New Longfellow Business: Heartwood Mindfulness Center

by Elaine Klaassen

The Heartwood Mindfulness Center at 3706 East 34th Street is an uncluttered storefront, a former bakery, on the north side of Longfellow Park. In the window, giant geraniums and a raked zen garden bask in the southern sunlight. Warm coral colored walls welcome the many people who've been coming here since November to learn the ancient wisdom of meditation and mindfulness.

Although the business is new, the dedication is not. Between the two of them, co-founders Judith Lies, MSW & LMFT, and Merra Young, LICSW & LMFT, have 50 years of extensive meditation and psychotherapy experience in medical, mental health, educational, corporate and general public settings. Young's program is called Rivers' Way Institute and Lies' is called Seeds of Mindfulness. The women describe Heartwood as a mindfulness practice center and community resource offering courses in meditation, mindfulness in daily life and movement, including qigong and yoga, as well as providing integrative psychotherapy appointments. There are specialty groups for women, couples, health professionals and psychotherapists. Courses vary in length and duration from drop-in to one-hour introductory sessions to eight-week classes and ongoing meditation support groups. Fees also vary from donation to sliding scales and set fees.

At the end of February Lies scheduled a Saturday retreat in the Thich Nhat Hanh tradition. So many people signed up that she did a Sunday retreat as well and could have led one on Monday too if she hadn't had other appointments.
The blend of Western-style therapy with Eastern meditation is one of the unique features of Heartwood. Another feature that sets it apart is that it is non-sectarian, explained Lies, who was available for an interview while Young was in Wisconsin on a retreat.

"The Twin Cities are unusual in that there's a plethora of sectarian centers for meditation: Roshi Zen, Vipassana and Tibetan centers as well as Vietnamese temples. It's always been my dream to create a non-sectarian place without the religious language and ritual." Because the basic teaching is so powerful, she wanted to "translate" the wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh tradition and other ancient mindfulness wisdom for people who wouldn't be attracted to religious ritual or language. She wanted something more secular and accessible.

Lies herself is a Buddhist, and goes to study with Thich Nhat Hanh in Plum Village in France for one month every two years. Thich Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk who worked for reconciliation between North and South Vietnam. When they asked him which side he was on he would say, "I am for Vietnam." Intertwining traditional meditative practices with active nonviolent civil disobedience, he was banned in 1966 by both the non-Communist and Communist governments for his role in undermining the violence he saw affecting his people. His activism led to a movement known as "engaged Buddhism." Out of this movement came the most influential center of Buddhist studies in Saigon, the An Quang Pagoda. He also set up relief organizations, developed a type of peace corps for Buddhist peace workers, founded a peace magazine, and urged world leaders to use nonviolence as a tool. Now he teaches, writes, gardens and works to help refugees worldwide.

Lies was involved in community activism in recent years, unsuccessfully attempting to save some of the oak savannah, made up of 200- to 300-year-old trees, on the Minnehaha Academy campus. The way her discipline has taught her to operate as an activist is to "say what you believe with 'right speech' and then let go of the outcome." She regrets now that she was attached to the outcome. She believes now she held on too long. But, a craftsman friend was able to save mown wood from one of the oldest trees before it went to the chipper, and he made a beautiful, naturally finished bench which stands in the coral colored room on 34th Street. The trees are still "living and giving," she said. The bench is a good reminder, not painful, that everything changes, and that letting go brings compassion and connectedness. "When I see it there my heart feels free and open. It's good to pursue your beliefs."

At this point in her life, although she's been an activist in the past, Lies wants to focus on helping people find peace and grounding to do what they are meant to do. She wants to help people "find their own peace to action. The cosmos has a balance and I trust a process that's larger than we are. There's a deep understanding and listening that may create the path. When the world has more love than fear, things will right themselves."

The things Lies teaches from the 2,500-year-old tradition make a lot of sense: Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. Everything changes and so there is always loss. There is always pain. The way to end suffering is through compassion, equanimity, generosity and loving kindness. All we have is the present. We don't want to get attached to the past and the future, we have to let go of it. We have to let go of expectations and judgements. We want to develop an awareness of the interconnectedness of everything. Then we don't feel alone. All of this takes away fear and brings great love and joy. Meditation and mindfulness teach us how to do these things, they teach us how to be present. Lies favorite phrase is "Life is so hard, how can we be anything but kind."

Lies does not understate the power of this tradition. She said she used to tell her classes at the beginning, "If you do your homework, profound things will PROBABLY happen." Now, after years of witnessing the benefits of the tradition, she tells them, "If you do your homework, very profound things WILL happen."
Research increasingly documents the effectiveness of this wisdom on physical and mental health. Lies gave me four dramatic examples from her own experience:

Over a period of six years, in 12 six-month cardiac risk reduction program sessions (participants have had several heart attacks and/or multiple bypass surgeries), where Lies conducts the meditation component, nobody has died.

After an eight-week class, a woman with an inoperable brain aneurysm, who suffered from anxiety, depression and extreme pain, had been to the emergency room perhaps 40 times in three months, and carried a small toolbox full of narcotics for pain, cut her narcotics use in half, drastically reduced her visits to the ER and was enjoying life without depression.

After taking classes for a while a woman's son said to her, "Mom, I really like you. You don't yell at me any more."

A woman prone to panic attacks started the classes and then went to Europe. On the return flight over the Atlantic there was a two-hour period of turbulence. A passenger had a heart attack, some overhead luggage compartments came open, and people were yelling and screaming. She peacefully read her book and had no panic attack.

The Heartwood Mindfulness Center may be reached at 612-343-1623