What can I expect to learn through practising Mindfulness?
Cultivate a new relationship to experience
* Step out of automatic pilot
* Using all the senses to gain awareness
* See thoughts as mental events "metacognitive awareness"
* Adopt an attitude of interest, curiousity, friendliness to experience
* Accept what is here, even if its unwanted
* Notice the wandering mind, acknowledge where the mind went
* Return the wandering mind back to the intended point of focus
* With kindness and compassion towards the self
In the 8 weeks of an MBCT course we cover the following topics in life:
#1 Living on Automatic Pilot
#2 Living in our Heads
#3 Gathering the Scattered Mind
#4 Recognising Aversion
#5 Acceptance, Holding, Allowing, Letting be
#6 Thoughts are NOT facts
#7 How can I best take care of myself?
#8 Maintaining and extending new learning
This foundation course takes us through 12 themes which can explored in more depth by taking
1-2-1 mindfulness classes beyond the 8 week course to deepen, refresh or review your practice.
Approach difficulty and explore it through its expression in the body
* Notice habitual patterns of thinking and feeling and how the body reacts
* Handle each moment as best you can
* What do I need for myself right now? How can I best take care of myself right now?
* Become aware of reactions that tend to deepen distress and contribute to its persistence
* Observe thoughts without reacting
* Acknowledge them
Bring all this practice into your everyday life with the Three-step Breathing Space
* Awareness of immediate experience - thoughts sensations and emotions
* Decenter and ground through focussed attention to the breath
* Take a broader more spacious perspective to everyday life
Click here to read Sophie Jane's blog posts on
an introductory talk, mindfulness made easy
resilience at work mindfulness and singing