COLTON -- Finding Peace in the Midst of Chaos, a class for developing skills in meditation and mindful attention, will be held at Five Elements Living in Colton, on Monday evenings from 6-8 p.m., beginning Monday, Oct. 21 and ending Nov. 25.

This approach to mental wellness will give participants tools to use for day-to-day upsets and challenges anywhere and anytime.

This class is a mixture of both sitting and walking meditation, breathwork, and the use of an "emotional toolbox."

This "toolbox" is a collection of many practical strategies for self-calming; replacing obsessive, negative or self-critical thought patterns with alternate and more positive ones; and maintaining or quickly returning to a calm state even when "the flat tire" happens at just the wrong time.

While these strategies are helpful on their own, a meditation practice goes hand-in-hand with them and helps make them a way of life.

Each week participants can look forward to developing a kinder inner voice and a deepening sense of peace that comes as the mind learns to live with calm instead of stress, even in chaotic times.

The class is led by Ginger Storey-Welch, who has introduced meditation to many people and has a wide range of suggestions on how to utilize various meditation supplies and techniques to best suit individual needs.

Storey-Welch has been a practitioner of Zen meditation for 20 years and attends 4-5 meditation retreats per year at both the Zen Center of Syracuse and Dai Bosatsu Zen Center in the Catskills.

For more than 20 years she has led the North Country Zen Group on the St. Lawrence University campus, she has introduced a large number of students and community members to meditation and was recently referred to as "our best teacher of meditation" on campus by Professor Mark MacWilliams.

She has also taught meditation at the Yoga Loft and at Five Elements Living in the past as well. She specializes in showing ways that meditation can become a tool to enhance one's ability to live a more peaceful life.

Register at fiveelementsliving.com (scroll to “Upcoming Events”) or call 315-262-2622.