Free Upcoming Webinars & Events
Community Webinar | Life-Affirming Creativity in Times of Distress with Molly Sturges
Date: Thursday, Feb 23, 12:00pm
Location: Online, via Zoom
About the Event:
In the midst of ecological and cultural crisis how can connecting with your own unique creative energies provide relief, restoration, insight and inspiration? Join artist/researcher/faculty Molly Sturges in this experiential webinar where you will have time to explore a few creative healing practices to support you as well as have an opportunity to connect with others as desired in a caring, accepting and reflective space. No experience is required.
Community Webinar | Exploring the Role of Spirituality in Enhancing Resilience and Wellbeing
Date: Thursday, Mar 16, 12pm
Location: Online, via Zoom
About the Event:
In this webinar, spirituality will be explored from the lens of the Bakken Center’s Wellbeing Model: connecting with something larger than oneself, leading to enhanced resiliency and a deeper sense of meaning and connectedness, with oneself and the world around them.
The role of contemplative practices in accessing spirituality will be discussed, and participants will be guided through a contemplative, mindfulness exercise to inquire and reflect on their own experience and understanding of spirituality.
Wellbeing Series | The Science of Social Justice: An Interdisciplinary Approach Towards Healing Intergenerational Trauma with Dr. Sará King
Date: Tuesday, Mar 28, 12:00pm
Location: Online, via Zoom
About the Event:
The Science of Social Justice is an interdisciplinary theoretical framework developed by Dr. Sará King that uses the biopsychosocial model of health as well as interpersonal neurobiology and contemplative practices to study the impact of systemic oppression on marginalized communities, as well as it proposes a framework towards healing intergenerational trauma. This talk will explore several topics including the research trajectory that informed the development of this framework; the relationship between chronic pain and chronic stress as they relate to identity and health outcomes; and the relationship between mindfulness and art as healing practices. Dr. King will propose a new way of defining social justice that is oriented around healing, as well as a new technological framework that is fundamentally grounded in an inclusive and empowering vision of individual and collective health and wellbeing.
Wellbeing Series | More Than a Body: Building Your Body Image Resilience with Lexie and Lindsay Kite, PhDs
Date: Tuesday, Apr 25, 12:00pm
Location: Online, via Zoom
About the Event:
In this visual presentation, Drs. Lexie and Lindsay Kite will walk the audience through the life-changing pathway to body image resilience, where people can learn to not only identify the objectifying ideals that surround us and the pain and shame that accompanies those ideals, but learn to use that pain as a catalyst to be more – more than a body, more than a collection of parts to be fixed and flaunted, more of what can bring you and the world joy and purpose.
Paid Upcoming Online Courses
Earle E. Bakken Center for Spirituality and Healing Paid Courses
Introduction to Mindfulness: First Class
Date: Tuesday, Jan 10, 6:30pm
Location: Online via Zoom
Price: $125 (sliding scale fees available)
About the Event:
This course explores what mindfulness is (and isn’t) through direct experience and discussion. We will investigate different aspects of mindfulness and its implications for your life. The course is held live via Zoom over 4 weeks for 1.5 hours per week.
Learn more and register here!
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Orientation
Date: Wednesday, Jan 11, 6:00pm
Location: Online via Zoom
Price: $449, sliding scale rates available
About the Event:
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction is a comprehensive eight-week program that provides the training and support needed to develop or renew a personal mindfulness meditation practice. You will learn the benefits and science behind mindfulness meditation, including enhanced resilience and stress reduction.
Winter 2023: Wednesday Evenings
Orientation: January 11th, 6-7 p.m. Central
First Class: January 18th, 6-9 p.m. Central
Classes 2-7: January 25th, February 1st, February 8th, February 15th, February 22nd, March 1st, 6-8:30 p.m. Central
Last Class: March 8th, 6-9 p.m. Central
Retreat: Saturday, February 25th 6, 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Central
Location: Held live, via Zoom
Instructor: Susan Flannigan
Food Matters for Health Professionals: Continuing Education Course
Date: Monday, Jan 30, 5:30pm
Price: Standard registration fee: $399; sliding scale fees available
About the Event:
Food Matters CE Course is an evidence-based, experiential-learning, applied nutrition, and culinary skills course for health professionals of all disciplines. The course addresses the role of food in specific health conditions and its function in health promotion and disease prevention. The relationship between the source of food and the larger food system to both environmental and human health will be explored, in addition to the importance of understanding the food system’s impact on patients and communities.
