Who is Mindfulness for?

Anyone who wishes to increase their general well-being and quality of life. The simple meditation and relaxation techniques can be used anytime and anywhere to help develop peace and ease. Other benefits include a calmer mind, easier breathing, a trust in our innate wisdom, better balance in every-day life and an open, kind heart. Mindfulness enables every-day challenges as well as the bigger hurdles of life to be met with equanimity

What will I expect to learn from the MBSR Course?

The course offers participants an insight into how mindfulness can enrich their and others’ lives. It is an experiential course that requires commitment from participants to understand and embody its simplicity and effectiveness. Through regular guided practice participants bring balance, ease and calm into everyday living.

What support is given in between the meetings?

Participants are provided with spoken guided mindfulness practices CDs to support their home practice as  well as notes covering the topics of each session.

• Sue Weston, mindfulness teacher, has been practicing and teaching meditation, T’ai-Chi and Qigong for many years. She is an accredited Mindfulness Teacher, a member of The Mindfulness Association and currently enrolled on the MSc in Mindfulness Studies course with Aberdeen University and Samyé College.   She was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2006 for her work in Sri Lanka supporting humanitarian causes. In 1999/2000 Sue spent a year in retreat on Holy Isle to help deepen her meditation practice.

More about Mindfulness

Based on Eastern meditative traditions, Mindfulness is a secular practice which is playing an increasingly influential role in modern psychology and the personal development movement. Many people are finding mindfulness practice a support to their general well-being and quality of life.

Through meditation based techniques, mindfulness helps us develop greater concentration at work and play and an ability to get our thoughts and feelings into perspective. Its focus on the here-and-now moment can increase the vibrancy of our everyday experience.

Mindfulness is an innate capacity of the mind to be aware of the present moment in a non-judgemental way and can be developed through systematic training using mindfulness practices. It promotes a way of being and can be developed through systematic training using mindfulness practices. It promotes a way of being that helps us to take care of ourselves and lead healthier lives and enables us to access inner resources for coping effectively with stress, difficulty and illness. It is based on Buddhist meditation techniques, but contemporary training in mindfulness is entirely secular.

The relevance of the transformative potential of mindfulness to contemporary life is now increasingly being recognised and a number of approaches have been developed and researched. Applications of these eight week courses include the management of stress, anxiety, pain, chronic illness, hypertension, heart disease, cancer and prevention of depressive relapse. Such courses are now being used in a range of settings including community care, hospitals, schools, prisons and businesses. The UK National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) has recently endorsed MBCT as an effective treatment for depression relapse. Those who integrate mindfulness into their life report benefits, such as, less stress, greater ease, being more present with self and others and working more creatively with challenges.