ABOUT MINDFULNESS
Do you feel overwhelmed by the speed of life and the amount of things you need to fit into a day. Are you suffering from physical or emotional pain or simply the sensation of life becoming increasingly overwhelming or meaningless? If any of these scenarios are familiar then Mindfulness may be something for you.
By training the attention and cultivating compassion towards oneself and others, Mindfulness can help reduce stress, improve the quality of sleep, increase clarity of thinking and help in making better choices by focusing on the things that are important and letting go of those that aren’t.
Get a taster of the peace of mind Mindfulness can bring
At the core of Mindfulness is the practice of meditation. To get a taster of the calm and peace of mind that Mindfulness can bring you could begin by trying a guided meditation practice.
In this meditation we establish a sense of grounding, become more aware of the nature of the breath and learn how to respond to the repeated wanderings of the mind.
WHAT IS MINDFULNESS?
Respond more consciously and creatively to life
Mindfulness is the practice of paying attention on purpose in the present moment, with an attitude of non judgemental kindness towards ourselves and our experience. It is simple but not easy. It is innate but underdeveloped.
The practice of Mindfulness is an opportunity to slow down and pay attention to how the body, mind, and emotions actually operate in real time, in this moment.
This is done through formal Mindfulness meditation practices and bringing Mindfulness into everyday life.
The formal practices include the body scan meditation, awareness of the breath, thoughts and sounds meditations and mindful movement, all of which direct the attention inwardly.
We learn to bring this mindful awareness into our lives by paying attention and bringing present-moment awareness to everyday activities. To do this we don’t have to stop what we are normally doing to be mindful. This is key to the trans-formative potential of the courses.
Stress re-activity, the feeling of being stressed and pressured, is in many cases a bad habit. Mindfulness encourages us to investigate our direct experiences of living, working, and relating to others and through this learning to recognise the habit patterns that may be contributing to our suffering.
All these practices are restorative and help physiologically regulate the nervous system. The power to self-regulate the nervous system and the power to re-pattern our neurological pathways is now known to be measurable and teachable.
Contemporary Mindfulness has made these inner resources accessible through the development of a learnable format .
About the research:
Mindfulness-based approaches have proven effective in decreasing symptoms of anxiety (Miller, Fletcher, and Kabat-Zinn 1995), obsessive-compulsive disorder (Baxter et al. 1992), and chronic pain ( Kabat-Zinn, Chapman, and Salmon 1987).
They have also been shown to be helpful in reducing the detrimental effects of psoriasis (Kabat-Zinn et al., 1998), increasing a sense of empathy and spirituality (Shapiro, Schwartz, and Bonner 1998), increasing well-being (Brown and Ryan 2003), preventing relapse in depression (Segal et al. 2007) and drug addiction (Parks, Anderson, and Marlatt 2001), and decreasing stress and enhancing quality of life for those struggling with breast and prostate cancer (Carlson, L., et al. 2007).
Summarised by Bob Stahl, Ph.D.
Recommendations
Resources to help you sustain your Mindfulness practice and develop awareness. Audio, Books, retreat centres, Other mindfulness/ Buddhist organisations that offer follow-up support:
Free Mindfulness guided Meditations
English:
- Mindfulnesscourses Robin’s guided meditations
- Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice uk (50 or more free guided meditations)
- Peace in a frantic world (all the meditations from the Peace in a Frantic World course
- Brussels Mindfulness Guided Meditations from the 8-Week course
French:
Méditation guidée de Jon Kabat-Zinn (youTube)
Retreats and follow ups events to help sustain your practice
- Mindfulness Retreats at The Mindfulness Network (In English, UK)
- Mindfulness Association Belgium ( In English, Brussels)
- Gaia House Uk ( In English, Uk)
- Brussels Mindfulness Agenda (in English, Brussels)
Books
- Mindfulness: Diverse Perspectives on its Meaning, Origins and Applications Edited by Mark Williams and Jon Kabat-Zinn
- Brach, Tara. Radical Acceptance.
- Brach, Tara. True Refuge
- Brantley, Jeffrey. Calming Your Anxious Mind: How Mindfulness and Compassion Can Free You from Anxiety, Fear, and Panic.
- Germer, Christopher. The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion: Freeing Yourself from Destructive Thoughts and Emotions.
