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“The Centre for Mindfulness in Muskoka will be an inclusive and thriving retreat centre for various mindful and contemplative practices offered in beautiful Muskoka.” On our way to achieving this vision, we are accomplishing our mission “To provide a space in which mindfulness practices can be taught to guide and support the journey from suffering to awareness.” And we hold true to our values: “To operate with compassion, inclusiveness, and integrity to foster education and connection.” Like a robin on her eggs, we've been carefully incubating this non-profit so that it will be steady and ready to fly towards that vision.

     We have focused on creating space to deliver mindfulness practices and resources that have scientifically-proven benefits to mental and physical health. CMM’s mindfulness programs are accessible and inclusive — they’re freely offered or have a sliding scale cost, which is especially helpful for marginalized and/or socioeconomically disadvantaged populations. Mindfulness-based interventions have received empirical support for decreasing risk of relapse to depression, for improving coping with chronic pain, and for promoting healthier behaviors. Hybrid program delivery enhances accessibility for persons with a disability, seniors, remote, rural, and vulnerable individuals.​

     As most of you know, CMM emerged out of the Muskoka Mindfulness Community that has been meeting in Huntsville under Bill Knight for over 25 years, has nearly 200 members, and supports 12 to 30 different adult participants every week. In 2022, CMM began a second meditation group in Bracebridge that immediately had 75 registrants, increased the reach of mindfulness meetings by 140 people and that supports up to 20 people each week.

     The Monday night meditation meetings remain a strong support for mindfulness in the community. Mindfulness contributes to a healthy community with the following science-backed benefits: improved mental clarity, increased efficiency, reduced anger, depression, and anxiety, stress-reduction, improved sleep, greater resiliency, promotes healing and wellness, encourages connection, engagement, and compassion, cultivates positive habits, greater coping skills and affirmative life choices, and more.

     Monday nights are supported by volunteers: ten leaders, five tech support, and one communications volunteer. Participant numbers are growing and with the proposed improvements, we hope to see up to thirty people served each week by the total hybrid format! Last year we held a lovely social evening in August and will do so again this year. And we can announce that we have a new volunteer who many of you know. Anita Anaeshnalin will be taking over coordination for the group - with support, of course.

     Our fantastic grant committee - Joan, AJ, Dale, and Sarah CB has written two compelling applications and in the process, learned that OTF, for example, is not a good fit for us right now. We are optimistic about a current grant application to Engage Muskoka that will support the Monday night group by eliminating the need for participants to pay rent and providing for an upgraded laptop.

     Over the past four years, nearly 30 founding members have contributed to the start-up costs for CMM. Since introducing the General Membership, we gained 20 more members. In total, we have thirty-five members in good standing. Founding members contribute at a level of $100 or more; a general membership is $25 per year. These memberships really help us with a steady financial base from which to run our programs and work toward the vision of a retreat centre. Shout out to Jen McConnell who has joined us as a volunteer and is processing new memberships and renewals for us. This has been a huge help to us — thank you, Jen!

     

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