Happy Election Year Course!
Happy election year! How do you feel as you think about the upcoming election in the U.S.?
Most people, regardless of their politics, seem to tense up and feel anxious, maybe even disgusted. In fact, pessimism and catastrophic thinking seem to be super popular right now! But is all this inevitable? Even with huge challenges in our world, might it be possible to move through this year with confidence and stability—even joy? Won’t you be better able to make a positive contribution when you’re not caught up in worry and anger?
In this course, we won’t be talking about politics or candidates at all. Instead—through guided meditations, discussions, and practical exercises on new themes each week—we’ll learn to skillfully and lovingly move through anxiety, to connect to our inherent well-being and compassion, and not to drown in the news, even if many of the people around us are freaking out.
Join me! (Click here to view registration page.)
📚 What You Will Learn
• How to move through difficult emotions with clarity, care, less stress, and more understanding
• How to nourish your joy
• How to stabilize your mind without fighting it
• How to empathize with and interact with people who seem different from you
• How to keep your passion alive without overwhelm or unnecessary conflict
• How to regard your fear and anxiety as avenues for growing in resilience and compassion
• How to connect to a sense of fundamental well-being
🔥 Other Benefits
• Regularly connecting with a community of people dedicated to happiness
• A range of practices and frameworks you can take with you indefinitely and apply to all kinds of situations
• Access to class recordings for at least one year
🌞 Who This Course is For
If you’d like to move through 2024 with more happiness and less stress, I invite you to consider this course. If you’ve never meditated before, great; everything will be guided clearly, and there’s no expectation that you rid yourself of thoughts or feelings. If you have an established meditation practice, great; let’s build on that with principles and practices designed for this particular context. The extra good news is that everything we’ll explore can apply to any challenge. So if the election is stressful but you’re dealing with four other stressful things at the same time, we’ve got you covered.
✅ What The Experience Will Involve
• Seven 90-minute classes this winter/spring
• One 20-minute 1-1 meeting with Chris in March
• One group class in October (closer to the election)
• Recordings of each class, including all meditations and exercises
• Recommended practices between classes
• Recommended weekly peer study group meetings
• Optional Discord group for questions and interactions with me and others in the course
• Optional reading
🗓️ Schedule
• Class meetings on Tuesdays 7:00-8:30pm Eastern: February 20 and 27; March 5, 12, 19, and 26; April 2
• Individual 1-1 meetings scheduled at a mutually convenient time starting in March
• Final meeting in October, date and time TBA
🌈 Community Agreements
By registering for this class you’re committing to follow these agreements:
• Not to talk about candidates or politics in class, in our Discord chat group, or in your study group meetings; instead, to stay rooted in the material and experience at hand
• To welcome and respect everyone present
• To be present and minimally distracted during meetings
• To do your best to take care of your feelings using the approaches provided
• To take feedback with as much humility and openness as possible
• To stay open to the possibility of happiness regardless of the experience of those around you
• To attend each class or to view the video recording of each class you miss
• To do your best to learn and practice the techniques introduced
📝 Registration & Fees
Please click here to register for the course. There is a sliding scale fee $250 to $450. Paying above the base amount allows more people to attend at the lower rate and allows Chris to continue offering accessible mindfulness programs. You’ll receive an email with more information shortly after registering.
🔍 Questions?
• Don’t hesitate to email: chrisdimegliomeditation@gmail.com
• See list of FAQs below
🤓 About Chris
Chris DiMeglio is a certified Unified Mindfulness Teacher and has trained extensively as a meditation teacher with Unified Mindfulness, the Interdependence Project, and Journey Meditation. He has completed a yearlong residential program at Blue Cliff Monastery, a mindfulness practice center in Thich Nhat Hanh's Plum Village tradition. His main teachers have been Thich Nhat Hanh, Shinzen Young, Thanissara, Kittisaro, Byron Katie, and Rupert Spira. Chris has taught over 2000 meditation classes in community groups and in the workplace; and he has been a co-teacher for the Unified Mindfulness Pathways training program, helping to train others to teach mindfulness. As a guide, as well as in his personal practice, Chris is especially passionate about the joy of meditation, the process of discovering what’s deeply true in direct experience, demystifying traditional teachings, and balancing the development of deep understanding with the warmth of compassion. In addition to teaching meditation, Chris is a professional musician. Some of his other favorite things are spending time with loved ones, building community, going to parks and coffee shops, art, political engagement, plant-based eating, and imagining a more wise and compassionate world.
