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Training events for high-impact organizations

Meet Our Founder,
Rachel Kanarowski

Rachel has taught internationally including in Germany, Italy, Mexico, and the Czech Republic.

Rachel built the Year of Living Better® program with remote-based teams in mind, with limited in-office workshops available by special request,

Rachel lives and works out of the vibrant Uptown neighborhood on the north side of Chicago.

Year of Living Better® founder Rachel Kanarowski knows this firsthand.

As the busy Editor-in-Chief of InStyle magazine's Czech edition in the early 2000s, and later as an in-demand marketing consultant to Fortune 500 companies, Rachel was curious about meditation. She hoped it might help her center herself and offset her ongoing stress.

Her early attempts, however, were frustrating. Skills that earned her professional accolades—multitasking, speaking and thinking at top pace, constantly seeking the new and next—felt at odds with the practice of meditation.

“I felt too Type A,” Rachel says. “ ‘Clearing my mind’ seemed impossible. After a handful of frustrating attempts, I wound up deleting the popular mindfulness app I had been experimenting with and moved on with my life.”

But in 2018, she stumbled across a podcast episode that rekindled her curiosity. Quickly, this spark led her to successfully cracking her own meditation habit—and inspired another question.

How many others, she wondered, might benefit from a science-first, “no beads, no incense” approach to mindfulness?

She delved into the work of Yale University psychologist Laurie Santos (“The Science of Well-Being”), the happiness expert and psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky, and the neuroscientist and psychiatry professor Stephen Porges. She studied practical meditation applications designed by prominent mental health professionals including Deb Dana, LCSW; Chris Germer, Ph.D; and Richard Schwartz, Ph.D. Meanwhile, she completed an intensive course of study in mindfulness, including a year-long program at UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center.

Year of Living Better is the result of all of Rachel’s exploration, study, and personal experience.

“I created Year of Living Better by translating the results and approaches of multiple peer-reviewed studies into a clear framework that teaches basic mindfulness meditation skills in a format that fits into busy workdays,” Rachel explains.

Through live, online, weekly classes, formatted specifically for today's workplaces, Year of Living Better helps individuals form steady mindfulness habits. In doing so, she and her team are helping busy people everywhere to live better.

Creating new habits seems simple but getting a habit to stick isn't easy.

What if it didn't have to be a struggle?

Chicago Department of Public Health (2020-2022)
Center for Mindful Self-Compassion (2021-2022)
SHRM Annual Conference (2021)
International Mindfulness Teacher's Association (2020)
Mindful Leader, Meditate Together (2020)

Volunteer Partnerships

2023 - Varela International Symposium: Worldmaking/Sensemaking: Precariousness, Connectedness, Cooperation, Mind & Life Institute
2023 - Mindful Awareness Practices 3: Buddhist Roots of Mindfulness (MAPs) with Diana Winston, UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center
2022 - Mindful Awareness Practices 3: The Spectrum of Awareness Practices (MAPs) with Diana Winston, UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center
2021 - "Mindful Self-Compassion" with Jamie Lynn Tatera
2020 - Mindful Awareness Practices 1 (MAPs 1) with Gloria Kamler, UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center
2020 - "Nectar of the Path: Teachings on the Path of Awakening" with Mingyur Rinpoche
2020 - "Everyday Freedom" with Susan Kaiser Greenland
2019 - "Mindfulness and Beyond" and "The Platform of Joy" with Sharon Salzberg, Mark Epstein MD, and Robert Thurman PhD
2019 - "In Love with the World" and "Dying Every Day: Meditation, Transformation, and the Bardos" with Mingyur Rinpoche and Richie Davidson, PhD
2019 - "The Science of Happiness: A Greater Good Gathering", UC Berkeley

Additional Education

2022 - 5 day solo retreat
2021 - "Entering the Deep Mountains" with Anne Dutton, MA, LCSW (Director of Mindfulness Education, Yale Stress Center)
2020 - “Self-Compassion” with Beth Mulligan, PA-C, Hugh O’Neill, and Chris Germer PhD
2020 - “Building Compassionate Resilience” with Kate Mitcheom, MSN and Lucia McBee MSW

Silent Retreats

American Mindfulness Research Association (AMRA)
International Mindfulness Teacher's Association (IMTA)
Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)

