Tag Archives: wellbeing

What is MBSR? #mindfulness #MBSR

Practicing mindfulness regularly helps enhance neural pathways in the brain, developing a deeper sense of peacefulness, calm and focus.

What is Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction, aka MBSR? This is the topic of tomorrow night’s Mindfulness Meetup – a taster session being run by Holistic Education CIC.

Substantial research shows that practicing mindfulness regularly can help reduce stress and enhance well-being, confidence and positivity. Mindfulness is essentially a particular way of paying attention, on purpose and non-judgementally that can enhance the awareness of our experiences, moment by moment. One of the best ways to learn to practice mindfulness regularly is to attend an MBSR course.

MBSR was originally developed by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn and colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Medical Centre (USA) in the 1980s. It is a well-researched and evidence-based mindfulness programme that aims to help participants to develop confidence and skills in practicing mindfulness. It consists of eight sessions (each between 2 and 3 hours long) and an additional all-day of practice. It includes theory on how mindfulness works and opportunities to practice. Home practice is an important part of the course and audio files are available to help with this.

Holistic Education runs regular MBSR courses following training by the University of Bangor’s Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice and the UK Network of Mindfulness Teachers Good Practice Guidelines. The next MBSR course will be on Monday evenings from 6:30pm to 9pm from 18 Jan to 14 Mar 2016 (no session on 15 Feb). Included in the course is an Introduction and Orientation session (11 Jan 2016) and a Mindfulness Practice Day, Saturday 6 March 2016, 9am to 3pm.

Day Workshop on Mindfulness for Educational and Child Psychologists and those working in schools: an update

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Work with children includes using drawings to help them to express their experiences of mindfulness. Here a child drew how he felt relaxed and comfortable all over his body.

Educational and Child Psychologists have an essential role in schools and work with school staff, families, children and young people. They apply psychology in a range of educational contexts to help children and young people make progress with learning.

Difficulties with learning may be due to factors that cannot be changed, such as autism or medical needs. However, they may be also due to factors can be changed – such as the ability to pay attention and regulate emotions. Substantial research evidence shows that mindfulness, a form of training in body-mind integration, can help improve attention, learning potential, working memory capacity and mental health and wellbeing. Those working in schools can help children and young people become better able to manage difficult feelings, such as anger, anxiety and low mood.

This workshop is an opportunity for educational and child psychologists and others working in schools to learn about mindfulness and how it can be used as an intervention in schools. It provides a theoretical and practical overview of mindfulness, including the research evidence for its benefits. It gives an insight into how mindfulness training may be adapted for those with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) and includes information on the Mindfulness-based Awareness Training (MBAT) intervention that was developed through doctoral research. Though training and support on how to integrate mindfulness into their lives, children and young people can enhance their potential to pay attention and learn.

To learn more about this and to attend a workshop, click here or contact me by email.

Best wishes, Bernadette

Mindfulness Meet Up 23/3/15: Your feedback

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Mindfulness Meet Up in Walthamstow are happening nearly every month.

Mindfulness Meetups started in Walthamstow in 2014. Thank you to those who have attended so far and thanks to those who came last Monday. These sessions are designed to get people practicing mindfulness together, whether they are beginners or experienced practitioners.

Last Monday, ten people attended, including myself: five beginners and five who had done some training such as a Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction Course or similar.

We started with a 3-minute Breathing Space, a short time sitting in silence focusing on being here, ‘arriving’ into the present moment more fully as it were. After the introductions we did a short sitting practice, some Mindful Movement and then a longer sitting practice. Here is some of the feedback:

It was a nice introduction to a variety of mindfulness techniques.

The 20 minutes at the end was good and gave me time to relax, let go.

I really focused on the ‘bringing wellness’ to particular body parts in today’s practice. It was useful bringing that to specific body parts.

I was good listening to others and observing the difference between those new to the practice and those more experienced.

I enjoyed mindfulness in a group.

I gained a sense of “trust” – effortless effort in bringing our attention to loving ourselves, just focusing on ourselves.

I gained a feeling of calm and relaxation.

I enjoyed feeling more relaxed and felt an understanding of my body.

I learned new ways of practicing – every teacher is different.

I enjoyed the practices. I feel I’m improving and concentrating on them.

I hope that this feedback inspires you to come along to a Mindfulness Meetup in Walthamstow, a brilliant opportunity to practice mindfulness with others.

Warm wishes, Bernadette

What participants have said about the MBSR course

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The MBSR course takes place with a small group of people – about 10 to 14 participants.

