Mindful Monkey.

Mindfulness: 10 Week Course – Starting in Coalville

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There is growing evidence to suggest that mindfulness can bring about a wide range of improvements in physical, psychological and emotional well-being. Typically these benefits build up over a number of weeks of sustained practice.

The West Leicestershire NHS Clinical Commissioning Group have enabled us to deliver mindfulness courses around Leicestershire during 2016 and 2017. Our next journey into mindfulness will be starting on in September and will take place in Coalville at Marlene Reid Centre. Is this the right time for you to join us?

There will be a taster session on Sunday 14.1.18. This is an opportunity for you to come and find out more about the course before signing up.

The course will then run every Sunday 1:00 to 4:00 pm over a period of 10 weeks. The course is free, if you would like to come along or refer someone else then contact:

Jit Singh
Project Manager
Mindful Mentoring
Phone: 07939 199 549
Email: info@go-getta.org.uk

Venue: Marlene Reid Centre, 85 Belvoir Road, Coalville, LE67 3PH

Dates: Tater Session: 14.1.18 – 1:00 to 3:00 pm

Course Start Date: 21.1.18

A bit more about the course

If you want to learn how to cultivate mindfulness and are willing to do some daily practice between course meetings, then this course is for you. With a small group of people we will be guiding you through a set of mindfulness practices; starting with the breath through to mindfulness of body, thoughts emotions and self-acceptance. You will be given recordings and instructions on how to practice in between the meetings. What you learn on the course can become a resource that you can carry into the rest of your life.

The course is run in partnership with Go-Getta CIC, a social enterprise established in 2012 that works with communities to improve outcomes for young people and vulnerable adults.

This 10 week mindfulness course is combined with additional support to form Mindful Mentoring which aims to help people improve their emotional wellbeing, mental health and social functioning.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Mindfulness: 10 Week Course – Starting in Loughborough

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There is growing evidence to suggest that mindfulness can bring about a wide range of improvements in physical, psychological and emotional well-being. Typically these benefits build up over a number of weeks of sustained practice.

The West Leicestershire NHS Clinical Commissioning Group have enabled us to deliver mindfulness courses around Leicestershire during 2016 and 2017. Our next journey into mindfulness will be starting on in September and will take place at Loughborough Leisure Centre. Is this the right time for you to join us?

There will be a taster session on Sunday 10.9.17. This is an opportunity for you to come and find out more about the course before signing up.

The course will then run every Sunday 1:00 to 4:00 pm over a period of 10 weeks. The course is free, if you would like to come along or refer someone else then contact:

Jit Singh
Project Manager
Mindful Mentoring
Phone: 07939 199 549
Email: info@go-getta.org.uk

Venue: Loughborough Leisure Centre, Browns Lane, Loughborough, LE11 3HE

Dates: Tater Session: 10.9.17 – 1:00 to 3:00 pm

Course Start Date: 17.9.17

A bit more about the course

If you want to explore mindfulness at a deeper level and are willing to do some daily practice between course meetings, then this course is for you. With a small group of people we will be guiding you through a set of mindfulness practices; starting with the breath through to cultivating self-acceptance. You will be given recordings and instructions on how to practice in between the meetings. What you learn on the course can become a resource that you can carry into the rest of your life.

The course is run in partnership with Go-Getta CIC, a social enterprise established in 2012 that works with communities to improve outcomes for young people and vulnerable adults.

This 10 week mindfulness course is combined with additional support to form Mindful Mentoring which aims to help people improve their emotional wellbeing, mental health and social functioning.

We look forward to seeing you there.

A new publication from the Mindfulness Initiative – The mindful workplace

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Building the Case for Mindfulness in the Workplace

Building the Case cover

One year after the Mindfulness All-Party Parliamentary Group released its seminal Mindful Nation UK report, the Mindfulness Initiative has launched a new publication: ‘Building the Case for Mindfulness in the Workplace’.

“The document is primarily intended as a resource for those developing a business case for mindfulness training within their own organisation. It provides an updated summary of the research evidence, narrative rationales addressing different organisational needs, case studies and a range of toolkits to help with programme planning, implementation and evaluation”

In my conversations with colleagues in services from eduction, health, drug & alcohol services and social care (and beyond) it seems that stress is pretty much universal. People love the work they do but not so much the pressure from targets and paperwork. So this report is one part of the discussion about how we can cope better.