Professional Memberships

2023 - Seven Homecomings Certified Teacher, Lama Rod Owens
2022 - UCLA Advanced Teacher Training with Diana Winston (Mindful Awareness Practices, "MAPs"), UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center
2022 - Certified Mindfulness Training Professional (CMT-P), International Mindfulness Teachers Association
2021 - UCLA Trained Mindfulness Facilitator, UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center
2021 - Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) Continuing Education with the Center for Mindful Self-Compassion with Sydney Spears, Ph.D., LCSW, LSCSW and Tracy Ochester, PsyD
2021-2022 - Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness, Intro & Advanced Skills with David Treleaven, PhD
2021 - Putting Polyvagal Theory into Practice with Deb Dana, LCSW, PESI
2021 - "Spiritual Activism 101 & 102" training in implicit bias and anti-racism with Rachel Ricketts, JD
2020 - "Mindful Self-Compassion Core Skills" with Chris Germer, PhD and Kristin Neff, PhD
2019 - The Science of Happiness, UC Berkeley via EdX
2019 - The Science of Well-Being, Yale University via Coursera
2019 - Certification: Meditation Teacher (200 hour), Unplug Meditation

Certifications & Training

Featured in:

As Rachel Kanarowski, a consultant who deals in workplace issues, says: “If the hiring manager knows someone in your current organization, they will likely reach out to ask more about you.” Passy, C. (2022). I Tried ‘Quiet Quitting’ Before It Was Cool—and Regretted It Ever Since. MarketWatch, Barron's, et al.

Because burnout leaves employees feeling depleted and exhausted, it has the potential to place some mental distance between them and their job or make them feel cynical, says Rachel Kanarowski, founder of Year of Living Better, a consulting group focused on addressing systems-based stress in the workplace. Quiet quitting, on the other hand, “is a proactive step toward creating healthy mental distance between people and toxic leaders,” she says.
...
Separate from its impact on an individual employee, the phenomenon of quiet quitting could bring some much-needed changes to company culture.

“Workplaces are being called out in the conversation about quiet quitting, but ultimately the phenomenon is mostly about leadership,” Kanarowski explains. “Within a healthy company culture, leaders can do a lot to ensure their teams have adequate staffing and clear mandates about what success looks like. In a toxic workplace, supportive managers will have to go to bat to push back on leadership expectations, lobby for sufficient budgets and communicate with their team in a way that builds trust in the meantime.”
...
It may have taken a pandemic to get to this point, but increasing numbers of people are realizing that their lives are structured in a way that doesn’t prioritize the most important aspects. In fact, a survey published in March 2022 found that one in five American workers are willing to take a pay cut if it would mean that they could have a better work-life balance or work for themselves.

In this context, it’s not hard to see why people are quiet quitting as a way to reclaim their time. “We’ve seen the toll hustle culture has taken on our lives and families,” says Kanarowski, “and quiet quitting is putting up a strong boundary that prioritizes our health and well-being over the next promotion cycle.”
...
Another key component of achieving work-life balance is ensuring that you have a clear picture not only of your manager’s broad expectations of you but also the specific goals you have to meet in your role and how your manager expects you to get there, says Kanarowski. “A healthy workplace sets goals and trusts teams to choose the best path toward meeting them,” she explains. “I would question asking anyone to ‘lean in’ and to go the extra mile beyond the basic expectations if their boss is unable to articulate what success looks like and how it’s measured.” Yuko, E. (2022). 4 Hidden Signs You’re “Quiet Quitting” at Work. Reader's Digest, MSN, et al.

Rachel Kanarowski, Founder & Principal Consultant at Year of Living Better, says: “Even the best employers can't keep every employee engaged. At the end of the day it's up to individuals to take choose what's right for their well-being. But systems impact individuals so every employer should look for simple ways to get a human pulse on their workforce, starting at the manager level. It shouldn't be complicated or require an expensive new tech solution; using the "stay interview" method is one proven way for managers to check in regularly with their team.” Dungan, R. (2022). The Truth About Quiet Quitting. Ph.Creative.

“Since the pandemic shifted so many roles to working remotely, being able to communicate concisely is key,” Rachel Kanarowski, founder of workplace consulting group Year of Living Better, says. “Can you recognize when clarification is needed and ask for this clarification directly? Will you follow up quickly to keep projects moving? These are some of the key skills employers should be looking for, even if they aren’t written in the job description.”
...
Professional work experience isn’t the only place you’ll gain valuable communication skills. Kanarowski recommends joining a community group or nonprofit you believe in, specifically on the communications or marketing side where you might have more opportunities to gain some skills.

“A lot of these groups might not have the bandwidth to try new things with their marketing and might be open to allowing an intern or a volunteer to pilot content creation on a new channel,” she says. “Whenever you can, ask for a LinkedIn recommendation from someone senior on the project and don’t be shy to ask them to specifically mention your communication skills in that endorsement.” Kaplan, Z. (2022). Top Communication Skills for the Workplace. TheForage.

