Course Content
Teacher Training Class 1
Good day to you friends, it's Mark Joseph here and welcome to the Mindfulness Teacher Training. So this is the introductory video and just a little explanation of how this all came to be. Well, let's go to the beginning. My journey really started born out of anxiety, born out of panic attacks and my father unfortunately died of suicide when I was 21 years old. I was following a similar downward trajectory with my mental health after his death, and I decided not to go the chemical route, which is the route that he took, but rather to go the route of breathwork and mindfulness. As a young man, I started to explore that, and it was miraculous. I felt that I finally had control over my life, and I was wondering why did nobody else know these techniques? Why are they just prescribed medication when they could at least try and work on some of these mindful techniques—mindful movement, mindful breathing, mindful meditation, journaling, and so on? Why can we not try these first before we go on to the medication? So I practiced for a while, I went to India, I traveled throughout India, the Himalayas for one year, and then I lived in a monastery, in a temple actually, for three years—can you believe it? During that time, I was grappling with the idea of becoming a monk, but I eventually left the temple without becoming fully ordained, and I got married. But my passion for mindfulness carried on, and I realized it wasn't so much in a religious framework that I wanted to help people—it was more from a practical, scientific point of view. When I go into the ancient scriptures of mindfulness, I don't see the spirituality—I see the science. I see the ancient technology that we have at our disposal today, now validated by scientific research and neuroscientists. Throughout this program, you'll get to know all of them in their full range, supporting the growth of mindfulness. So yes, it's an incredible journey. The modules are amazing—they've been put together as my life's work that I'm sharing with you. In a way, it was an intuitive flow, but as I was going about it intuitively, I realized that I had so much research to back up what I felt inside. It's just been such an amazing process. I have taught thousands of people. I have a lot of students that are now my peers—they became their own mindfulness facilitators, gurus, whatever you call them. I don’t like to be called a guru, but it gives me the greatest joy—the greatest, greatest joy—to see people whom I've trained go on and incorporate this into their professions. Into dancing, into pottery, into their therapy, into their practice, into their physiotherapy, into everything. Into teaching children at school and stopping to do mindfulness exercises with them before the classrooms. I've seen it spread right across the world actually, through the programs that I run—corporate, professional, and so on. It’s just a remarkable time. We are in a mindful revolution, and I just couldn't be happier. So let's explore this series together. Let's have fun. Let's ask questions. Let's engage. I am at your disposal, and I am guiding you—you are leading, and I am just encouraging you. Let’s go forward into the most dynamic process that one can go through—truly life-changing. And I am not just saying that—I know it's a cliché, but whenever people do this training, that’s what I hear. Their lives just change. So welcome to the Mindfulness Teacher Training. This is where you begin.
0/12
Class 1: Part 1
04:55
Class 1: Part 2
05:29
Class 1: Part 3
06:07
Class 1: Part 4
04:26
Class 1: Part 5
05:49
Class 1: Part 6
06:32
Class 1: Part 7
03:38
Class 1: Part 8
09:18
Coffee Practice
02:49
Breath Meditation
Keeping a Journal
06:12
Starve your Distractions and Feed Your Focus Practice
05:34
Teacher Training Class 2
0/12
Class 2: Intro
04:50
Class 2: Part 1
10:36
Class 2: Part 2
04:00
Class 2: Part 3
08:57
Class 2: Part 4
07:04
Class 2: Part 5
07:55
Class 2: Part 6
08:01
Class 2: Part 7
04:36
Class 2: Part 8
00:00
Pre Body Scan Practice
02:25
Body Scan Practice
12:14
Mindful Eating Practice
06:31
Teacher Training Class 3
0/10
Class 3: Introduction
03:01
Class 3: Part 1
05:17
Class 3: Part 2
11:20
Class 3: Part 3
07:42
Class 3: Part 4
05:30
Labelling Practice
Ocean Mind Practice
08:57
Sky Like Mind Practice
00:00
Non-Striving Practice
08:45
Looking & Problem Solving Practice
06:54
Teacher Training Class 4
0/5
Class 4: Part 1
06:01
Class 4: Part 2
08:30
Class 4: Part 3
07:59
Healing of the Inner Child Practice
09:11
The ‘Nice’ Self Compassion Practice
09:53
Teacher Training Class 5
0/10
Class 5: Part 1
08:21
Class 5: Part 2
06:55
Class 5: Part 3
03:19
Class 5: Part 4
09:53
Class 5: Part 5
05:24
Class 5: Part 6
09:28
Are You OK? Checking In Practice
08:32
Loving Kindness, EQ Meditation Practice
09:17
Empathy for Forgiveness Practice
04:05
Feed Your Emotions a Cookie Practice
05:24
Teacher Training Class 6
0/8
Class 6: Part 1
05:51
Class 6: Part 2
09:08
Class 6: Part 3
08:38
Class 6: Part 4
05:10
How To Remain Curious Practice
07:13
Finding Your Values Practice
14:10
Bonus Video: Self-Investigation by Jon Kabat-Zinn
02:08
Bonus Video: Teach Back Advice
13:45
Mindfulness 8-Week Course