Of course there is also the discussion to be had about organising things in a more streamlined way, and trusting practitioners’ commitment and knowledge rather then the current ‘top-down’ way of doing things. We can come back to that discussion at another time.

 

 

Mindfulness: 10 Week Course – Starting in Coalville

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Those nice people at West Leicestershire NHS Clinical Commissioning Group have enabled us to deliver mindfulness courses around Leicestershire during 2016 and 2017.

Our next journey into mindfulness will be starting on 5.2.17. Is this the right time for you to join us?

This 10 week mindfulness course is combined with additional support to form Mindful Mentoring which aims to help people improve their emotional wellbeing, mental health and social functioning. Each course will run every Sunday 1:00 to 4:00 pm over a period of 10 weeks.

It has been a pleasure to work with the people who have joined us for the two courses so far. The next course starts in Coalville, and will take place at the Marlene Reid Centre 85 Belvoir Road,
Coalville, LE67 3PH

There will be a taster session on 29.1.17 so you can just pop in and find out more. The course is free, if you would like to refer someone you are working with (or want to refer yourself) then to book your place or get more information call or text:

Jit Singh
Project Manager
Mindful Mentoring

Phone: 07939 199 549
Email: info@go-getta.org.uk
          

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Mindfulness – The 10 Week Course

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There is growing evidence to suggest that mindfulness can bring about a wide range of improvements in physical, psychological and emotional well-being. Typically these benefits build up over a number of weeks of sustained practice.

If you want to explore mindfulness at a deeper level and are willing to do some daily practice between course meetings, then this course is for you. With a small group of people we will be guiding you through a set of mindfulness practices; starting with the Breath through to cultivating Self-Acceptance. You will be given recordings and instruction on how to practice in between the meetings. These can then become a resource that you can carry into the rest of your life.

There will be a taster day on Sunday 2nd of October. This is an opportunity for you to come and find out more about the course before signing up. The course will then run for 10 sessions, every Sunday 1:00 to 4:00 pm starting on on the 9th of October 2016 at Loughborough Leisure Centre, Browns Lane, Loughborough, LE11 3HE

To book your place or get more information call or text Jit Singh on 07939 199 549 or email info@go-getta.org.uk

 

Mindfulness: 10 Week Course – Starting in Loughborough

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19778710656-17066023-5

Our next journey into mindfulness will be starting on 2.10.16. Is this the right time for you to join us? Those nice people at West Leicestershire NHS Clinical Commissioning Group have enabled me to deliver mindfulness courses around Leicestershire during 2016 and 2017.

This 10 week mindfulness course is combined with additional support to form Mindful Mentoring which aims to help people improve their emotional wellbeing, mental health and social functioning.

Each course will run on Sunday afternoons over a period of 10 weeks. The first course in Hinckley in now coming to an end. It has been a pleasure to work with the people who have joined us for this course.

The next course starts in Loughborough, and will take place at Loughborough Leisure Centre. There will be a taster session on 2.10.16 so you can just pop in and find out more. The course is free, if you would like to refer someone you are working with (or want to refer yourself) then contact:

Jit Singh
Project Manager
Mindful Mentoring
Email: info@go-getta.org.uk

Mindfulness courses in Leicestershire

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Those nice people at West Leicestershire NHS Clinical Commissioning Group have enabled me to deliver mindfulness courses around Leicestershire during 2016 and 2017.

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I am doing this in partnership with Go-Getta CIC, a social enterprise established in 2012 that works with communities to improve outcomes for young people and vulnerable adults.

Mindful MentoringThe 10 week mindfulness course is combined with additional support to form Mindful Mentoring which aims to help individuals achieve improved outcomes around their emotional wellbeing and mental health

Each course will run on Sunday afternoons over a period of 10 weeks. The first course is now up and running in Hinckley. The next course starts in Charnwood. There will be a taster session on 2.10.16. Then in January 2017 the course will be running in Coalville.

If you would like to refer someone you are working with (or want to refer yourself) then contact:
Jit Singh
Project Manager
Mindful Mentoring
Email: info@go-getta.org.uk

Attending to your own health and mental well being

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It seems that not a week goes by without another piece of research on mindfulness in the news (actually there are many more each month, these are just the tip of the iceberg).

