Moment to Moment (MtM) Meditation Series

Moment to Moment Meditation is a mindfully based meditation program that started in March 2016 and had been held in the Discovery Center's community meeting room, and during the summer outdoors at their amphitheatre.

During during the Winter and Spring seasons of 2017 (starting January 17, 2017), the Moment to Moment (MtM) Meditation series were held in the Big Bear Yoga in Big Bear City located at 421 W Big Bear Blvd. The MtM Program meetings were held once a week on Tuesday evenings. During the summer of 2018 we went back outdoors to the Discovery Center.

During July-August 2019, MtM returned to the Discovery Center amphitheatre for outdoor mindfulness meditation activities.

At this time, MtM program is on hold and is tentatively scheduled to be presented during the 2020 summer, outdoors at the Discovery Center's amphitheatre.

This program is offered free to Big Bear residents, ages from teenagers to seniors, and please no children - no pre-registration required.

• This program is based on scientific neuroscience research
• The MtM mindful sessions use secular meditation techniques that are culturally neutral, non-religious, non-political, genderless, and no guru.
• The goal of these sessions is to provide attendees with different experiences of mindful mediations wherein you become your own independent meditator.

Continuing Moment to Moment Sessions
New attendess welcome. These mindful sessions are an ongoing hour program, wherein the first 5-10 minutes is open conversation among attendees. Various short 5-15 minute meditations are introduced and experienced. The session ends with a closing opportunity for more conversational sharing.

LEAFS MtM Meditation Topics -- The following topics are PDF Files. You may read the following meditation oulines and once opened, you can also download the PDF file:

Stress Management Program

Currently this program has not been rescheduled.

The LEAFS Stress Management Program is a four week program, meeting once a week for 90 minutes, and is provided through the Big Bear Chamber of Commerce to Chamber members and their employees.

The purpose of the LEAFS program is to provide a means for learning how to relieve personal stress. The LEAFS program is an introductory program, a launch pad, for people to learn and explore various cognitive techniques that can deal with stress. The book, "Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain and Illness" is used as the groundwork for the LEAFS Stress Management Program. It was written by Jon Kabat-Zinn, the originator of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, and is based on 34 years of clinical experience with more than twenty thousand people.

There are no overnight, magical stress reduction results implied by the LEAFS program. Individual success at relieving stress totally depends upon one's dedication of time and effort to cultivate a mindfulness-based orientation that can help reduce personal stress.

The program will be held Thursdays, March 24 and 31, April 7 and 14, 2016 held 5 to 6:30 p.m. in the Big Bear Chamber of Commerce conference room on Bartlett Road in Big Bear Lake. This program is being offered free to Chamber members and their employees.

Communities Active in Disaster (COAD)

Big Bear Valley Communities Active in Disaster (website) is based on a volunteer group of local Big Bear Valley individuals formed to advocate for and promote a coordinated valley-wide disaster preparedness planning initiative that aims to integrate businesses, local service organizations, nonprofits, as well as faith based organizations to improve community readiness in preparation of when a major disaster event occurs. This collaboration is involved in the planning, response, recovery and mitigation when disaster occurs.

Leafs for Wellness Foundation and Big Bear Valley COAD have entered into a Fiscal Sponsorship Agreement. As a Fiscal Sponsor, Leafs for Wellness Foundation can receive tax-deductible charitable contributions on behalf of Big Bear Valley COAD. The use of these funds are to implement COAD disaster relief services.

Here is where you can make charitable donation to support COAD.

Entrepreneurial Program - Startup Workshop

To be scheduled...

Do you dream about starting your own business? Do you have an entrepreneurial spirit? Would you like to turn your bold idea into a real business? Well, then become a doer and attend this start-up workshop. This workshop covers:

• Knowing whether, or not, you really have an entrepreneurial orientation
• Simple steps for starting your business
• Templates and tools for initial business planning
• An example of a home-based startup business.

Follow-up mentoring is provided with in-person meetings, email, or by phone conference calls.

The Big Bear Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Committee is sponsoring this LEAFS entrepreneurial workshop. Workshop presenters are from Inland Empire SCORE. SCORE is a nonprofit association dedicated to educating entrepreneurs and helping small businesses start, grow, and succeed. SCORE is a resource partner with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), and has been mentoring small business owners for more than forty years.

How to Become a Cottage Food Operator

LEAFS has formalized the process of how to go about starting a Cottage Food Operator Business. That is how to "manufacture" an homemade kitchen product and sell it. LEAFS plans are to help others become Cottage Food Operators (CFO).

LEAFS has developed a product called Coffee Masala (see it at this website: coffeemasala.com) and have gone through the following steps:

• Informal taste testing using various spice mixtures
• Located suppliers for spice jars, lids, lid seals, and spices
• Created a Coffee Masala label
• Conducted formal marketing test and analysis for product feasability to gauge its potential for being a successful product
• Created a website for Coffee Masala called https://coffeemasala.com
• Obtain CFO licensing from San Bernardino County Health Department
• Launched product with a local store (Copper Q in the Village) in the City of Big Bear Lake
• Created marketing material to solict other stores to sell Coffee Masala in San Bernardino County

LEAFS is now at the stage of offering its services to folks, living in Big Bear Valley area, that want to become a Cottage Food Operator.

Big Bear Yoga Festival

The Big Bear Yoga Center and LEAFS have created a sponsorship to produce the Big Bear Yoga Festival.
You will find more information about the Big Bear Yoga Festival on their website.
Also you can provide a donation supporting the Big Bear Yoga Festival