Posts from the ‘mindfulness & compassion’ Category
Your emotions count!
“If you experience a healthy dose of positivity and you can sustain it, it can also empower and energize you to deal with adversity in a more constructive way. In that sense, resilience and a positive outlook are highly intertwined. If we cultivate our ability to sustain positivity, we are simultaneously cultivating our ability to bounce back from negativity.”
-Pelin Kesebir ( Centre for Healthy minds)
Latest research from the centre of healthy minds run by Richard Davidson builds on his fascinating book the emotional life of your brain. In the book he talks about the links between our emotions (our affect) and our wellbeing. Much of mainstream mindfulness focuses more towards the focus element of mindfulness and our ability to manage our attention. What I love about Richie Davidson’s work is that it focuses on our emotions too and importantly the study of what sustains psychological wellbeing rather than purely focusing on disorders and when things go wrong.
About the course
This course is based on the best selling book: Finding Peace in a Frantic World by Mark Williams and Danny Penman. The course runs over 8 sessions with guided group meditations and exercises that introduce you to the foundations of mindfulness. Each week you will be invited to undertake some home practise which helps you to build a mindfulness practice and build resilience in everyday life. Participants will need to buy the book which is available at bookstores and online.
This course is for the general public and is based on the Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) course developed by Dr Mark Williams and colleagues at the University of Oxford.
On the course, you will learn practices such as the Body Scan, Mindful Movement and Sitting Meditations with the aim of taking what you learn in these practices and applying them in your everyday life.
The course focuses on eight key themes outlined in the best selling book Finding Peace in a Frantic World, all interlinking and building each week through home practice.
Home practise is an integral part of the course, as it enables you to establish the skills that you are learning and apply them and see the benefits in your daily life. Each participant is encouraged to undertake approximately 10-20 minutes daily practice, six days per week, between each class. This at times can be a challenge to fit in and participants are encouraged to be kind with themselves in finding a way to make mindfulness practise work for them. The longer time given to practise the greater the benefits!
The course is most effective if you can try to attend all sessions as each session builds on the previous session. Attendance certificates are given to those that attend 7 or more sessions.
For those interested in training as a mindfulness teacher in schools, this course fulfils one of the prerequisites.
A short video with Jon Kabat-Zinn about why mindfulness is so important in the classroom ( first 3 minutes talks specifically to the classroom)
Interested in finding out bringing mindfulness to your school? I offer dotbfoundations or MBSR/MBCT 8 week pre-requisite courses for teachers in the Essex/Suffolk area and also can train the pawsb course for 7-11 year olds. Find out more about these courses at the mindfulness in schools website
Want to hear a bit more? Listen to Richard Burnett, who designed the dotb course for teenagers (20 minutes)
Have a listen to what Jon Kabat-Zinn has to say about practicing mindfulness in sitting practice or in everyday life. There is a first introductory video and then Jon goes on to talk about the following attitudes which he discussed in his book Full Catastrophe Living:
Non Judging Patience Beginners’s mind Trust Non Striving Acceptance Letting Go Gratitude and Generosity
…and this compilation seems to have missed acceptance!
As many of you are aware, over the last year I have been doing some additional mindfulness training focused on friendship (or loving kindness) and compassion practices. I am now one of the first 20 or so people trained in this new course in the UK while it has been running for a longer time in Europe! I have personally gained so much from these practices- a greater feeling of happiness, a way of self soothing when things get tough and for those of us in the caring and helping professions a way of dealing with the possibilities of burnout from empathy fatigue. Read more
What needs weeding? (let go)
What extra nourishment and sowing do we need to provide? (let in)
Backed up by the latest research on neuroplasticity, taking in the good, mind training, kindness and compassion I can work with individuals, teams and organisations to help to add a bit of fertiliser and/or help you tend a few weeds. So if you fancy a different take on your standard staff training programs, coaching, or team development then do give me a call. I can offer off the shelf and tailored interventions focused around
Staff wellbeing, strengths and happiness
Leadership and management development
Team Development
Coaching and Supervisory skills
Mind training for attention, creativity and self care for adults and children
Compassion and kindness interventions
Creative arts
So if you are an individual, blue chip organisation, small business, charity, school or government organisation I may have something to help. All prices are tailored to sector and ability to pay. Curious?
Got some questions? Then please do get in touch to explore on 07801 246113 or via email heather@mindtrip.co.uk
Know someone that this may interest?… Then please do forward this mail with the links below…
It would be lovely to reconnect with those that I haven’t spoken to for a while even if you don’t have an immediate need!
Wellbeing, compassion and nourishing the positive is going to be the focus of my offering for 2017. I’m 2/3 of the way through my teacher training course on mindfulness based compassionate living which embodies the work of Paul
Gilbert, Kristen Neff, Rick hanson and Barbara Frederickson to name a few. Not to mention the eastern contemplative traditions of Tibetan Buddhism as practised by the Dalai lama and Matthieu Ricard. It’s going to be a good year!
See more about the differences between compassion, loving kindness and mindfulness in this article written by Richie Davidson here
I have been tracking informally over the year participants feedback at the end of the course as to how they feel different as a result of taking the course…While not hugely scientific it is useful to hear what past participants have said. All feedback was collected anonymously as a tick box questionnaire !
100% of people feel more aware
92% of people feel more in touch with themselves
84% felt less anxious
81% felt less stressed
76% of people felt better about themselves and
75% felt more contented
other stats included 66% of people reporting feeling less hijacked by negative moods, 64% appreciate life more and 66% felt their relationships had improved with others
So what are you waiting for? Next course starts 21st April 2017 ! Taster session 10th March 2017. Find out more here
Some lovely feedback from my day of silence at the weekend (November 2016) at Wormingford community education centre. Next day of silence, open to all that have attended an MBSR or MBCT class will be Saturday March 18th. 9.30-3.30:
‘Thankyou for such an interesting and enlightening day. A perfect venue and location. I’d certainly do it again to build on what i have learnt from you’
‘Wormingford is the perfect place to practice mindfulness. Being here in the Autumn we were flooded with colour against the crisp blue sky. The room has beautiful views outdoors and you don’t have to walk far to feel fully engaged in nature.
The day of silence i came away feeling free, calm and at peace. I hadn’t appreciated how much i needed to slow down’
‘A wonderful day being with myself and nature. Carefully and thoughtfully guided. A real pleasure. I’m grateful I’ve been to do it and for the beautiful surroundings’
‘Wormingford is a lovely spot with beautiful views within a short walk, very peaceful. To subside into silence for several hours is a luxury we rarely afford ourselves and brings relaxation of mind and body. A lovely day refreshing old practices and introducing new ones.’
‘A very good day for me, I valued the time outside, gaining the contrast of feeling cold air and then the warmth of sunshine. A world full of colour, rustling leaves and soggy darker leaves under your feet…time thoughts unconsciously evaporating…everything inside was also of great value, the mindfulness practices and i also really stop and listen to the special poems being read. A good day that I can draw on.’