One study with 16 to 17 year old sixth formers, suggests that school-based mindfulness may improve attention and reduce self critical thinking. In teenagers! Sounds pretty good to me.

The researcher in this study who happens to be the supervisor on my MSc research has also done a previous study which showed that Mindfulness improved school grades and reduced stress in school students.

More generally, another study by the Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital found that Meditative practices could reduce the need for healthcare services by just under a half.

So, here is yet more evidence that mindfulness helps with physical and mental health. Given the way things are going with health services, and in particular Mental Health Services, it would seem like a really good idea to take control of your own health: being kind to others, doing some exercise, eating mindfully and doing some mindfulness practice seems to be the way forward. Of course reading about it is nice, but actually doing some practice is the way to get the benefits. If you can get to Leicester then sign up for our course that starts on the 20th of March.

Learning to listen to the body

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Arial view of nice trees

Everywhere we look, it seems that dieting is endemic. If you happen to ask a dieter what they would like to eat, the answer is an inventory of what they have had during the last day or so.

As they try to work out the answer to your question, they tally up what they have been eating. It seems as if they have lost touch with the most important source of information – the messages from the body in answer to the questions: “are you hungry?” “what do you feel like eating?”

Using ‘will power’ and tallying up calories leads people to think about food all the time except when they are eating. Can you see how the other way round, eating with awareness, would be more helpful?

It is as if we are losing touch with the messages coming from the body: about hunger or fullness. There is an innate wisdom of the body which is telling us when to eat, what to eat and when to stop. We need to get back in touch with this.

Mindfulness offers us a way to learn to listen to our inner wisdom. There is growing research that supports mindful eating as a way forward.

Food is very commonly a way of managing emotions. If you are not so sure about this, stop and think for a few moments about how you eat, particularly sweet things. And sometimes this seems to have a compulsivity which looks very similar to drugs. Of course this should come as no surprise, because the psychological mechanisms are the same.

Increasing the ability to listen to our emotions and manage them more skilfully is one of the key benefits of mindfulness practice. As well as the formal mindfulness practices, one of the things we can do is to practise mindful eating once a day. Don’t expect this to be easy! Start with something simple like a cup of tea or eating an apple or a biscuit and build up from there. This will help to develop the skills needed to tune into the feedback that shows us the way. Not will power, but utilising the gentle wisdom of our body to tell us what feels right.

Turning Towards our experience…

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A friend of mine once explained to me that the attraction of Opiate use is that it makes a person feel ‘inviolable’. Clearly this is not just about drugs, it is pointing to something central in the human condition: our capacity to suffer and our desire to escape suffering. Surely this is the logical thing to do…

Yet it seems that all the things we do to escape suffering seem to increase it: avoidance behaviours, addictions (many other things besides drugs for example eating, shopping) and sadly, for some, hurting others! So what is the alternative to going with the automatic, knee jerk responses of trying to escape from what we feel.

Basically this involves ‘turning towards’ the experience, finding a way to ‘be with’ the difficult feeling. Initially this seems counterintuitive, why would this help? And indeed it is not at all clear how we might deliberately do this. To understand this we need to approach it more directly, through the body and senses, experientially.

In mindfulness practice we learn to turn towards our experience in ‘this moment’, starting with everyday things like the breath, sensations in the body, sounds. This helps to build the mental skill to ‘be with’ things; neither getting carried away with them nor bouncing off them. With practice this becomes a valuable skill in dealing with difficult feelings and thoughts.

This is why Mindfulness is not about relaxation (although the experience can of course be relaxing and calming) it is about learning to attend to things in a new way that sets us on the path to wiser, more compassionate responses and healing.

I will explore this further in future posts.

Why We Created This Space

Over the years we came across lots of people who resonated with some of our ideas. So we decided to find a way to continue our dialogue.

A growing community of people have been coming to the same conclusions: That having more ‘things’ does not correlate well with fulfilment. Instead mindful living, positive relationships and being involved in activities that contribute to the well-being of others seem to help us feel better about ourselves and the world.

This seems to be pointing to something essential. Wellbeing stems from our connection with ourselves, other people and the natural world. We want to be one small voice that adds to this discussion. Mindful-monkey is a space to find ideas and resources, so stay in touch by subscribing to our newsletter or by 'liking' our Facebook page below. Read more about us.

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