I really appreciate getting feedback from participants. It helps me develop as a mindfulness teacher, appreciating where things work and tweaking bits where need be too. It helps me ensure that what you are getting what you wanted from the course and that the teaching is adapted to your needs.

You may view the feedback on the the MBSR webpage where there is more information about the course. I also include it here:

What have participants said about the course?

“I really enjoyed the fact that we were quite a small group. I know other people who have completed the course in much larger groups and I was pleased to find out ours was smaller. I valued most the discussions, reflections and sharing of ideas / experiences and this was enabled through your facilitation and also supported by being part of a small group. I feel I have benefitted both personally and professionally from attending the course.” (Educational Psychologist).

“I appreciated the structured well organised weekly sessions and practise of the mindful techniques to help manage stress and be more relaxed.I particularly liked the simple 3 Minute Breathing Space, which has been my ongoing regular practice that has helped me cope better in some ways.
I am more aware of being vigilant to my thoughts, feelings and actions with the aim to choose how to respond, rather than to simply react to everything. The excellent course handouts were in context with each practical session, that gave meaningful explanation and purpose for benefitting from the MBCT practice.” (Yoga Teacher)

“I enjoyed the course and have continued to put it into practice within my daily routine. I enjoyed listening to other people’s opinions, challenges and strategies… I would recommend this course for anyone trying to open up their awareness of mindful meditation. I have found that I am less reactive to situations and more aware of my actions as a result.” (Speech and Language Therapist).

“I would recommend [the course] to anyone, particularly within the educational field or within parenting work, where I think it has great applications. I would also recommend that they make the time for as much home practice as possible.” (Educational Psychologist).

“Strongly recommend the course. I have always been resistant to idea of group work/ sharing but a convert. Thank you for enlightening me! I liked way you supported people and kept reiterating effectively that no right or wrong way in meditation and acceptance of what was importance as it seemed to me that some attendees were very hard on themselves and this present as a barrier to them.” (Student Occupational Therapist).

I hope that this feedback may be inspiring to those considering mindfulness training.

Warm wishes, Bernadette

Mindfulness Practice Day 7 March 2015

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Practicing mindfulness regularly helps enhance neural pathways in the brain, developing a deeper sense of peacefulness, clam and focus.

Research shows that practicing mindfulness regularly helps enhance neural pathways in the brain, developing a deeper sense of peacefulness, calm and focus, reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression and improving overall well-being.

On Saturday 7th March 2015, there will be a Mindfulness Practice Day. This is a litte ‘retreat’ for those who have had some experience of practicing mindfulness, yoga or meditation in a group.

We will be reviewing practices from the Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction and Minduflness-based Cognitive Therapy courses. The aim will be to delve into the heart of ‘being mode’ through a range of mindfulness practices, enabling us to turn towards our experiences with gentleness and curiosity as best as we can, moment by moment.

Research shows that regularly practicing mindfulness enhances neural pathways in the brain related to well-being and postive mental states and reduces those related to stress, anxiety and depression.

For more information see the Mindfulness Practice Day webpage.

Mindful Meetup 12 January 2015: Feedback from Participants

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There is a regular Mindfulness Meet Up in Walthamstow. Click for more information.

Last Monday, I hosted another Mindfulness Meetup in Walthamstow. These sessions are opportunities to meet up and practice mindfulness in a group. They are for any level of experience – from complete beginners to those who have done some training and wish to practice in a group.

This evening, eleven people came along and the session started with introductions, a short mindfulness practice and a brief discussion about what we wanted from the evening. It turned out that nearly everyone was fairly or completely new to mindfulness. I introduced a bit about the background to mindfulness, including how and why Jon Kabat-Zinn developed the Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Course and something about the research evidence on the benefits of practicing mindfulness regularly.

Jon Kabat-Zinn (left) and myself, at the Mindfulness Conference in Chester in 2013.

Jon Kabat-Zinn (left) and myself, at the Mindfulness Conference, Chester, 2013.

I also mentioned a study that found that even after a couple of weeks of practice, the brain already shows measurable signs of structural change in parts that enhance positive emotion and cognitive skills. So it can take weeks, rather than years, before we start feeling calmer, experiencing a deeper sense of well-being and better concentration.

The group also shared their reasons for wanting to learn more about mindfulness. Some explained that they had difficulties with general anxiety and others mentioned problems with sleeping. Some wanted to become more effective at their jobs and also to be able to ‘switch off’ from work when away from it. All wanted to explore what mindfulness might offer to them personally.

