Introduction to Mindfulness Course Comes to the JCC in March

When Suzanne Weiss, MSW, talks about mindfulness and meditation, she doesn’t begin with silence or serenity. She begins with a confession. “I really thought mindfulness would turn me into this calm, unbothered person,” she laughs, imagining herself in pristine white linen, car keys always accounted for. “What actually happened is I became painfully aware of how busy my mind is—and how often I lose those keys.”

It’s this kind of grounded honesty that shapes What the Heart Knows, her new Introduction to Mindfulness course that is being offered free and on-line by the Boulder JCC from 9 am to 10 am on four Tuesdays, March 10, 17, 24 and 31. Rather than promising escape from life’s messiness, Weiss invites people to lean (straight) into it.

For Weiss, mindfulness and meditation isn’t about fixing yourself or becoming “better.” It’s about noticing—sometimes for the very first time—what’s already here. “People are often surprised when they sit down and realize how loud their minds are,” she says. “But that moment of noticing? That’s not failure. That’s waking up.”

She describes mindfulness as a gentle, steady way of meeting experience with curiosity and kindness, even when that experience is uncomfortable. Instead of pushing away difficult emotions or trying to control them, the practice encourages turning toward them, disarming the inner critic, and allowing life to be exactly as it is, moment by moment.

That approach has been deeply personal for Weiss. She shares how mindfulness supported her during one of the most frightening chapters of her life—when her granddaughter was born at just 23 weeks and spent months in the NICU. “The fear didn’t disappear,” she says. “But mindfulness gave me a way to come back to this moment. To the breath. To what was actually happening right now.” For Weiss, this is where mindfulness shows its quiet power: not in erasing pain or uncertainty, but in helping us stay present and connected when life feels overwhelming.

People come to mindfulness and meditation, Weiss explains, for many reasons. Some arrive because they’re suffering—burned out, anxious, stuck in old patterns. Others are drawn by a deeper longing, a sense that there’s more to life than the constant mental commentary running in their heads.

“Usually it’s a mix,” she says. “Maybe you want less stress—and you also want to feel more alive, more at home in yourself.” Her 4-session course welcomes all of it, offering practical tools alongside a spacious, heart-centered inquiry into what it means to truly be here.

At its core, What the Heart Knows is an invitation—to pause, to breathe, to feel, and to meet life without weapons of self-criticism or avoidance. “Mindfulness teaches us something radical,” Weiss says. “We don’t have to believe every thought. We can shift from living in our heads to living in our hearts.” It’s not about holding onto calm or achieving enlightenment. It’s about learning, again and again, how to rest in loving awareness—right in the middle of this imperfect, beautiful life.

Weiss has a Master of Social Work degree and has been a practitioner and teacher of mindfulness for over twenty-five years, blending her background as a psychotherapist, yoga instructor and writer.  Additionally, she is currently a student in the two-year Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Course with Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield. She holds an MFA in writing from Sarah Lawrence College. With a passion for helping people reconnect with their inner wisdom and compassion, Suzanne offers practices that support clarity, emotional resilience and a deeper sense of ease. Her approach is accessible, heartfelt and rooted in both contemplative tradition and contemporary understanding.

Weiss is well known among the Boulder JCC meditation community. She feels honored to be one of leaders of the JCC’s on-line Daily Meditation sits for the past five years. “There happens to be a beautiful group of people who come to daily mindfulness sits at the JCC for the meditation and the sense of community. It is uplifting to be with each other, gathering for peace, to have a sacred moment in the morning, especially during these turbulent times in the world.”

Register here for the What the Heart Knows course.