When we become aware that we’re caught in a traumatic emotional response, we bring in mindfulness, and we investigate our thoughts. We do this to break the pattern of habitual, recursive thinking. As you break these patterns, it’s good to observe any of the small things that are actually working in your life. For example, if you’re working with pain in your body and you fear it’s getting worse, then you would gently connect with other parts of your body that are actually pain free and functioning well. This helps contain the stressful emotional response and creates new pathways in the heart and mind.
Pawan Bareja, PhD
Residential Retreat Teacher
Pawan Bareja, PhD has practiced vipassanā meditation since 2001. She is a graduate of the Spirit Rock Teacher Training, a Buddhist Ritual Minister, and a Community Dharma Leader at Spirit Rock. She has served on the board of Braided Wisdom and on the Teacher Council at Dhamma Dena. She has a keen interest in empowering students with practices to resolve their stress and trauma using mindfulness, Buddhist psychology, and neuroscience. She has taught this material at Spirit Rock, San Francisco Insight, EBMC, Esalen, and globally. She is the author of Reignite Your Power: Resolving Trauma Using Mindfulness. In her private practice as Trauma Resolution Practitioner, Pawan works with a diverse population of clients and teaches mindfulness meditation. She believes that cultivating love for ourselves and everything around us is at the heart of all healing.
Pawan Bareja's Upcoming Programs
Class Series | Online
February 19 - March 26, 2026 | 6 Thursdays | 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM
Resilience and the Open Heart: Somatic Practices for Everyday Stress
You are invited to move from anxiety to love by transforming stress patterns through embodied heart practices. Working directly with triggers such as personal heartbreak, economic pressure, relational conflict, or the weight of the climate crisis, we will combine nervous system tools with heart practices to lower the simmering nervous system. As the heart opens and the body softens, many experience deeper rest, clearer thinking, a renewed sense of connection to loved ones, and courage to live a more meaningful life.
Pawan Bareja
Short Program | Online
March 28 - March 29, 2026 | Saturday - Sunday | 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Resilience: Working with Trauma, Cultivating Aliveness
8 CE Credits. Daily stress, collective uncertainty, and the climate crisis can leave us overwhelmed or frozen. This weekend program offers a compassionate path back to resilience and aliveness. Through trauma-sensitive mindfulness practices and neuroscience-backed resilience, you’ll learn tools to settle the nervous system, release stuck energy, and respond to challenges with clarity and care. Teachings, movement and stationary meditation, and demonstrations with Peter Levine support you in reconnecting with joy, self-compassion, and your natural capacity to “spring back” from difficulty.
Important note: Peter Levine, PhD will be joining for periods throughout the day.
Dharma Library
Can't join us live online or on the land? Study and practice at your convenience with Pawan Bareja through our new library of recordings, articles, and self-paced online courses.
