Jerry Braza: Sowing the seeds of mindfulness

TEDxSalem speak­er Jer­ry Braza plants the seeds of mind­ful­ness one con­ver­sa­tion, one sem­i­nar and one com­mu­ni­ty at a time.

When he talks his words fall slow and steady. His eyes stay fixed on the per­son in front of him. There is nowhere else to be but here, right now.

In Homer, Alas­ka, Braza taught hun­dreds of edu­ca­tors, health-care work­ers, men­tal health providers and par­ents the ben­e­fits of mind­ful­ness and how to cre­ate that still­ness with­in. Once they heal them­selves, he said, they can heal the com­mu­ni­ty.

Braza is an ordained dhar­ma teacher in the lin­eage of Bud­dhist Mas­ter Thich Nhat Hanh, spread­ing mind­ful­ness at retreats, sem­i­nars, work­shops and class­es. But mind­ful­ness didn’t always come nat­u­ral­ly to the retired West­ern Ore­gon Uni­ver­si­ty pro­fes­sor.

“I was always in a rush,” he said about his life 35 years ago.

“I always felt anx­ious. I felt like I was always late. I was with some­one, and I was not real­ly there.”

He remem­bers skip­ping pages when he read books to his kids at night because he felt like he didn’t have the time.

Braza start­ed to take class­es on med­i­ta­tion and mind­ful­ness. He trav­eled to India, Chi­na, Viet­nam and Thai­land to study. Then he mixed in his Catholic roots of con­tem­pla­tion and devel­oped a sec­u­lar mind­ful­ness prac­tice that he now shares.

One sim­ple way to prac­tice, he said, is to linger longer on some­thing beau­ti­ful. We often focus on neg­a­tive things. Instead gaze on some­thing of beau­ty such as leaves on a side­walk, the moon, a flower or some­one you love. Stay with that image for a full 10 breaths.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 …

Catch Braza at TEDxSalem this Jan­u­ary to find a lit­tle more peace in your life and your com­mu­ni­ty.

Get your tick­ets for TEDxSalem IV

Tick­ets are on sale now for Salem’s annu­al TEDx event Sat­ur­day, Jan­u­ary 7, 2017. Tick­ets are $50, $40 for stu­dents. The all-day event includes talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and a swag bag. Fol­low us on Face­book for the most up-to-date news from our com­mu­ni­ty, and check our web­site reg­u­lar­ly for new infor­ma­tion. You can also reach us at info@tedxsalem.us.