About

About Us

Our Story

We became an official nonprofit organization in January 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic struck the world. Our Founder Paula Jane Newman came to meditation as part of an underrepresented group within the wellness community when faced with lifetime chronic pain and sought non mind altering substances as a solution. Throughout her years of experience as a Vedic Meditation teacher she was predominantly providing courses for low income marginalized groups and she felt the call to turn all of her work on a plane of service rather than profit. After many years of contemplating turning the teaching nonprofit, finally in 2019 she filed the application. Paula feels her calling is to facilitate healing solutions for groups and to uplift each person for their higher good in all countries.

During the pandemic of 2020/2021, we brought much healing through laughter with our clean ish comedy shows. This was the beginning of Rise Up Comedy. Now our outreach that not only produces comedy shows that are family friendly, uplifts the talent but can be your comedy acts for your nonprofit or company. Please visit our Rise Up Comedy Page for more information.

We foster the spirit of self sufficiency, honesty, inclusivity, creativity and joy in all of our offerings. We endeavor to inspire our community to listen to their own inner voice and rise to their fullest authentic self.

Aware Meditation offers a variety of stress reduction programs including Meditation, Comedy Healing, Yoga, Wellness Education workshops on Carpal Tunnel, Living in Chronic Pain, Laughter as a healing modality, Anxiety/Depression Cycle, and more.

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Our Amazing Team

Our amazing team is 100% composed of underrepresented or marginalized groups, including women, BIPOC (black, indigenous persons of color), LGBTQ+, individuals with physical and mental disabilities and immigrants. All board positions are unpaid, and members adhere to our code of ethics.

Ashley Ware (they/them), CEO

Ashley was our first student at 6 years old and has never missed a day of practicing our techniques. A star of many of our young and teen videos, they are an ambassador for meditation during family introductions to the practice. Ashley was appointed CEO in hopes of bringing in Generation Z's advocacy for mental health to a more diverse audience. They attest that meditation has helped them with school bullying, academic stress, ADHD, autism, creativity, and strengthened their intuition. Ashley is currently majoring in Interactive Media and Game Design at USC in the School of Cinematic Arts.

Paula Jane Newman, Founder

Paula is known as “the Real Deal." Her honesty and integrity precedes her. She is our lead meditation teacher, Rise Up Comedy outreach head, immigrant, and first-generation college graduate from Carnegie Mellon University. A chronic pain warrior for over 20 years, Paula experienced a debilitating repetitive stress injury (filing/computer work) and sought meditation as an alternative to long term pharmaceutical drug dependency for pain management. Her meditation training required 6,500+ hours including being in Rishikesh, India. Paula is a 200 hour Vinyasa Yoga instructor, motivational/inspirational speaker, performer (comic, corporate improv, voice over artist), has worked on over 100 TV/Film projects and is the author for Vedic Meditation Stories.

She has appeared as our meditation founder for CBS’ GoodDay Sacramento, ABC’s Celebrity Wife Swap (as George Hamilton’s meditation teacher), Fox21's Loving Living Local, numerous podcasts, and various publications. She was invited to the Cambridge University Press’ Bio Ethics in Education conference.

Willie Ware Jr., CFO

Willie found Aware Meditation over 13 years ago after practicing many techniques. He experienced immediate results with improved sleep, more energy and awareness. He is an advocate of meditation for underrepresented groups and is an entrepreneur.

Jane Potelle, Board Secretary

Jane is head of development at TimeFrame Entertainment and a community leader. She is Commissioner of the Glendale Parks, Recreation & Community Services Board, steering committee member of the Glendale Environmental Coalition, a former board member of the Glendale College Parent Education Association and a mum of a very lively 10 year old boy. Jane seeks out community based organizations focused on advancing equity, providing educational opportunities, and unifying collectives.

"This practice has shown immediate results, I highly recommend this to anyone."
- Kelly H.