FSR Offers Patient Webinar Workshops on Mindfulness, Meditation Techniques

The Foundation for Sarcoidosis Research (FSR) is launching a series of mindfulness and meditation workshops — all as free, live webinars — to support people with sarcoidosis and those caring for them.

The workshop series will focus on discussing the physical and mental benefits of meditation and mindfulness, as well as the negative effects of stress on a patient’s health. During the workshops, individuals with sarcoidosis and their carers will have the chance to learn techniques for improving meditation and mindfulness, and how to implement such strategies into their own routine self-care.

The webinars will be led by Susan D’Agostino, a retired registered nurse and certified mindfulness and meditation instructor, who also has sarcoidosis.

D’Agostino, who is certified by the McLean Meditation Institute, worked for more than 40 years in the healthcare industry. Always interested in learning more about the mind-body connection, particularly how one’s mind may influence the body when it comes to preventing or recovering from an illness, D’Agostino pursued the McLean certification as a way to continue to help others.

During the workshops, D’Agostino will teach the participants meditation and mindfulness techniques — which she herself uses on a regular basis — to aid them in improving their own health.

The workshop series will be divided into four sequential, live video sessions, each beginning at 10 a.m. CST and lasting 75 minutes. Because the webinars are sequential, participants must have already completed the previous sessions before gaining access to a more advanced workshop.

The first session, titled “Mindfulness and Meditation for Health and Well-being,” will be held this Saturday, Nov. 21. It will focus on explaining what mindfulness and meditation are, as well discussing the most common misconceptions about such practices. D’Agostino also will address the negative effects stress may have on a person’s mental and physical health. During this introductory session, the participants will have the opportunity to learn how to meditate.

“Physical Benefits of Mindfulness and Meditation,” the second workshop, will be held on Saturday, Nov. 28. This session, which will end with a meditation practice, followed by a question-and-answer period, will focus on the physical benefits of meditation in the context of sarcoidosis.

The third session will be held next year, on Saturday, Jan. 9. In that session, titled “Mental Benefits of Mindfulness and Meditation,” participants will discuss the meaning of neuroplasticity — the brain’s ability to adapt or rewire itself to preserve function following damage — and explore how mindfulness and meditation techniques may help memory and cognition. Like the previous session, this one also will end with a meditation practice, followed by Q&A.

The last session — “Emotional Benefits of Meditation” — will be held on Saturday, Jan. 16, and focus on how meditation and mindfulness techniques can be used to alleviate nervousness, anxiety, and fear. During this fourth session, the participants will learn how to implement these techniques in their daily lives. As with the previous workshops, D’Agostino will end the session with meditation practice and a Q&A.

Registration in the workshops is free of charge and can be done here. Those wishing to participate in the series only need to register once, and not separately for each session. While participants can register after the workshops start, they will have to watch recordings of the previous sessions before being able to access the next available live session.