- Guanaratana, Bhante: Mindfulness in Plain English.
- Harris, Russ. The Happiness Trap (Based on ACT: A revolutionary mindfulness-based programme or overcoming stress, anxiety and depression).
- Kabat-Zinn, Jon. Full Catastrophe Living.
- Kabat-Zinn, Jon. Wherever you Go there you Are.
- Kornfield, Jack. After the Ecstasy, the Laundry.
- Neff, Kristin. Self-Compassion.
- Salzberg, Sharon. Real Happiness at Work: Meditations for Accomplishment, Achievement, and Peace.
- Siegel, Ronald D. The Mindfulness Solution: Everyday Practices for Everyday Problems.
- John Teasdale, Mark Williams and Zindel Segal.The Mindful Way Workbook: An 8-Week Program to Free Yourself from Depression and Emotional Distress
- Williams, Mark: The Mindful Way Through Depression
- Williams, Mark: Mindfulness: Finding Peace in a Frantic World.
- Mindfulness: Finding Peace in a Frantic World by Mark Williams and Danny Penman
- Mark Williams and Jon Kabat-Zinn, Mindfulness: Diverse Perspectives on its Meaning, Origins and Applications.
Apps
- Oxford Mindfulness Centre App
- Insight Timer App
- Eat Right Now App
- http://www.umassmed.edu/cfm
- http://www.franticworld.com
Buddhist studies
- Bodhi College, early Buddhist teachings
- suttacentral.net – The most comprehensive site for comparative work, multiple translations available.
- accesstoinsight.org – An excellent site with many sutta translations and texts pertaining to the Pali tradition.
- dharmaseed.org – Regularly updated collection of dharma talks, including talks by the core faculty teachers from Bhodi college.
- dharmafarer.org – Great collection of Piya Tan’s Sutta Study materials.
ROBIN’S TRAINING
Robin is trained to the highest standard in compliance with the UK network for teacher trainers and with an accredited Post Graduate qualification as a Mindfulness instructor from the University of Exeter.
Robin has an accredited Post Graduate qualification as a Mindfulness instructor from the University of Exeter and is trained to the highest standard in compliance with the UK network of Mindfulness teacher trainer guidelines.
Robins Experience of Mindfulness started 13 years ago when she visited Thich Nhat Hanh’s Mindfulness practice center Plum Village in France for a one week retreat. This immersion into Mindfulness radically changed her perspective on life and since then, as well as establishing a personal daily mindfulness practice and instigating and leading a meditation support group that met for practice every week at her home in Brussels, she also spends a few weeks a year on retreat at Plum village or Gaia house .
Although Robin’s professional background is broadcast journalism, with a career spanning more than 20 years, her desire to make the teachings of mindfulness available to a broader public led her to return to university to study at one of the top Mindfulness teacher-training programs in Europe, the MSc Psychological Therapies Practice and Research (Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapies and Approaches) at Exeter University
This 4-year program provides her with an extensive preparation for teaching both Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). This includes the study of Neuroscience, Buddhist psychology and Cognitive Behavioural therapy, all important elements of the 8-week Mindfulness program.
ABOUT Robin Creswell-Faure
Robin has an accredited Post Graduate qualification as a Mindfulness instructor from the University of Exeter and is trained to the highest standard in compliance with the UK network of Mindfulness teacher trainer guidelines.
Robins Experience of Mindfulness started 13 years ago when she visited Thich Nhat Hanh’s Mindfulness practice center Plum Village in France for a one week retreat. This immersion into Mindfulness radically changed her perspective on life and since then, as well as establishing a personal daily mindfulness practice and instigating and leading a meditation support group that met for practice every week at her home in Brussels, she also spends a few weeks a year on retreat at Plum village or Gaia house .
Although Robin’s professional background is broadcast journalism, with a career spanning more than 20 years, her desire to make the teachings of mindfulness available to a broader public led her to return to university to study at one of the top Mindfulness teacher-training programs in Europe, the MSc Psychological Therapies Practice and Research (Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapies and Approaches) at Exeter University
This 3-year program provides her with an extensive preparation for teaching both Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). This includes the study of Neuroscience, Buddhist psychology and Cognitive Behavioural therapy, all important elements of the 8-week Mindfulness program.