I remember the first time I came to the gym, it was a bit overwhelming. There were all these machines, all this equipment, and I had no idea where to start. It felt really daunting. Until somebody showed me that I was using the leg machine for my arms and that wasn’t appropriate, I realized I needed a personal trainer—someone who could take me through the machines and help me understand what was what and which machine worked which body part.

So now, as we understand our mental fitness, we realize that the brain needs to grow in different ways, and there are specific practices that can help develop the areas that serve us well. Just as it’s important to hire a personal trainer for physical fitness, it’s equally valuable to have a mental coach to guide us through these exercises. Yesterday’s homework explored keeping the mind in one place, and it was really tough, wasn’t it? The mind keeps moving, and we realize that we don’t have as much control over it as we think. And that’s okay—that’s what the mind does. We shouldn’t feel too disappointed.

But the question is, how does this relate to our mental health? Why is it important to try and keep the mind focused? No one ever really gets it perfect, so why should we even try? Well, it comes back to what we call the mechanics of mindfulness.

The mechanics of mindfulness involve recognizing that the mind wanders—it moves into the future or the past—and then gently encouraging it to return to the present moment. It’s like training a little puppy. We don’t yell at the puppy; we kindly call it back. The same applies to the mind. It wanders, we gently say, “Come back.” Then it goes off again, and we say, “Please come back.” We do this repeatedly. The more we practice, the better we become at staying focused.

You know that feeling when you’re reading a book, but your mind keeps wandering? You have to start the same page over and over because nothing is sinking in. That’s because the mind is busy, and it’s wandering. But as we keep bringing it back, we get better at staying present.

I’ve spoken to people who studied law or medicine, and they’ve told me that first year was really tough. But by the second or third year, they had almost a photographic memory—they could just look at the book, and everything flowed. That’s because what we practice grows stronger. And that’s the essence of the mechanics of mindfulness.

Rumination, on the other hand, is when our thoughts go around in circles—what I call the “washing machine mind.” We keep thinking about the same thing over and over. Maybe it’s a Sunday afternoon, and we’re already stressing about a Monday morning meeting. We just want to enjoy the weekend, but our mind won’t let us. Now, imagine if it’s a serious thought or issue—how it can keep pulling us down.

Every time we dwell on these thoughts, it affects our mood. It can put us into a state of depression, where we’re locked into a negative way of thinking. But if we’ve developed mental resilience, we can say, “No, I don’t want to think about that anymore. I’m coming back to the present moment. I am happy, I am safe, I am well.”

And that’s how mindfulness relates to mental health. What we practice grows stronger. If we keep ruminating, if we’re constantly distracted or multitasking, that’s the state our mind will default to. The key question is: what are we thinking about? And how can we manage our thoughts in a constructive way?

Mark Twain once said, “Most of the worst disasters in my life never actually happened.” Think about that—how often does the mind catastrophize about the worst possible scenarios? And yet, most of those fears never come true.

Leanne and I facilitate walks in Kruger Park, walking among wild animals. When you first do it, your mind conjures up terrifying images—being eaten alive, hyenas dragging you from your tent. But those fears never materialize. The truth is, it’s quite safe. Yet, on your first trip, your mind convinces you that you won’t survive the first day.

Overthinking can ruin a project. It can ruin a happy family environment. We focus on something sad, or something that isn’t even real—something we’ve made up in our minds.

It reminds me of a little poem that’s stuck in my head:
If you’re happy and you know it, overthink.
If you’re happy and you know it, overthink.
If you’re happy and you know it, give your brain a chance to blow it,
If you’re happy and you know it, overthink.

Yeah, funny, funny. But not so funny when you’re actually stuck in rumination.

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