Enter an Exploration of Diabetes in the Light of Meditation – and Meditation in the Wisdom of Diabetes

NEW DATES: Our Five-Week “Being with Diabetes,” Course Launches April 21, 2024

Listen to this introductory video from course facilitators Brooke Cassoff and Sam Tullman

Course Details

Being with Diabetes is a meditation course designed by and for people affected by diabetes that will provide you with an opportunity to explore the ways that diabetes and meditation can be interwoven to create the fabric of a more meaningful and intentionally lived life. 

Being with Diabetes will be offered in a “flipped classroom” format. During each week of the course, you will be introduced to that week’s topic through short, pre-recorded videos and readings. We will then gather live in community for one hour each Sunday to deepen our exploration of that topic through evidence-based mindfulness practices and exercises, interactive discussions, and guided reflections. The course will revisit and expand on some of the key themes covered in the 2023 offering of “Being with Diabetes” as well as provide additional opportunities to explore and expand how mindfulness can be carried into your daily life with diabetes.

This course is also about connecting, sharing, and growing together. It’s a chance to join a community of individuals who can understand your journey with diabetes in a way others may not be able to. It's a safe and supportive space where we can learn collaboratively through our experiences, insights, and care for each other.

Course Highlights

Who: Being with Diabetes was created by and primarily for people impacted by type 1 diabetes and its closely related conditions. This includes both people living with T1D, caregivers, and providers. This course is designed to be accessible and relevant regardless of your prior meditation experience. Whether you have never practiced meditation or are a seasoned practitioner, Being with Diabetes will provide you with opportunities to intentionally cultivate and integrate mindfulness in and through your life with diabetes. 

What: Weekly live sessions with Brooke, Sam, YOU, and other course participants, supported by short, pre-recorded videos introducing each week’s topic and applications. 

Where: Zoom (after registering for the course, you will receive the Zoom link in your course welcome email)

When: Live course sessions will take place from 7:00-8:00 PM (EST) on Sundays from April 21 -May 19, 2024. Pre-recorded content will be released at the start of each week. Sign up as soon as you can, as spots are limited to. 

Why: Diabetes is hard. Meditation is so helpful, but it can feel like a maze at times. Brooke and Sam will focus specifically on the practical applications of mindfulness in life with Diabetes and give you a solid foundation to build from in your meditation practice. All frameworks and practices used are evidence-based and rooted in a deep understanding of modern neuroscience, psychology, and ancient foundations of mindfulness practice. Sam and Brooke each have close to a decade of personal meditation practice, including extensive meditation training and personal study, and five years each of experience in teaching these practices. 

Spots are limited to ensure each person has an optimal experience during Being with Diabetes, so please register as soon as you can.

Course Preview

Week 1: Introduction to Present Moment Awareness (Awareness of Senses)

During Week 1, we will orient ourselves to the practice of mindfulness - a quality necessary for all forms of meditation. Through guided activities and in conversation, we will explore the utility of bringing mindful awareness to our senses (smell, sight, touch, taste, and hearing) for the purpose of bringing out the liveliness of our everyday experience.

Week 2: Breathing the Mind into the Body (Awareness of Breath & Body)

During this week, we will primarily focus on awareness of our body as a medium for us to explore the part of life that we become so familiar with in living with Diabetes – that which is changing. To do this, we will dive into that alive, ever-changing, deeply informative part of our body – our breath. Through practice, we get to learn how to not only be comfortable with change, but be comforted by change – the change that’s happening all the time. We’ll explore some of the science of and methods for working with the body through changes.

Week 3: Seeing the Mind from the Body (Awareness of Thoughts & Thinking)

In Week 3, we will turn our attention to the contents and activities of our minds - thoughts and thinking. During this session, we will explore how different mindfulness techniques and practices can be used to build awareness of the constant, ever-changing flow of our mind-stuff, while  becoming familiar with and bringing curiosity to our cognitive habits and default reactions. Together, we will seek to cultivate new ways of working with our thoughts that can support us in navigating the ongoing ups and downs of life with diabetes.

Week 4: Mindfulness & Self Compassion in Difficult Moments (Self-Compassion)

In Week 4, we will explore mindfulness and self-compassion. Life, especially life with diabetes, is often not easy. Challenging moments, large and small, greet us each day and often bring up difficult emotions in us. During this session, we will build on the mindfulness we’ve begun to develop through compassion-based practices, which can support us in becoming aware of and offering ourselves what we most need in any life circumstance. Practically, this can support us in recognizing and working with challenges and stressors skillfully when they (inevitably!) arise.

Week 5: Anchoring Awareness in Daily Life with Diabetes

Our final week of “Being with Diabetes” will explore the ways that consciously cultivating mindfulness through our daily activities (particularly those related to our diabetes!) can help us flow with the stressors that come with diabetes, expand our resilience in the face of challenges, and connect us with a fundamental well-being that is available in each and every moment. 

Course Facilitators

Brooke Cassoff

Brooke Cassoff is an avid learner, educator, international traveler, distance runner, and cookie enthusiast that has been living life with type 1 diabetes (T1D) since 2005. She is also a firm believer that those of us with diabetes can thrive not in spite of, but because of our condition and that contemplative practices can play a key role in supporting this transformation. 

