Even on a Monday morning, attendees at David Chandler’s mindfulness meditation workshop couldn’t help but laugh when he opened with a story from a previous session.

“I remember one of the last times we were here, one gal said she was coming here to the workshop, and she told her adult children, ‘Oh, I’m going to a mindlessness workshop,’” he said.

Mindfulness meditation is a type of meditation in which people focus on their breathing, their thoughts and what’s going on around them. He defined it as the practice of being aware of the present.

By the end of the workshop on Nov. 14, many of the participants had lost track of time, and some had almost dozed off because the session made them so relaxed.

Chandler, a Waterford resident who also teaches tai chi and other mindful practices as director of Eagle’s Quest Tai Chi Center, has been conducting community workshops as part of his mindfulness meditation teaching certification.

“We’re not trying to stop thinking in mindfulness meditation, we just want to pay attention to and observe the thinking process,” he said in an interview at his home.

Chandler explained that different types of meditation affect different parts of the brain, much like exercises can work a person’s legs, arms or torso. For example, meditating with candles or mandalas train the parts that process vision, and meditating by saying sacred verses or chanting trains the parts that process language. Mindfulness meditation works on the part of the brain that controls breathing. Its simplicity allows people to do it anywhere for any length of time; he cited a stressful boardroom meeting as an example.

“If you want to calm yourself down, you’re not going to pull out your candles or pull out your mandala and focus it,” he said, eliciting chuckles from the audience of 19. “You’re probably going to get kicked out of the boardroom. But with mindfulness meditation and the focus on the breath, you can do that without anyone even being aware that you’re meditating.”

By practicing mindfulness meditation, people learn how to slow down and respond to stimuli rather than react to them, he said. It can lead to better decision making and more compassion in everyday life, not just while actively meditating. He also said companies in the U.S., including Google and Facebook, are smart to start incorporating mindfulness meditation into the work day to boost productivity and creativity.

Slowing down your breath also puts your body into its parasympathetic or “rest and digest” mode. Many people are constantly stressed, which prevents the body from being able to heal itself and function best. A 2013 study showed the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program can help reduce feelings of distress and self-judgment in people with anxiety.

Rebeckah Cook, who works for CareCo Shoreline, a senior care organization based in Waterford, attended the workshop with two of her clients. She said she uses Chandler’s techniques on a regular basis with her clients and appreciates how he addresses both the science and the spirituality.

“He is imparting to us incredible knowledge,” she said. “He has an impact that you cannot even define.”

Since the workshop was sponsored by Waterford Senior Services, Chandler discussed cases where patients with chronic pain, inflammation or cancer were helped by practicing mindfulness meditation.

Attendees also asked about its effects on anxiety and depression, and whether people with breathing difficulties could benefit from the practice.

Chandler ended the workshop with a 20-minute meditation, turning off the lights in the room and asking everyone to close their eyes and get comfortable. He led them through a “body scan” to relax from head to toe, observing what they are sensing and thinking but always returning to their breathing.

Gale Olesen, of Waterford, said she had done meditation for 30 years before life circumstances led her to stop about 10 years ago, but the workshop brought her right back to where she had been. She said the workshop had been the most informative she had ever been to.

“Everybody I know should come here,” she said. “It was wonderful.”

a.hutchinson@theday.com