If you’re in a high stress environment, starting with a simple mindfulness practice can be especially helpful, says Rachel Kanarowski, a mindfulness educator at the Chicago Department of Public Health and founder of Year of Living Better, a mindfulness skills training for toxic stress.

To try it: 1. Close your eyes or soften your gaze. 2. Shift your attention to the soles of your feet. 3. Notice what you feel in that part of your body, without trying to change it or react to it.

Don’t feel anything at all? As Kanarowski says, “that’s still a great start. The key resides in refocusing and getting curious.”
...
“In those moments when you’re not feeling ‘peak burnout,’ make a list of low-effort or no-effort things that make you feel good,” suggests Kanarowski. This way, when you’re in the thick of it, you don’t have to think about what to do.
...
Caring for yourself when you’re depleted doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming. Simple, quick practices can help us to feel refreshed and restored.

However, as Kanarowski notes, “self-care can only go so far.”

So, if you’re feeling a soul-deep kind of burnout or you simply need more support, consider talking with a therapist, who can help you get to the root of your burnout and create a more comprehensive and restorative plan. Tartakovsky, M. (2021). Caring for Yourself When You’re Depleted. PsychCentral.

When critical or judgmental thoughts come up, remind yourself that plenty of smart, capable people—even those you admire—are also currently experiencing financial stress, says Rachel Kanarowski, workplace stress expert and founder of the Year of Living Better project. “Practicing self-compassion won’t change our financial challenges overnight, but it will make the experience of addressing them feel better,” she says. Tartakovsky, M. (2021). Feeling Financially Stressed? You’re Not Alone. meQuilibrium.

To make this practice easy and accessible, stick stamps to a stack of postcards, suggests Rachel Kanarowski, a mindfulness educator at the Chicago Department of Public Health and founder of Year of Living Better, a mindfulness skills training for toxic stress. This way, any time someone special comes to mind, you can quickly jot down a few lines of appreciation and mail it right away.
...
When was the last time you acknowledged a win—big or small? Or thanked yourself for handling a difficult situation or getting through a stressful day?

What often gets left out of our gratitude practices is gratitude for ourselves. While it might feel uncomfortable at first, over time, says Kanarowski, you’ll develop more self-compassion (another great thing, as self-compassion also has myriad benefits).

For her self-gratitude practice, Kanarowski jots down one thing she’s proud of on her calendar every night before bed. Tartakovsky, M. (2021). 5 Science-Backed Reasons to Practice Gratitude, and How to Stick With It. meQuilibrium.

Year of Living Better® In the Press

View Rachel's Media Bio

Year of Living Better® founder, Rachel Kanarowski, is a UCLA-trained mindfulness facilitator with the Mindful Awareness Research Center (MARC), a division of UCLA Health housed within the Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior.

She holds a 200-hour meditation teaching credential from Unplug Meditation and certification in Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness with David Treleaven, Ph.D.

She is the Mindfulness Education Lead for the Chicago Department of Public Health, where she has provided public health officials and staff with weekly stress-management training since 2020.

In her downtime, she loves traveling the world and exploring new cultures. She lived in Prague, Czech Republic, for almost a decade, where she was the editor in chief of InStyle Czech magazine. She volunteers with English in Mind, a nonprofit English-language school in Haiti.

For speaking requests, other partnership proposals, or general questions, you can reach Rachel by email at rachel@yearoflivingbetter.com or by voicemail at (773) 312-4709.

Contact

Chicago, IL

Board Member, DePaul University Student Nurses Association

Amtheh Coda,

"It was the Zoom call to 'undo' all Zoom calls. Before the session I was tired and stressed. After the class I felt calmer.

The class opened my eyes to a wider variety of ways to practice mindfulness."

Group Chairman, DDB

DARKO SILAJDŽIĆ,

"They say you should work with people you would want to have a beer with. The same should go for your company's meditation coach!

Rachel makes this serious practice fun for my team."

Prague, Czech Republic

Chicago, IL

Program Director & Doctor of Education

Walonza Lee,

"Rachel is a true partner to our department's well-being.

Her unique approach to mindfulness meditation makes it welcoming to people of all ages and from all backgrounds and beliefs."

Request a Call

Training events for high-impact organizations

Request a Call

Training events for high-impact organizations

Meet Our Founder, Rachel Kanarowski

Creating new habits seems simple but getting a habit to stick isn't easy. What if it didn't have to be a struggle?

Volunteer Partnerships

Additional Education

Silent Retreats

Professional Memberships

Certifications & Training

Featured in:

Year of Living Better® In the Press

View Rachel's Media Bio

View Rachel's Media Bio

Contact

Contact Us

Meet Our Founder,
Rachel Kanarowski

Creating new habits seems simple but getting a habit to stick isn't easy.

What if it didn't have to be a struggle?