Finding Peace in a Frantic World – a book by Mark Williams and Danny Penman, which is a newly developed 8-week course.

“Finding Peace in a Frantic World” is one of the most popular books on mindfulness today.  The mindfulness programme outlined in this book can now be taught as an 8-session course of 75 minute long sessions.  The aim is to teach how to use mindfulness practices to create moments of tranquillity in the midst of the complexities of life.

Today, I attended a workshop by Chris Cullen at the Oxford Mindfulness Centre for mindfulness teachers wanting to deliver this programme.  I look forward to teaching this course which is ideal for teachers and other professionals working in frantic contexts, such as educational settings and wanting to learn about mindfulness.

Srivati – Breathing Space in Schools Teacher Trainer

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of supporting on the team for a two-day Teacher Training course at Breathing Space.  It was designed for primary and secondary school teachers and staff who have completed a mindfulness course and want to teach mindfulness to pupils in their schools.  Srivati, the course facilitator, introduced the skills required to teach the 8-session Breathing Space in Schools mindfulness programme in a way that was practical, informative and enjoyable to the participants.  Overall, the course was highly-recommended.

A colleague at work sent me this link to an article in the Guardian on mindfulness, which gives a good account of the benefits, including a quote from a mindfulness teaching saying “People often say they notice how much of life passes them by. Suddenly they are noticing things in nature..  They are more present in what they do and they get a sense of appreciating more fully the life they are living.” Yes, how beautiful, I thought.

On 4th December 2013, another workshop, Introduction to Mindfulness for Educational Psychologists, was delivered.  This time, in Lewisham to a group of about 20 participants. Feedback was greatly positive and there was a keen interest in doing further training, such as the 8-week MBSR course.  For further information on training workshops, contact Holistic Education #mindfulness

This is an update on the training that I have been doing in different boroughs to introduce staff to mindfulness.  So far, and unsurprisingly as this is an emerging field, the majority have little or no prior experience of mindfulness or other contemplative practices.  Last Tuesday, I ran a 2 hour introductory workshop to a team in Southwark, London.  The participants were engaged well in the practices.  Even though they were unfamiliar to them, they gave it a go and were open and willing to share their experiences in the enquiry part of the activities.  Overall, the feedback was positive and included comments such as “techniques that can be used were well explained” and the “benefits I felt from just ten minutes of this were immense”.   I was especially delighted to read that the “tutor was very engaging”.   It was a pleasure doing the workshop and I look forward to running the next one, a day’s workshop in Lewisham, London in December.   Warm wishes, Bernadette

The weekend workshop, “Taoist Basic Practices”, by visiting Taoist master, Mantak Chia, Universal Healing Tao, was well attended.  It covered a range of the Taoist Internal Alchemy Meditation and Chi Gung foundation practices for cultivating energy and well-being.  I have attended his workshops in the past and it was refreshing to once again have that direct experience.  It inspired my personal practice and will help develop how I include such approaches in the Beroca Integral Yoga system.  It was highly recommended and I hope he visits again in 2014.

On Friday, 20 September, I ran a workshop for Educational Psychologists (EPs), an introduction to Using Mindfulness-Based Approaches in EP Practice.  This was the third time I ran it this year and again, it was well attended.  The day included:

• Doing various mindfulness practices, such as the body-scan and 3-minute Breathing Space.
• Learning about the research background to mindfulness and theory on how it works.
• Discussing the ways in which mindfulness practices may be used in educational settings, including through the .b programme (developed by the Mindfulness in Schools Project).
• Developing plans to take this forward in personal and professional lives.

Feedback was positive, and will help shape the next workshop (December 2013).

There was a keen interest in the Mindfulness-Based Attention Training (MBAT) intervention (initially developed as part of the doctoral research and later implemented in a special secondary setting).  The next step is to develop a training programme so that others can run the MBAT intervention in schools.  If you have an interest in this, please contact me.

Today I was at a workshop on Mindfulness-based Conversations (MBC) run by Sahaja Davis at the BPS Centre in London.  It enabled us to explore the experience of mindfulness and bring that into the context of conversations, and from there to consider its application during work-based consultations.  I enjoyed the unfolding experience from the context-setting introduction to the mindfulness practices,  inspirational quotes and poetry.  It’s not an easy task to break so much ground with a “mixed-ability” group of participants.  And yet it was done – skilfully and authentically.  Well done, Sahaja!

This Friday, I’ll be down in Brighton presenting at a conference for doctoral students, called Engaging with Methodology: Diversity, Questions and Challenges.   This time the focus is on methodology used in the research, Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) of children’s drawings of their experiences of mindfulness.  Are you interested in using IPA in your research with children?  Or using drawings to help children express themselves? Perhaps you have taught mindfulness to children and are interested in their experiences of this?  If so, please get in contact.  Best wishes, Bernadette