings on Ancestors, Joy and Liberation (Feb 2024) from Parallax Press. Kaira Jewel is also the co-facilitator of the Garrison Institute BIPOC Meditation Sangha. Her teachings and writings can be found at www.kairajewel.com.

 

 

Oneika Mays (CMT-P, E-RYT, LMT) is a multi-hyphenate facilitator who leads with joy, passion, and wisdom.  As a Black, queer feminist she brings a poignant lens to building a world that is more compassionate and understanding. With deep roots and knowledge in Buddhist and yogic teachings, Oneika delivers practical application and authentic connection through her facilitation.
Oneika has been practicing yoga for more than 20 years, and guiding yoga and meditation for more than a decade. Since then, she has used her knowledge to support social justice nonprofits and historically excluded communities. She served as the Mindfulness Coach at Rikers Island Correctional Facility for 4 years and is currently a teacher for Yoga International, an inclusive and accessible online studio with classes designed for every level of practice. She is your teacher, your auntie, your friend, and an intuitive soul here for the work of personal and collective liberation. You can see Oneika on the docuseries Lost Resort on TBS. Oneika’s memoir You Can Sit With Me was published by Harper One in April 2026. Learn more at oneikamays.com.

 

 

Ali Smith was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. He is a graduate of the Friends School of Baltimore and the University of Maryland, College Park. Ali started his journey with contemplative practices as a small child, learning meditation from his father and attending the Divine Life Church of Absolute Oneness, run by Swami Shankarananda. He deepened his practice and learned the art of teaching as a young adult, studying many forms of yoga, meditation, mindfulness, and breathwork from his teacher and godfather Will Joyner. Ali has almost 20 years’ experience teaching these practices to a broad demographic spectrum, internationally. He is a published author, and is a pioneer in the fields of yoga and mindfulness in education, as well as trauma informed yoga and mindfulness, developing best practices that are used around the world. He co-founded the Holistic Life Foundation in 2001 and The Involution Group in 2019. Ali is also a co-host of the Look Again Podcast which you can find at www.theinvolutiongroup.com

 

 

Atman Smith is a Co-founder of the Holistic Life Foundation, where he served as Director of Youth Programming for ten years Director of Fundraising for five years and currently serves as the Director of Development. Since 2001, he has been teaching yoga and mindfulness to a diverse population including underserved and high-risk youth in Baltimore City Public Schools, drug treatment centers, wellness centers, and colleges. A native of Baltimore, Atman attended the University of Maryland, College Park where he was a letter award winner for the University’s men’s basketball team. He graduated with a B.A. in Criminology and Criminal Justice. His work with the Holistic Life Foundation has been featured on Making a Difference on the NBC Nightly News, CNN, and CBS, as well as O the Oprah Magazine, The Washington Post, Upworthy, Mindful Magazine, Yoga Journal, Shambala Sun, and many other publications. https://www.theinvolutiongroup.com/

 

Andres Gonzalez is one of the Co-Founders of the Holistic Life Foundation. For eighteen years, Andres has taught yoga to diverse populations throughout the world, including Baltimore City Public School students, drug treatment centers, mental crisis facilities, homeless shelters, wellness centers, colleges, private schools and other various venues throughout the nation and throughout the world. He has partnered with John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health and the Penn State’s Prevention Research Center on a Stress and Relaxation Study and is a published author in the Journal of Children’s Services. His work with the Holistic Life Foundation has been featured on Making a Difference on the NBC Nightly News, CNN, and CBS, as well as O the Oprah Magazine, The Washington Post, Upworthy, Mindful Magazine, Yoga Journal, Shambala Sun, and many other publications. He is a certified Health Coach through the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, maintains a B.S. in Marketing from University of Maryland, College Park and an MBA from the University of Maryland, University College. https://holisticlifefoundation.org/ 

Isabel Saez, LCSW, is a bilingual Latina, first generation born in New York City, unceded Native Lenape lands.  A graduate of New York University in clinical social work, she has practiced for over 20 years with adults, couples, and families on a range of life challenges from abuse, family, marital & other relational conflicts, anxiety, depression, grief, trauma, and the impacts of systemic injustice.

 

 

Chia-Ti Chiu has over 23 years of experience teaching movement, mindfulness, meditation and resilience building, leading domestic and international yoga retreats through her business onelovewellness. Her movement modalities include yoga, qigong, fascia release, and somatics, and her passion is making connections between wellness and social justice through a trauma-conscious, strengths-based lens.

 

Jennifer Winther, PhD, specializes in creating the conditions for you to nourish a practice of mindful, embodied movement, stillness, and contemplation that can create powerful ripples in your life. In her work as teacher and facilitator, Jennifer focuses on the real, the accessible, and the simply profound benefits of regular practice. Proudly mixed race. Japanese American. Breast cancer survivor. Motherless mother. LGBTQIA+ parent ally. Teacher. Writer. Buddhist.