Feel the space around your body, starting with the back and moving outward, then feeling the space around you, and above and below. Let that ability to feel expand out in all directions. Sense into the space, expanding around your body. Now listen to sounds as far out as you can hear, while also noticing your body in this expanded way. Breathe and soften. Don’t try too hard. Now if you want to, open your eyes and expand your field of vision. So that our body is expanded, our listening is expanded, and our vision is expanded. Rest here in this wide open, spacious awareness like the sky. Vast, expansive, boundless.
Diana Winston
Residential Retreat Teacher
Diana Winston is the Director of UCLA Mindful, the mindfulness education center of UCLA Health. She has taught meditation retreats at Spirit Rock since 2004 has been a pioneer in the field of mindfulness where she has taught and helped seed the establishment of mindfulness into variety of settings including in healthcare, universities, businesses, non-profits, and schools in the US and internationally. She created the evidence-based Mindful Awareness Practices Program (MAPs), is the founding director of UCLA’s Training in Mindfulness Facilitation and is a founding board member of the International Mindfulness Teachers Association.
She is the author of “The Little Book of Being: Practices and Guidance for Uncovering your Natural Awareness”, “Wide Awake: A Buddhist Guide for Teens”, “Glimpses of Being: A Training Course in Expanding Mindful Awareness”, and co-author (with Susan L. Smalley, PhD) of “Fully Present: The Science, Art, and Practice of Mindfulness”. Diana’s meditations have a worldwide reach and are available on the UCLA Mindful, 10 Percent Happier, and Waking Up Apps.
She has practiced vipassana meditation since 1989, including a year as a Buddhist nun in Burma, and each day she tries to be a mindful mom.
Diana Winston's Upcoming Programs
Retreat | Online
Saturday, August 24 | 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
The Middle Way to Financial Well-Being
Work and money are challenging arenas that offer fertile territory for applying the wisdom of the Dharma. Using Buddhist practices, neuroscience, and emotional intelligence, we will cultivate favorable mindsets for transforming our relationship with work and money.
This program invites you to explore your authentic relationship to work and money, independent of conditioning, and to apply this authenticity to your real-life decisions within a spacious, non-judgmental container. Who would you be if you had a new relationship with work/money?
Upcoming Drop-Ins
Drop-in | Online
Monday, July 29 | 7:15 PM - 9:15 PM
Monday Night Meditation & Talk
For over 35 years, the Monday Night sitting group at Spirit Rock has been a welcoming refuge to gather, hear the teachings of the Buddha, and practice Insight Meditation together as a community. The program includes a 30-40 min guided meditation, a short break, and a Dharma talk.
Diana Winston
Dharma Library
Can't join us live online or on the land? Study and practice at your convenience with Diana Winston through our new library of recordings, articles, and self-paced online courses.