THIS WEBSITE IS CURRENTLY IN THE PROCESS OF BEING CREATED SO PLEASE BEAR WITH ME!
Would you like to experience life more fully and with less stress?
Mindfulness is a life skill, that can be used in an ‘everyday’ way to
- reduce stress, anxiety, overwhelm and burnout
- help us to live through difficulties, such as chronic illness
- enhance our experience of the good things in our lives
- help with focus.
There is a tendency in modern life for us to live in our heads: analysing the past, planning and worrying about the future, storing stress and emotion in our bodies and living on ‘autopilot’, with habitual patterns and behaviours.
Mindfulness is a way of living life with more open awareness, and of living in each ‘present moment’ as it exists. It is a way of becoming aware of our state of being and starting to choose where to focus our attention in an accepting, non-judgemental and non-striving way.
It can help us to regulate our emotions, reduce rumination and self-critical thinking and to develop a kindness towards ourselves and others. When used regularly in daily life, Mindfulness can reduce stress and anxiety, increase productivity, deepen relationships at work and at home and lead to a greater sense of physical and mental wellbeing.
This life skill can be developed through ‘practice’:
- Meditation (‘sitting practice’): cultivate awareness
- Gentle mindful movement: reconnect mind and body
- Informally bringing mindful awareness into our everyday lives, in what we do and in how we respond to situations and events.
Although drawing on ancient philosophies and religions, notably Buddhism, Mindfulness* is a secular practice with no religious affiliation. It was first developed by Jon Kabat Zinn in the late 1970s, as Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), and then further developed by Mark Williams and colleagues into Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). Clinical trials of MBSR and MBCT have established a strong scientific evidence base for Mindfulness in assisting with a wide range of issues such as anxiety, depression and pain.
The 8-week Mindfulness Now programme, which I teach, draws on both MBSR and MBCT to deliver a practical, experiential teaching of mindfulness tools and attitudes, which you can bring into your everyday life. Participants are encouraged to practice Mindfulness during the week between sessions, in a way that fits into their individual lives.
