The Skillful Life Foundations Course

Eight weeks. Eight skills. The care, intention, and courage to make decisions that serve you — and the world.

Taught live by Dr. Shalini B Bahl, PhD — MBSR-certified teacher, award winning researcher and author, Return to Mindfulness, and one of the 10 Powerful Women of the Mindfulness Movement in 2025.

Most of us were handed mindfulness as an app, a retreat, or a single technique. Useful, but not enough for the moments that actually matter — the difficult conversation, the inbox at 9 PM, the grief that won't lift, the decision that shapes a year.

The Skillful Life Foundations Course is built for those moments.

Over eight weeks, we meet once a week, live on Zoom, for ninety minutes. Each session is dedicated to one of the eight foundational skills of a sama — Pali for skillful — life. We explore the nuance of the skill, what it disrupts in our habitual patterns, and what it strengthens in our character and choices. You leave each session with one dedicated practice and six micro-practices — small, portable moments of return that fit into the texture of an ordinary day.

By the end of eight weeks, you will not have "tried mindfulness." You will have a working toolkit you can return to for the rest of your life.

The eight skills we will explore

Each week, we go deep into one skill — what it is, what it disrupts, and what it strengthens.

The skills build on each other. Together, they form the Return–Listen–Begin framework: the capacity to return to ourselves, listen to what is actually happening, and begin again — wisely, kindly, and with intention.

What you receive each week

• 90 minutes of live teaching and guided practice with Shalini
• One dedicated practice for the week — a formal sitting, movement, or contemplative inquiry
• Six micro-practices — short, portable returns you can do anywhere: in line, on a walk, between meetings, before sleep
  
• Session recordings, so you can revisit anything or catch up if you miss a week
• A small community of co-learners walking alongside you

Live, recorded, and at your own pace

Every session is live on Zoom — and every session is recorded and added to your personal Teachable library, alongside more than 20 dedicated practices and 48 micro-practices that you'll keep for life.

The advantage of being live is real. When you show up live, I can respond to your specific challenges in the moment, point out the nuances that don't come through in a recording, and adjust the practice when something particular is alive in the room. You also get the company of other practitioners — which is often the difference between a course you finished and a practice you kept.

And life happens. If you miss a week, the recording is there. If a skill needs revisiting, the recording is there. If you want to go at your own pace, the full library waits for you.

Show up live when you can. Catch up when you can't. Return as often as you need to.

Who this is for

This course is for you if you are —

• Curious about mindfulness and want something more practical than an app and more accessible than just meditation
• Returning to practice after a long pause and looking for fresh ground.
• A caregiver, leader, parent, teacher, or creative whose work depends on staying present and steady.
• A long-time meditator who wants a structured way to bring practice into ethics, relationships, and daily decisions.
• Someone who senses there must be more to mindfulness than calm — and wants to find out what.

No prior experience required. No tradition required. Only a willingness to show up — and even that, you can practice.

Cohorts and schedule

Summer Cohort — Tuesday, July 28 through Tuesday, September 15, 2026
Tuesdays, 7:00–8:30 PM Eastern Time Taught live from Amherst, Massachusetts. Best suited for participants in the Americas.

Fall Cohort — Tuesday, October 6 through Tuesday, November 24, 2026
Tuesdays, 7:00–8:30 PM India Standard Time Taught live from India. Best suited for participants in Asia, Europe, and early-rising Americans.

Two cohorts, two time zones — designed for global access. Each cohort is intentionally small to keep the conversations intimate and the practice personal.

A note from me

I'm Dr. Shalini B Bahl — founder of Sama Life, and I teach Mindful Marketing at the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst.

But those are titles. What actually shapes this course is more than twenty years of Vipassana practice, braided together with award-winning academic research, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (Originated in the UMass Medical School) and Search Inside Yourself (founded in Google) certifications, and two terms of public service on the Amherst Town Council — where the Return–Listen–Begin framework was forged under real pressure. My book Return to Mindfulness received the International Impact Book Award, and my forthcoming Stress Free PhD (co-authored with George Milne and Andrew Rohm) extends this work into academic life. In 2025, Mindful magazine named me one of the 10 Powerful Women of the Mindfulness Movement.

I share all this not as a résumé, but as a promise: everything in this course comes from what those years of practice and research have taught me about what it actually takes to live with care, intention, and the courage to act — for ourselves and for the world.

Sama Life is the most complete expression of what I've come to call second-generation mindfulness — practice that moves beyond individual stress relief to support wise decisions, ethical action, and collective well-being. The Skillful Life Foundations Course is the most direct way I know to share it with you.

Investment — choose what feels right

This work has been my offering for two decades, and I never want money to be the reason someone misses what they need. Please choose the tier that fits your life right now — every tier receives the same course, the same recordings, and the same welcome.

Sustaining — $597 For those who can offer more. Your contribution covers your spot and helps fund a scholarship for someone else.

Standard — $397 The full cost of teaching, materials, and community.

Accessible — $197 A reduced rate for those navigating financial constraint.

Pay what's possible — any amount, including $0 If even the Accessible tier is out of reach, choose what is possible for you. No application, no questions, no diminished welcome. Your presence and practice are the offering.

A note on belonging

You belong in this course regardless of your income, your meditation experience, your tradition (or lack of one), your profession, or your story. There is no version of "doing this right." There is only showing up — and beginning again, together.

When you're ready, I'd be honored to practice with you.

🪷 Shalini

About Shalini B Bahl, PhD

You can read more about my work and reasearch on my website aSamaLife.com

From people who have practiced with me...

"I was somewhat familiar with mindfulness practice through my work as a clinical psychologist, but had never learned from a mindfulness expert. Through this course, I learned all 8 qualities of mind, instead of just awareness and compassion that I was already familiar with. I have already started incorporating some of the concepts into my therapy practice, What really caught me by surprise, though, was how incorporating all 8 components opened up my own personal experience. I had always dreaded writing, especially if it involved creative writing. Suddenly I found myself writing poetry about my daily experiences. Who was this person?! Now I continue to use Shalini's guided practices, and love choosing which quality to work with depending on how I'm feeling."
~ Pamela Drury, PhD
Neurofeedback Expert and Clinical Neuropsychologist, Founder, Boost Neurofeedback

"Sama life circle has been just the restart that my regular mindfulness practice needed. As a parent juggling work and life the micro-practices have been such wonderful addition to my routine...Shalini is a caring and thoughtful mindfulness teacher who offers such a depth of knowledge in the ways to bring mindfulness off of the mat and into everyday life."
~ Julianna Eve, PhD
UMass Chan - Baystate Research Coordinator II and Tobacco Treatment Specialist