Children and Adults Learning Mindfulness is a local group of professionals who are teaching mindfulness in our area schools and community. We were delighted to read the article “Mindfulness for Students” (Herald, Dec. 3), which reported impressive positive outcomes for Oregon, California and Vermont high school students who were trained in mindfulness. These students had measurable gains in coping more effectively with stress, social pressures, anxiety, depression and violence.

Durango is not far behind in the national-mindfulness movement. The community takes seriously the well-documented research in medicine, mental health and education that demonstrates that training the mind to be more skillful in responding to stress results in a wide range of benefits. These include improved health, well-being and peace of mind. Not only do people feel better, but they also feel empowered to cope with everyday stress and anxiety with more creativity, compassion and kindness. Students have increased awareness and acceptance of themselves and others, too.

As educators, medical and mental-health providers trained in the most current evidence-based Mindfulness-Based curricula, we have taught mindfulness to well over 1,000 members of our community, including 670 students, 100 teachers, 60 prospective teachers and 57 medical professionals.

The Herald would do its readers a service by covering the extensiveness of these activities in our own community and offering more information about how they, too, can access these services in Durango to kindle their own capacity for ease and well-being.

Judy Austin, Sherrod Beall, Janet Curry, Beth Dorman, JoAnne Hibbard and Liza Tregillus

Durango