Mindfulness – 8 week MBSR
Overview
It’s a proven way to gain a solid foundation in mindfulness as a way of living and meditation as a daily resource, to ease stress, improve overall health, and open the door to greater well-being and joy. The course is for everyone, beginners or those seeking to deepen their practice.
This course follows faithfully the programme developed and recently updated by Jon Kabat-Zinn and Browns University. This unique world renowned curriculum has been clinically proven to be highly effective in working with a range of physical and psychological problems, as well as improving levels of wellbeing, joy and ease.
In mindfulness we bring gentle friendly curiosity to what is happening in our experience moment by moment. We start to see how much we are driven by habit patterns and beliefs that we are barely conscious of and find new choices about how to respond in any situation. We recover an inner steadiness whatever the external weather.
It suits anyone who wants to:
- move from stress reactivity to stress responding
- befriend your emotions
- experience more joy and gratitude
- communicate more skillfully and resolve conflict
- enhance mind-body healing
- find more ease with chronic pain
Each themed session includes meditations, group discussions and topics. You will be introduced to practices exploring the body and breath in stillness and in gentle movement, as well ways to integrate mindfulness in our daily lives. Booking is by application so I can make sure that the course is a good fit for you, at this time.
The cost includes:
- An initial 30 min post application individual telephone orientation session
- 8 x 2hr 45 min classes with tea break
- 1 x 6hr Retreat Day
- unique audio to practice with at home each day
- an original course handbook to support your learning
- individual support throughout via email or phone
Additional details – all sessions include 15 min tea break; chairs, mats, cushions and blankets are provided in clean, comfortable and spacious meeting room.
- When - Oct 4th to 6th December,
with breaks on 25th Oct and 22nd Nov - Time - 6.30 – 9.15pm + Retreat Day 10 – 4pm TBC
- Where - The Quaker Centre, Kingston
- Cost - £310 – please contact me for concessions
- Availability - 14 places
Mindful Self-Compassion – 8 week MSC
Overview
This training is a powerful tool for emotional growth, resourcing us to face inevitable challenges and to embrace life more wholeheartedly. For many people this is an excellent beginner course, but it also complements any prior mindfulness training. Self-compassion is the practice of repeatedly evoking good will toward ourselves especially when we’re struggling – cultivating the same wish for ourselves that all living beings have, to live happily and free from suffering.
This is an empirically supported 8-week course developed by Christopher Germer PhD and Kristin Neff PhD. Primarily a compassion training programme rather than a meditation course the intention is for participants to directly experience self-compassion and learn practices that can be applied straight away in daily life – where we really need it!
Self-compassion is the practice of repeatedly evoking good will toward ourselves especially when we’re struggling – cultivating the same wish for ourselves that all living beings have, to live happily and free from suffering.
Over time we develop more inner strength and resilience, allowing us for e.g. to offer ourselves the kindness and understanding we offer others at difficult times, motivate ourselves to change, have the courage to hold boundaries, forgive ourselves and others more often, not lose ourselves when caring for others and be more authentic in relationships.
A sense of well-being and ease begins to emerge, whatever we have gone through in the past and whatever hardships we may be facing now, reducing anxiety, depression and the nagging underlying insecurity that is familiar to so many of us.
As our ability to experience compassion for ourselves increases, so does our ability to relate to others in the same way
There are 8 classes and a half-day or 6 hr retreat. Each session features meditations, daily life practices, self-reflective exercises, and group sharing. A workbook and my own guided meditations complement the in-class learning.
MSC is therapeutic, but it’s not therapy insofar as the emphasis is on building emotional resources, rather than addressing old wounds. Positive change occurs naturally as we develop the capacity to be with ourselves in a kinder, more compassionate way.
You will learn:
- to stop being so hard on yourself
- to handle difficult emotions with greater ease
- to motivate yourself with encouragement rather than criticism
- to transform difficult relationships, both old and new
- to become your own best teacher
Additional details – all sessions include 15 min tea break; concessions are available please contact the Mindfulness Project to discuss.
- When - Mondays 19th September - 14th November 2022 (break: 24. October)
- Time - 10 – 12.30pm
- Retreat Day - Sunday, 13. November 10am-4pm
- Where - Online
- Cost - £325
- Availability - 12 places