Palouse Mindfulness: Building a meditation course, with Dave Potter

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Today on the show we have Dave Potter. Dave is a retired psychotherapist, and he specialises in anxiety, stress, and trauma. He created his side project, Palouse Mindfulness, when he was a working therapist, as a way to share a particular meditation practice that has changed his life, called Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction.

MBSR, it’s a meditation therapy, originally designed for stress management, and it is used now for treating illnesses including depression, anxiety, chronic pain, cancer, diabetes and immune disorders.

Dave Potter had been interested in meditation since the 70s, and received his training as a MBSR instructor while he was a therapist, through University of Massachusetts Medical School - which was actually where Jon Kabat-Zinn, the founder of MBSR, founded the Center for Mindfulness and began MBSR. 

MBSR is a life-changing course, but if done in person - like all courses it can be expensive. Dave wanted to create a free version of this life-changing course - to bring the lessons to everyone who needs it. Single-handedly he leant on his previous experience in software, to create the Palouse Mindfulness website. The result is a true labour of love. He has personally recorded meditation sessions, curated online teaching content, and painstakingly written up exercises and built the website - all for free - all so people who need it most can access the benefits of MBSR through a free self-paced course. It has helped thousands. 

Dave is an incredible person, and I was moved by this conversation. We talk about why people procrastinate with meditation, the benefits of starting something on the side, altruism, dealing with difficult situations and why meditation is as important as sleep.

Check out Palouse Mindfulness here.

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