🔎 Hypothetical Frequently Asked Questions (H-FAQs)
Q: Is this course about politics? Will the course favor any candidate?
A: No and no. I will literally not mention the names of candidates during this course, and I’m asking everyone who registers to let go of talking about politics in our classes and discussion forums. This course is about happiness! We will connect solidly with care, happiness, and joy at a time when many people will likely be caught up in anxiety and frustration.
Q: “But this election is too important!! Doesn’t it make sense to be frustrated and anxious?”
A: Let’s make a distinction between a feeling being understandable and a feeling being inevitable. When something strikes you as very important, does that mean you should necessarily be anxious about it? Is that the only option? Isn’t it possible that getting upset about politics is simply a habit that’s stressful and usually unhelpful; and that other non-stressful, helpful habits are possible?
Q: I don’t want to be complacent. Are you telling me just to smile all the time and not to vote or not to bother with politics?
A: If you want to smile all the time, I won’t stop you! But I’m not telling you to be complacent and I’m not suggesting that you should always avoid politics. If, outside of this class, you’re moved to vote and to advocate for positions and candidates that you value, great—go for it. I will be doing the same. One of the foundational ideas of this course, however, is that whether or not you get involved in political advocacy, the fact that there’s an election doesn’t need to dampen your joy or your spirit. I’m asking for you to join me in voting for your happiness and advocating for your compassion.
Q: What will the classes be like? Is this basically a meditation course?
A: Check out the course info above. Most of our practices will be meditations; there will also be journaling and interactive exercises—all designed to help us be more happy and less stressed in our everyday life. In addition to guided practices, each class will include a presentation of information as well as time for questions. My goal is for you to leave each class feeling optimistic and empowered because you’re getting clearer and clearer about how to be happy this election year.
Q: I’m afraid of getting stressed out in the class if we keep referring to the election. Will this course stress me out?
A: I hear that! And I think that’s actually a good reason to consider taking this course. Remember, we won’t be talking about politics or candidates. But we will acknowledge that it’s an election year, and most of us have feelings about that. Whether or not you take this course, it’s an election year and you will have feelings! The benefit of taking the course is that we will be very precisely learning how to be compassionate with ourselves and others instead of getting lost in stress—and you can look at our class time as a laboratory in which you can try out what we’re learning together.
Q: I can deal with the news, but a person in my life never stops talking about politics and they stress me out. Will this course teach me how to deal with them?
A: Maybe you can invite them to take the course with you! In any case, yes, part of what we’ll work on is how to interact with stressed-out people.
Q: I’m mostly stressed out about other things in the news. Is this course just about the election?
A: This course is about happiness. Being in an election year is one thing that brings up anxiety for a lot of people, and that’s a good part of what we’ll take a look at. But you’re invited to bring up whatever is on your mind and to work with what’s coming up for you. The practices and ideas presented in this course can apply to any situation.
Q: Why would we not talk about politics or candidates in a course designed to overcome election-related stress?
A: There are a couple reasons for this. First of all, even if we all have important beliefs and ideas, I find it valuable to have times and places in which we leave such discussions aside and, instead, address the potential for stress and the potential for happiness and joy that we all share. In fact, I hope that this course can model this distinction very clearly: working to advance policies and candidates is one thing; working to advance your fundamental well-being is another. Another reason we won’t be talking about politics or candidates here is that I want those of us in the class to connect around issues of well-being and happiness and not to connect or divide around political beliefs.
Q: I need to miss one or two live classes. Can I still register?
A: Yes. Class recordings will be available to anyone who registers.
Q: I’m excited about the class but I’m not sure I can use the Discord discussion forum and I’m not sure if I want to be in a group outside of class time.
A: Discord is totally optional. For those who want to use it, it’ll be a place to ask questions about what we’re covering in class. The study group meetings between classes are encouraged so it would be great if you give them a chance, but they’re not required either.
Click below to see the registration page!
