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Mindfulness for Stress Management

 

“You can’t stop the waves,

but you can learn to surf”

~ Jon Kabat-Zinn

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In the Mindfulness for Stress Management Course you will have access to effective strategies to help you deal with the complexity and pace of modern life, within a supportive small group setting. You will be introduced to ways for reducing stress and anxiety; become more resilient, calmer and motivated. The course aims to assist you to gradually integrate mindfulness in all aspects of your life, giving you more choice on how to respond with the daily challenges life keeps presenting us with. Here you can discover how, with mindfulness it is possible to manage repetitive, unhelpful thoughts in response to stressful situations, and to enhance the quality of your life.

 

Who is the course for?  

This course is for anyone who is experiencing stress of any kind – be it related to work, relationships, loss or other factors outside of their control. It is also suitable for those who are experiencing on-going low mood, anxiety or mild depression. For beginners who want to explore mindfulness in a structured way and experience the benefits and the creativity that cultivating it can offer them. For people who have already completed the 8 week mindfulness course a while back and wish to re-kindle their mindfulness practice and remind themselves of the benefits of a consistent practice.

 

Course aim

Mindfulness for Stress Management aims to assist you to relate differently to your experience of stress and anxiety by teaching mindfulness strategies and practices that enable you to decrease the sense of overwhelm, to increase your focus, to grow resilience to challenging situations and improve your relationship with yourself and others. To help you to achieve this you are introduced to four main meditations:

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The body scan

  • Breath awareness

  • Mindful Movement

  • Kindness meditation

and

  • Mindfulness in daily life which includes a number of small meditations (micro-practices) that reduce stress while going about your daily activities.

  • New ideas and ways of looking at problems that can transform the way you experience your life’s challenges.

 

What does the course include?

18 hours of mindfulness tuition by a qualified mindfulness trainer

  • A course handbook

  • CDs/Recordings containing several mindfulness meditations to support your practice

  • Additional support assistant  to provide extra assistance during sessions

  • Email support between sessions

 

For joining the course there is a commitment to practice 30-40 minute daily meditations, learned in class, at home, supported by the CD from the course book and a workbook to record your experiences.

 

Course Formats Available

Currently we are offering three formats of this course in South Devon:  

  • 8 weeks evening class, plus a day (Saturday) of practice

  • One2One (in person or on Zoom)

  • 4 days (Saturdays) – once a fortnight where you learn one week

         of the course in the morning and the next in the afternoon.

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Please note: This course is not suitable if you are suffering from acute depression and mental illness, nor is it a substitute for counselling or group therapy. If you are concerned if the course is for you please contact us to discuss your situation.                                                                                                    

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Mindfulness for Health

 

In this course you are introduced to mindfulness skills and approaches to manage any chronic pain or illness, fatigue and associated stress you may be experiencing, within the setting of a small supportive group.  It provides both formal & informal mindfulness practices, the use of an activity diary and teaching on pacing guidelines to improve quality of life and sense of wellbeing.  

 

Who is the course for?

People who have been helped so far by these courses have included  those living with chronic back pain, fibromyalgia, stress, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, neuropathies, Parkinson’s disease, ME, diabetes, post-operative pain and many other conditions  that involves persistent pain or regular painful episodes. Carers have also found the course useful and inspiring.

 

Course aim

The intention of the course is not to make pain disappear (although most people who complete the 8 week programme report a substantial reduction in pain, tension and fatigue) but to transform one’s relationship with it, such that it no longer is a continual debilitating factor in one’s life. It allows one to get on with life and not be restricted by one’s health condition, as may have been the case before. This is done through learning new mindfulness strategies and meditations as in:

 

  • How to manage pain, illness and stress in daily life

  • Breath and body awareness meditation

  • Gentle mindful movement and relaxation

  • How mindfulness can  help to retrain our thoughts and emotions

  • Mindfulness meditations practices including fostering kindness 

       to self (before self-blame) and empathy towards others

 

We will also look at the issues that arise when dealing with on-going health difficulties, assess the impact our daily activities (or non-activities) have on our health, learn how to pace ourselves and to enjoy a more balanced lifestyle.

 

What does this course include?

  • 22 hours of mindfulness tuition by an accredited trainer

  • Full use of all meditation equipment during sessions

  • Mindfulness for Health Book (the main reading material for this course) that includes the main course CD

  • A course handbook

  • CDs/Recordings containing several mindfulness meditations to support your practice

  • Additional support assistant to provide extra assistance during sessions

  • Email support between sessions

 

For joining the course there is a commitment to practice 30-40 minutes daily meditations learned in class at home, supported by the CD from the course book and a workbook to record your experiences.

 

Please note: This course is not suitable if you are suffering from acute depression and mental illness, nor is it a substitute for counselling or group therapy. Please contact us to discuss your situation.                                                                                                    

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“Whether you suffer with chronic pain or illness, treat

those who suffer, or care for a loved one who does,

the Breathworks methods could radically change

your life for the better”

 

Lance M MacCracken 

Professor of Behavioural Medicine,

Kings College, London

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