Mindfulness Now 8 week Programme - October Start

Are you interested in discovering the potential of Mindfulness to support your wellbeing? Maybe you have already tried mindfulness or meditation and not sure where to go now or maybe you are already a practicioner but want to develop your individual practice. For any of these our Mindfulness Now 8 week programme could be right for you.

Mindfulness Now is a structures 8 week programme offering a fusion of mindfulness based approaches including evidence based, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). 

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). This provides an integration of mindfulness meditation with proven psychotherapeutic approaches into an accessible and evidence based approach which has been taught worldwide.

MBCT was developed by Dr Mark Williams and colleagues of the University of Oxford and the Oxford Mindfulness Centre, offers a breakthrough in the clinical treatment of depression, anxiety and emotional trauma and is recommended by ‘NICE’ as a treatment of choice for depression.

History of mindfulness

Have you noticed how mindfulness really seems to be in vogue? This delights me, as a practitioner that something I have been practicing for years, and encouraging others to practice, the scientific and medical communities have taken to their hearts over recent years, resulting in brilliant scientific research and proven methodologies of working. 

Mindfulness is a wonderful way to learn how to relax. It can also help with many physical and emotional disorders including depression, anxiety, pain and stress.

Mindfulness meditation draws upon the 2,500 year legacy of mindfulness teaching within religious / philosphical traditions including Buddhism. Indeed for many the thought of mindfulness meditation brings up images of monks in flowing saffron robes sitting cross legged and seeking enlightenment. 

Many people may comment ‘Oh I could never do with that sitting and doing nothing – it would drive me mad!' Nevertheless most people seem to embrace mindfulness as a completely benign and non-threatening way of achieving change.

During the 8 week programme you will learn different forms of mindfulness which can be narrowed down to two primary types – formal and informal. Both hold an intention for us to encourage awareness and focus whether of, for example, our breathing, or our physical sensations, or of our emotional feelings. We learn to do this formally within structured and regularly repeated meditation sessions, or in a completely informal way, becoming more ‘present’ in our relationships, our eating, our day to day work etc.

Some of the benefits of mindfulness documented in research;

There is published scientific evidence that mindfulness can assist with:

· Stress reduction

· Clarity and focus

· Greater resilience

· Enhanced creativity

· Improved relationships

· Improved concentration

· Rapport and communication

· Improved health and wellbeing

· Greater confidence and self-esteem

· Ability to have better quality sleep

· Reduced anxiety and depression

· Improved work-life balance

· Greater work satisfaction

· Memory enhancement

· Intuitive ability

· Pain reduction

What to expect from the sessions;

For full details please look at event schedule, however you can expect to work with a maximum group size of 10, for safety and engagement all delegates will be expected to interact on camera and with a microphone, this is the equivelant of joining a group in a face to face setting. 

Session will run each friday 9:30am to 11am, starting on Friday 15th October and running until Friday December 3rd.

Sessions will be relaxed and non confrontational, you will not be instructed to sit, breathe or act in a specific way, rather you will be encouraged to observe your breathing and choose a posture that is confortable for you while meditation takes place.

At the end of each session you will be assigned homework to develop your personal practice and audio recordings of the session meditations.

Your Mindfulness Now teacher;

Adrian will lead your weekly sessions, he has been a mental health first aid instructor, wellbeing advocate and mindful practioner for many years, he brings empathy and passion to all he does and strongly believes that everyone can benefit from developing their own mindfulness practice.