Born into the surf and skateboard culture of Southern California, Teddi Dean’s life has moved through decades of contemplative practice, shaped by movement, stillness, and a lifelong curiosity about what it means to be fully alive.
In the sun-drenched Southern California of the 1970s, Teddi Dean grew up immersed in surf and skate culture. A sponsored skateboarder, he rode for Vans and joined Powell Peralta’s legendary Bones Brigade, managed by skateboarding pioneer and filmmaker Stacy Peralta.
But beneath the movement, Teddi was searching for something deeper.
While surfing in his youth, Teddi experienced profound moments of awakening, a deep sense of unity, interconnectedness, and expanded awareness. These experiences sparked a lifelong exploration of consciousness, spirituality, and humanity’s search for the sacred.
That curiosity eventually found expression through yoga and meditation. Teddi completed two 200-hour yoga teacher trainings with Jason Crandell. As his practice deepened through yoga, meditation, and Buddhist teachings, the search became less about finding answers and more about learning to be present with the questions.
What resonated most with Teddi in the Buddha’s teachings was their simplicity and practicality, the invitation to experience wisdom not as an idea, but as something personal, embodied, and alive.
Along the way, Teddi received both the Bodhisattva Vow and the Yamantaka Vow from His Holiness the Dalai Lama. His journey also led him to Christian mysticism, where he discovered another language for the timeless questions of love, presence, surrender, and belonging.
Today, Teddi Dean is Head of Mindfulness and Movement at MEA Wisdom, a pioneering wisdom school for midlife, where he oversees his department across its Baja, Mexico and Santa Fe, New Mexico campuses.
His teaching invites us to come home to the body, stillness, and the quiet wisdom within. Through meditation, movement, contemplation, and storytelling, Teddi brings ancient wisdom into modern life, making practice feel less like something to strive for and more like something we can simply step into.
At the heart of his work is a simple belief: beneath the noise of our lives, there is stillness. And everyone, even those who believe they cannot meditate, can find their way there.
Teaching
Mindfulness
One-on-one and group meditation and mindfulness sessions for meeting life as it is. Together we explore stillness, awareness, and the simple practice of learning to pay attention—to the body, the mind, and the life unfolding around us.
Movement
Gentle, grounded yoga rooted in awareness rather than achievement. A practice of listening to the body, moving with attention, and discovering the quiet that can exist within movement.
Sound
Restorative sound baths offer another way into stillness. Through vibration, spaciousness, and deep rest, we allow the body to soften and the need to do anything at all to fall away.
May these teachings support you in meeting the movement of life with an embodied sense of stillness.
You are welcome here.
