Erin Easton’s mindfulness journey reshaped her life, studies, and teaching

A monastery outside Geneva, a retreat in southwest France, and a 700-acre center outside Pagosa Springs all mark the same turning point in Erin Easton’s story: mindfulness stopped being a private refuge and became a path into study, teaching, and service.

From quiet practice to outward action

Easton’s journey is told through KVNF’s *Mindful Reflections: Positive Action pt. 2*, part of a short series that places meditation inside a larger question: what happens when inner practice becomes visible in the world? KVNF describes *Mindful Reflections* as a weekly opportunity to pause, find stillness, and look inward, and Easton is the host guiding those teachings. The second installment follows a clear arc, showing that her practice did not stay on the cushion. It shaped what she studied, where she trained, and how she now works with other people.

That progression is the heart of the story. Rather than treating mindfulness as a feel-good habit, Easton’s path shows how repeated practice can alter the direction of a life, including academic choices and professional purpose. Her example is especially useful because it moves from private experience to public-facing work without losing the discipline that made the practice meaningful in the first place.

The formative practices that changed her direction

Easton’s public bio says she studied meditation and Buddhist philosophy at Shedrub Choeker Ling monastery in France, then deepened her practice through philosophy classes and a retreat at Plum Village in southwest France. She also participated in a Vipassana retreat, which broadened the map of traditions and settings that shaped her. These are not abstract spiritual milestones. They are concrete training grounds that show how mindfulness often develops through repeated exposure to communities, teachers, and disciplined environments.

The Plum Village retreat stands out because Easton says it is where she found the tradition that reshaped both her personal life and her academic interests. Plum Village is described as the largest international practice center in the Plum Village tradition, and the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation says there are eleven official mindfulness practice centers in that international network. Easton’s decision to ground most of her practice in the Plum Village tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh places her inside a living lineage, one that continues to draw practitioners, including a Francophone retreat held in New Hamlet from April 3 to April 10, 2026.

For readers trying to understand what made the difference, the answer is not just “more meditation.” It is the combination of study, retreat, and lineage. Easton did not simply add mindfulness to an already-formed identity; she built her understanding through settings that asked her to listen, reflect, and keep returning to the same practice under different conditions.

When meditation changed what she studied

One of the most striking pivots in Easton’s story came after the Plum Village retreat. KVNF says that is when she shifted the focus of her master’s degree in French toward the effects of mindfulness and meditation on language acquisition. Her own bio confirms that she wrote her master’s thesis on meditation and mindfulness in language acquisition. That move matters because it shows mindfulness crossing over from personal support into academic inquiry.

This is the kind of turning point many practitioners recognize, even if the details differ. A practice starts as relief, steadiness, or curiosity, then begins influencing what you pay attention to and what questions seem worth pursuing. In Easton’s case, that meant connecting meditation to language, a field where attention, memory, and perception all matter. The result is a reminder that mindfulness can shape not only how a person feels, but also what that person studies, writes, and ultimately offers to others.

The lesson here is practical: a practice becomes more durable when it starts informing real decisions. Easton’s path shows how a clear commitment can move from the internal to the intellectual, and then outward again into teaching and coaching.

From personal insight to community practice in Montrose

Today, Easton lives in Montrose, Colorado, where she runs New Leaf Mindfulness Coaching at 220 N Stough Ave. The business is listed locally with yoga lessons and meditation services, which reinforces that this is a place-based practice, not just an online brand. New Leaf says it helps clients build and sustain a mindfulness practice by using compassionate self-observation and helping them identify what they need to restore balance to body, mind, and spirit.

That is a meaningful extension of her own journey. The same qualities that helped her make sense of her studies now appear in her coaching work: stepping back, observing with compassion, and responding to what is happening rather than reacting automatically. She also offers group mindfulness and yoga classes, individual coaching, and nature retreats, giving people multiple entry points depending on their comfort level and goals.

The broader context matters too. Tara Mandala, where Easton completed a three-month study internship, describes its Colorado center as a 700-acre Buddhist retreat center outside Pagosa Springs that offers retreats, public events, and volunteer or internship programs. That kind of setting helps explain how Easton’s practice moved from personal learning into a community-oriented model of service. She trained in places built for sustained practice, then brought that experience back into a local business that makes mindfulness accessible to others in everyday life.

What her path offers to anyone starting now

Easton’s story works because it is specific. It does not promise that mindfulness will solve everything, but it does show how a steady practice can become something larger than stress relief. Her trajectory moves through study at Shedrub Choeker Ling monastery, a formative Plum Village retreat, a Vipassana retreat, an internship at Tara Mandala, and now teaching through New Leaf Mindfulness Coaching and *Mindful Reflections*.

If you want to borrow the shape of that path, the takeaway is simple: let practice touch something concrete. A class, a thesis, a coaching session, a retreat, or even a weekly pause on the radio can become the bridge between inner work and outward action. Easton’s story shows that mindfulness becomes most powerful when it changes how you live, what you study, and how you serve.