Founded July 27, 2012 by Johnathan Woodside. Mindfulness Outreach Initiative is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization working to make comprehensive meditation instruction and mindfulness training accessible to all.
Our Mission
Alleviate suffering through comprehensive meditation instruction and mindfulness training.
Our Vision
A world where people realize contentment and meaning through living a skillful life.
Overview
Mindfulness Outreach Initiative is the most experienced provider of mindfulness meditation practice in the region. We work towards the integration of mindfulness meditation and other mindfulness-based approaches by making professional education available to individuals, organizations, and communities. Mindfulness Outreach Initiative works with medical professionals, educational institutions, rehabilitation centers, corporations, recovery programs, community centers, and partners with other nonprofit organizations through diverse outreach and public service initiatives to make meditation instruction accessible to all. Mindfulness Outreach Initiative is Omaha’s vanguard of meditation instruction and mindfulness training.
MOI Founder, Executive Director, and Guiding Teacher
Johnathan Woodside is an Insight Meditation teacher engaged in bringing mindfulness and self-inquiry into the mainstream of wellness programs and daily life. He is the Guiding Teacher of Mindfulness Outreach Initiative and a consultant at various locations in Omaha Nebraska where he encourages greater self-awareness through stillness and dynamic meditation practices. He leads classes and retreats on mindfulness meditation for the promotion of greater health and wellness in the Omaha community.
Mindfulness Meditation
Mindfulness is a wholesome mental factor of awareness that meets experience directly, in the present moment, purposefully, with an attitude or intentional stance of nonattached equanimity. Mindfulness also has a very important ethical component; it means more than simply recognizing what’s present. It means being aware of what’s present without greed, without aversion, without delusion. Meditation teaches people through their own personal experience how to pay attention and sustain that attention moment by moment. Meditating is an effective and efficient technique that helps us know our mind and relax our bodies, helping to reduce depression symptoms, stress, anxiety, and boost mental health by promoting a harmonious outlook.
“What makes these methods [daily meditation practice] particularly practical is that, while they emerge out of the Buddhist meditation tradition, they are not necessarily tied to Buddhist doctrine in any restrictive way. Thus they can be practiced by followers of any religion or of no religion; they are openly available to anyone who aspires to become a more loving and compassionate person, even when this aspiration is not rooted in a specific system of religious beliefs.” ― Bhikkhu Bodhi
Source: Parabola Love and Compassion in Meditation and Action