Brooke was introduced to mindfulness and contemplative practices shortly after being diagnosed with diabetes and has dedicated herself to deepening and sharing these practices ever since. As a graduate of Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research & Education (CCARE) Applied Compassion Training, Brooke developed and facilitated a Self-Compassion Cultivation Training protocol specifically designed to address the needs and experiences of those living with T1D using evidence-based practices. 

Brooke is also one of the founding facilitators of DiabetesSangha, an online community that brings together individuals affected by diabetes to share in weekly contemplative practices to support our mental and physical well-being. Additionally, she is a Certified Health Coach and holds her yoga teacher certification (RYT200) from the Stanford School of Medicine’s YogaX initiative.  

Mindfulness and compassion-based practices have been tremendous forces for good in Brooke’s life and she is elated to continue to share them with the broader diabetes community!

Email: bcassoff@gmail.com

Sam Tullman

Sam is one of the facilitators and co-founders of the DiabetesSangha. He was diagnosed with T1D at eight years old, and has since been on a long arc of trying to understand these crazy human minds we all have, and learn how to support meaningful, helpful experiences for them. He uses both modern scientific and ancient contemplative lenses in his professional and interpersonal work. Specifically, he is a dedicated student of Rinzai Zen (hence that “Kou” name at the beginning, which means “Ancient Rain” in Sino-Japanese script), but draws heavily in his practice from other Buddhist traditions, as well as current foundational theories in Neuroscience and Psychology. In his professional life, he is a researcher and consultant working primarily in the topics of emergence (“spiritual” or “altered" experiences) and contemplation, with a focus on EEG (electrical activity of the brain) and other brain-computer interfaces.

Email: samatullman@gmail.com

Website: www.secondcocoon.com

Frequently Asked Questions

  • The DiabetesSangha is a fiscally sponsored project, under the wing of Ignition Community Glass. For this course, all donations received will go directly to the DiabetesSangha as an organization, in order to further our mission of bringing medication practices to a broader Diabetes community, as true medicine for the stress and overwhelm that is so often part of navigating life with Diabetes. All donations are tax deductible. We’ve got exciting plans for 2024 , which include many in person and live events . Your support make these community initiatives possible. All of our facilitators donate their services and support to the community. With that said, no one is required to pay any specific amount - there is an option to choose your own donation amount for the course and there is an option to participate for free as well.

  • The course is truly designed to be appropriate for those with any amount of meditation experience, including beginners. Furthermore, if you find yourself struggling with keeping up or understanding certain concepts, you’ll have opportunities during the live course sessions and throughout each week to check in with the Course Facilitators. Beginning a meditation practice with the support of a course and community is really one of the best possible ways to start, because you learn both the “how” and “why” of meditation ,have a community to learn and share alongside, and have guides to whom you can ask questions. You’re also welcome to just drop in for regular weekly practices with DiabetesSangha, if that feels like a more feasible entrance to meditation for you at this time.

  • As mentioned above, this course was crafted by and will be guided by people with T1D, however we welcome anyone with a related condition, (such as other forms of Diabetes, or other autoimmune disorders) or who has been personally touched by T1D to join as well -Know that will be meditating with the T1D community – and know there’s a space for you here, whatever your relationship to T1D may be. Past attendees have included caregivers and health care professionals. All are welcome!

  • Not so fast! Being in community with other meditators with diverse experiences and reconnecting with some of the foundations is actually an essential part of maturing in practice. Your presence is not only incredibly beneficial to everyone else, but helps small things continue to click from new perspectives, allowing you to develop even more of what is often, ironically seen as one of the ends of practice: a beginner’s mind.

  • Our hope and intention with this course is that participants join most sessions live, as engagement with the course community is an incredibly important element of this course and you will be able to get the most out of the course if you can engage in each live session fully. However, live sessions will be recorded and available to those who register for the course, and you will have opportunities to check in live with facilitators throughout the week, so how many you attend is ultimately at your discretion. And new for 2024, each week will be accompanied with a video and meditation supporting the lesson. Please don’t sign up for the course if you plan to miss most or all of the live sessions. We’ll have a more appropriate offering to learn in this way, asynchronously, in the future.

  • A very pragmatic question indeed! During each week of the course, we will gather for a 60--minute live session which will be chalk-full of practices and group discussions. Beyond that, we ask that you make it your intention to do some form of “formal” meditation practice each day (even for 5-10 minutes), in a style that is relevant to the topic of the week or that feels most supportive to you . Of course, it’s no big deal if you miss a few days, and we’ll never know. Beyond that, you’ll have options to connect to facilitators during their regular weekly DiabetesSangha guided meditations, but that is completely optional. Additional resources will be shared with you on the course page as well, including new exclusive video content, which will enable you to dive further into each week’s concepts and practices.

  • Absolutely! While this year's course touches on the core material from the 2023 curriculum as well as new materials , expanded topics and fresh opportunities for you to deepen your own practice. The live Sunday night sessions are designed to be interactive and experiential . Pre-recorded lesson videos will offer the flexibility to explore the lessons at a time that may be more convenient for you. Since you’ve done this before, you’re also rocks in this community, and can shed more light for others on your own process and development. Your presence will be massively enriching for those who are joining for the first time, and it is a profound, transformative experience to support people in their meditation paths and be a model for them. Practicing within community for 5 consecutive weeks will also support your own commitment to and development of your meditation practice.

With special thanks to our friends and these amazing organizations, for your support of the DiabetesSangha and the Type One Diabetes community .

*these organizations have not contributed financially directly to this course