This certificated course is an introduction to mindfulness practices; no prior experience is necessary and for those who already have their own practice this course would be a good way of reconnecting with the foundations of mindfulness. This 8 week MBSR course is recognised as a valid starting point for further mindfulness training with the main mindfulness centres at Bangor, Exeter and Oxford universities as well as other further mindfulness training providers such as the Mindfulness in Schools Project.

You will be taught by Faiy Rushton who is an experienced mindfulness teacher, trainer and supervisor. She is on the TTP with Bangor University, meets all the guideline criteria and is listed on the UK Mindfulness Teachers Register, which requires teachers to meet strict prerequisites for training, experience and practice.

Faiy, alongside teaching eight week mindfulness courses to the general public, offers work based mindfulness training, specialising in embedding mindfulness in educational settings. She is an Associate trainer and instructor for the Mindfulness in Schools Project and The Present Courses. Faiy also delivers training internationally on wellbeing in education.

Mindfulness has been proven to help reduce stress and anxiety and improve the quality of your life. It can enhance your life by teaching you how to appreciate the here and now rather than being caught up in thinking about the past or the future. It helps you recognise automatic habits and thought patterns that might not be helpful and this then enables you to make more conscious choices.

Here are a few of the main proven benefits of mindfulness meditation:

• Anxiety, stress, depression, exhaustion and irritability all decrease with regular sessions of meditation. Memory improves, reaction times become faster and mental and physical stamina increase.

• Mindfulness can dramatically reduce pain and the emotional reaction to it. Recent trials suggest that average pain ‘unpleasantness’ levels can be reduced by 57 per cent.

• Clinical trials show that mindfulness improves mood and quality of life in chronic pain conditions such as fibromyalgia and lower-back pain, in chronic functional disorders such as IBS, and in challenging medical illnesses, including multiple sclerosis and cancer.

• Mindfulness improves working memory, creativity, attention span and reaction speeds. It also enhances mental and physical stamina and resilience.

• Meditation improves emotional intelligence.

• Mindfulness is at least as good as drugs or counselling for the treatment of clinical-level depression. One structured programme known as Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is now one of the preferred treatments recommended by the UK’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.

• Mindfulness reduces addictive and self-destructive behaviour. These include the abuse of illegal and prescription drugs and excessive alcohol intake.

• Meditation enhances brain function. It increases grey matter in areas associated with self-awareness, empathy, self-control and attention. It soothes the parts of the brain that produce stress hormones and builds those areas that lift mood and promote learning.

• Meditation improves the immune system. Regular meditators are admitted to hospital far less often for cancer, heart disease and numerous infectious diseases.

•Meditation and mindfulness improve control of blood sugar in type II diabetes.

• Meditation improves heart and circulatory health by reducing blood pressure and lowering the risk of hypertension. Mindfulness reduces the risks of developing and dying from cardiovascular disease and lowers its severity should it arise.

The course will run from Thursday 16th January until Thursday 2nd April, 2020 – 6.45-8.45pm with breaks on 6th and 20th Feb, 12th and 19th March.

It will take place in Lyddington on Thursday evenings and there will be an orientation session on Thursday 9th January, 2020 6.45-7.45pm, to meet everybody and familiarise yourself with the venue. There will also be a practice day at Lyddington village hall on Saturday 21st March 11-4pm.

The sessions will be a mixture of learning mindfulness practices, formal and informal, paired or group discussion about your experiences and practical exercises. Each week you will be given home practices to do, these are an essential part of the course so a commitment to practising at home is important.

The 8 week course costs £200 including course resources. It is possible to pay in full or in instalments (either 2 payments of £100 OR 4 payments of £50). Please click the link below to either pay a deposit for the course or pay in full. Please let me know the Course name in the message and your email address and I will send you an email with an attached letter confirming your place on the course.

https://www.paypal.me/HappyInMySkin

Places are limited so please contact me as soon as possible to reserve your place. Please do not hesitate to contact me for further information.