I first discovered mindfulness meditation in 2016, during a free introductory course taught at my university. The teachings were well-timed. Only one year later, I was to graduate, a period famously marked by questions like, “Who am I?” and “What is this life for?”

As I soon learned, these were the sorts of questions that mindfulness and meditation were well primed to explore. Why? Because they allow us to arrive at the only moment we have—this one—and see that, below the clutter of our conditioning and day-to-day anxieties, lies an inner capacity for presence and compassion. If only we would sit down and meet it.

Throughout my training, I have largely followed the Insight Meditation tradition, a lineage rooted in the Vipassana teachings of Theravada Buddhism and the Pali Canon. I take some comfort in the fact that mindfulness and meditation do not come from the ether, but are grounded in a 2,500-year-old wisdom tradition. At the same time, I believe that whether we are in a meditation hall or a college classroom, these teachings have something to offer people of all beliefs and backgrounds.

My journey has taken me from Boulder, Colorado, to Bodh Gaya, India; from parking lot meditations to multiple week-long silent retreats. Along the way, I’ve had the privilege of learning from teachers like Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach through their two-year Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program.

Now, a decade after that first meditation course, I teach in university classrooms of my own. At Chapman University, I developed Mindfulness Rhetorics, a course that brings contemplative practice into the writing classroom while also critically examining the ways mindfulness has been adapted and debated in contemporary culture.

In addition to my academic teaching, I also lead meditation classes, retreats, and workshops, sharing the myriad ways mindfulness can enrich our lives. For some, that may mean simply bringing greater presence to our everyday activities. For others, it may become a lifelong spiritual path, inviting us to explore some of life's greatest questions. It's a real joy to teach across this spectrum, meeting people wherever they might find themselves.

Ultimately, I believe that whatever brings us to mindfulness, a life marked by the cultivation of presence and compassion is a life well lived.

So, let’s arrive there together.