This is a three session course. Learners should plan to attend all three scheduled sessions.
Course Dates:
Monday, January 30, 2023 from 5:30 pm - 8:30 pm CST
Monday, February 6, 2023 from 5:30 pm - 8:30 pm CST
Monday, February 13, 2023 from 5:30 pm - 8:30 pm CST
Online Half-Day Mindfulness Retreat
Date: Saturday, Feb 11, 9:00am
Location: Online via Zoom
Price: Suggested fee: $45
Sliding scale pricing available
About the Event:
The Bakken Center’s online mindfulness meditation retreats provide an opportunity to step away from your daily routines and the busyness of everyday life to deepen, renew or inspire your mindfulness meditation practice.
Throughout the retreat, you will be guided through mindfulness meditations and gentle mindful movement by one of the Center’s experienced mindfulness instructors. Although these retreats are designed for an immersive practice opportunity, time will also be allocated for participant introductions, periodic practice questions and reflections, and a retreat closure. This half-day retreat is ideal for those who have some mindfulness meditation experience, or for those who have completed any of the Bakken Center’s mindfulness programs and would like to practice with others in a supportive, community setting. If you are new to mindfulness meditation and would like instructions on how to meditate, we invite you to sign up for one Center’s mindfulness meditation programs.
Mental Health and Nutrition | Workshop #1: Key nutrients for mental health
Date: Tuesday, Feb 21,12:30pm
Workshop #2: March 21
Workshop #3: April 18
Location: Online, via Zoom
Price: Suggested fee $15; Sliding scale fees available
About the Event:
Our understanding of mental health has evolved to a more comprehensive model that acknowledges nutrition as an influential factor. Research highlights the role food, micronutrients and gut health play in determining our risk of developing mental health issues, as well as our ability to thrive with conditions such as Depression, Anxiety and ADHD.
This three-part series of 75-minute online workshops includes information about three pillars of nutritional approaches to mental health: diet, micronutrients, and the microbiome. You will learn how micronutrients and the microbiome impact common conditions like Depression, Anxiety and ADHD, and dietary strategies commonly used to support mental and cognitive health.
Learn more and register here!
On Demand Webinars & Resources
Fireside Chats
Missed a Fireside Chat? You can find the previous recordings here: link
FALL 2022
Healthy Planet, Healthy Lives explores the ways in which the health of our planet is inextricably tied to the health of all life on Earth.
View Sessions: link
SPRING 2022
Evolving with the Pandemic is an exploratory journey of the latest updates on COVID-19, variants, and boosters, the impact of the pandemic on rural communities and geriatric populations, and resilience and reimagination in a time of burnout.
View Sessions: link
FALL 2021
Few people could have predicted the world would be approaching the second year mark of the COVID-19 pandemic, but here we are with the rollout of effective vaccines, new and more aggressive variants, and still many unknowns about what lies ahead.
View Sessions: link
SPRING 2021
Throughout human history, we have dealt with waves of disease—influenza, smallpox, Ebola, SARS—what makes COVID-19 different, and are we equipped to deal with another pandemic in the future?
View Sessions: link
Mini Medical School: A Focus on Global Health
Mini Medical School offers a unique perspective into the health sciences at the University of Minnesota. Once a week, students – ranging in age from high school students to retirees – with a shared interest in health embark on a journey examining the scientific foundations of health and disease.
Presented using common language for ease of understanding complex topics, your guides are internationally renowned experts who are shaping the way health care is delivered locally and globally.
A Focus on Global Health is designed to broaden understanding of how global health impacts local health. COVID-19 has shown that what happens in one part of the world affects communities everywhere. Session topics will explore global health research and social responsibility.
View Sessions: link
Mini Medical School: A 20/20 View of Cancer
This is a FREE self-paced online course. You can earn a certificate of completion for completing all activities. NEW: Digital badges now awarded for course completion!
The Mini Medical School offers a unique perspective into the health sciences at the University of Minnesota. Students with a shared interest in health can embark on a journey examining the scientific foundations of health and disease. Presented using common language for ease of understanding complex topics, your guides are internationally-renowned University of Minnesota experts who are shaping the way health care is delivered locally and globally.
View Sessions: link