Meditation Teacher Training
Beginning Meditation Teacher Training
Karen will lead an introduction to guiding meditation course in the winter of 2025 in the salt room at Aquarian Uprising and online by Zoom. The course will be held Saturdays and Sundays from 9am-1pm Mountain Time the weekends of January 11/12, February 8/9, March 15/16 and April 12/13. Karen has been teaching this Yoga Alliance registered continuing education course since 2017.
We will focus on deepening your personal practice and the art of guiding others. We will explore mindfulness meditation and heart practices, and begin an inquiry into the practice of concentration and opening to insight.
We will be reading the following:
Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Gunaratana
Loving-Kindness by Sharon Salzberg
Beyond Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Gunaratana
This course is open to yoga teachers and dedicated meditation practitioners, and provides Yoga Alliance continuing education credits.
The cost is $850 and includes all books and materials. Your $250 deposit will reserve your spot. Final payment is due before the first day of class. Pay by venmo @karene-vail or if you prefer to pay by credit card, you can do so here:
“This course was profoundly meaningful to me both personally and professionally. Personally, my own meditation practice deepened to an extraordinary level allowing me to experience an embodied understanding of the practices. Professionally, I feel totally prepared and confident in my teaching to others. I have already been able to share these techniques with clients, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Thank you, Karen!”
“I’m back in Texas now and I wanted to send you some words of gratitude for your teacher training. It’s been almost a year now! Wow!! Your training is one of the most impactful things I’ve done for my life up to this point, and I see it show up every single day. Thank you a million times over for creating the space for me to dive head first into meditation and dip my toe into what it means to be a teacher.”
“Karen class was amazing. She is wonderful at creating and holding a space for everyone to express, understand and feel their own experience. And she is doing it in a very subtle and nurturing way. She doesn’t just teaches information she teaches knowledge through her own experience of practice on and off the meditation cushion. I feel like my journey has just begun. Thank you, Karen for giving me a great head start. May you always leave people better than you’ve found them. Like you did with me.”
“After my first course with Karen I was immediately impressed with the depth of her knowledge and experience in meditation. Her open personality and encouraging attitude make her very approachable to ask questions and hold discussions. I am thrilled I took a recommendation to take Karen’s meditation teacher training and would certainly make the same recommendation to anyone wanting to deepen their education..”
“I so recommend this training, meditation has changed my life in so many ways, both subtle and overt. Karen is a wonderful and very knowledgeable guide!”
“I really enjoyed Meditation teacher training. We had great discussions, read great texts about a variety of styles, improved our personal practice, taught each other and are now ready to get other people started on their meditation journeys. This training is great for those with a desire to teach others about meditation and for people just looking to improve their own practice. Karen has a wealth of information to share.”
“It was a great 3 months and I look forward to continuing my practice! Without this offering I most likely would have found more excuses not to sit and thanks to this training I don’t need them anymore.”
“Many years ago I came across a quote, “ Awakened within a dream I fall into my own arms. What kept you so long?” At the time I had discovered yoga and felt the great awakening that came with practice, the mindful movement of my body and my breath. Direct experience of that invisible tingle of aliveness that resulted from asana and pranayama. No one viewing me from the outside could see this awakened state I was experiencing. That state was undeniable and present to me.
After four months in Vail I have returned to the house I have lived in for 44 years. But the person who’s returned is not the person who departed. And once again “I have fallen into my own arms!” Meditation has taken me deeper into sensing and observing the present and ever changing moment. I now feel a sense of spacious aliveness. My world feels fresher. It is easier to see the diversionary habits and old patterns that clouded me from choosing more skillful activities and thoughts. I feel meditation has been key to responding versus to reacting to the people and situations that I encounter. I am even finding a softening in the tone I use in the inner dialogue to myself. A new nonjudgmental observance allows me to experience the present moment without attaching to it or getting stuck in it. I feel a growing state of equanimity.
Karen, your meditation training continues to bear fruit. I offer you my open-hearted gratitude for your guidance on this path. And believe me, my heart feels softer and more open. It is a delight to feel less hard-hearted.
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“This course has enabled me to confidently lead meditation practices in my community. In addition, I was able to further my own personal practice and growth by becoming more aware of my emotions, thought patterns, and habitual actions. I would recommend this training to anyone curious about learning meditation or looking to deepen their own practice.”