While participation in mindfulness practices affects each of us individually, research show that regularly practicing mindfulness practice can significantly reduce symptoms of anxiety and improve overall health and well-being. For example, it can improve emotional regulation, giving us skills to readjust our moods and how this in turn affects our outlook on life. We can get better at noticing what is happening in the moment and make choices quickly, so instead of going into automatic thought patterns that perpetuate stressful, we can cultivate ones that bring more positive mind-states. We can bring a sense of appreciation, calm, equanimity and overall well-being into more of the moments in our lives.

One of the mindfulness group sessions from the MBSR course.

The rest of the evening was about practicing. We were able to start glimpsing into how the mind behaves – that it wanders, quite automatically – and how to notice this and gently and kindly guide the attention back to the chosen focus (the feet on this occasion). This is a fundamental practice in the process of cultivating mindfulness.

Finally, we journeyed into a longer, sitting practice for 20 minutes, as agreed by the group. Because we had gone over the essence of the practice, there was an opportunity try this is relative silence, with only a few prompts. The focus was on cultivating mindfulness of ‘body’ and ‘breath’, with a gentle friendliness towards experiences, as best as we can. The room went beautifully quiet, still and focused, with a gentle sense of peacefulness.

At the end, a short evaluation form was completed. The feedback was really positive and I have included a few quotes here for you:

“Good intro + overview. I am not alone.”

“People were very open about reasons for attending. This relaxed me.”

“There is a wide-spead need for this sort of training.”

“It felt comfortable. Good to be able to be completely quiet/ still.”

“I enjoyed meeting like-minded people and meditating in a group for the first time. Instruction was useful and definitely considering attending the course.”

“Allowed myself space to reflect on why I might be here.”

“Able to learn strategies for relaxation and how to connect with yourself by focusing on your feet/ breath.”

“Completely new to mindfulness. Enjoyed the practice session.”

“I was able to relax more fully than I feel I’ve been able to for some time.”

I hope this inspires you to come along to the mindfulness training offered by Holistic Education and the Mindfulness Meetups in Walthamstow, For regular updates, please join our mailing list.

Best wishes, Bernadette

Mindfulness in London – Opportunities to enhance well-being and develop skills to become more resilient to stress

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Happy New Year! Welcome to 2015 and the invitation to have a fresh start and focus on making life more meaningful to us as individuals, cherishing the time left in our lives. Mindfulness is a way to take stock of and simple ‘be’ with where we are right here and now, moment by moment. Research shows that it can enhance health, well-being and resilience to stress. In addition, it can help us become more aligned with longer term goals and aspirations. Here are some opportunities to learn more about Mindfulness and Yoga in London.

On Monday 12 January, there is a Mindful Evening in Walthamstow – aka the Walthamstow Mindfulness Meet Up. It is an opportunity for people to meet up and practice mindfulness together. This is for anyone interested, from complete beginners to those who would like a bit of a refresher or boost to their own practice.

Dr Carelse is a qualified British Wheel of Yoga teacher.

On 14 January, the “Yoga with Mindfulness” classes begin at the Corporation of London Community Education Centre. This week, and next the centre will be taking bookings. The classes will be run from 6pm to 7:30pm.

The following week, on 19th January, the next Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction Course will be starting. There has been a really positive response and there are only a few places left.

Overall the interest in mindfulness has been increasing, including in schools. On 20th January, I will be running a 3-hour mindfulness session in a primary school to about 60 members of staff. This is a shorter, more accessible version of the Introduction to Mindfulness Day Workshop that is part of the series of mindfulness training opprotunities that are available for those in educational settings.

.b Foundations was developed by the Mindfulness in Schools Project (MiSP).

On 26th January I will be presenting on mindfulness at a staff meeting in a secondary school, introducing further training that will be available at the school the following month.

Overall, 2015 is another year of opportunities to share this valuable practice with you and others. By regularly practicing, we can support ourselves to sustain a level of equanimity through the inevitable changes that life brings.

For more information, including about training in mindfulness for schools, contact me.

Warm wishes, Bernadette

Presenting the Mindfulness-based Awareness Training intervention at the Implementation Science Conference

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The Handbook of Implementation Science contains essential information for those wishing to implement interventions in educational settings.

On 28th July 2014, I gave a presentation on the Mindfulness-based Awareness Training (MBAT) intervention at the Implementation Science Conference, organised by the East London Consortium of Educational Psychologists (ELCEP). Implementation Science is a relatively new area of scientific, academic and practitioner interest that focuses on exploring and explaining what makes interventions work in real-world contexts.

The conference included inspiring talks and workshops. One keynote speaker, Barbara Kelly, University of Cambridge, was the co-editor of the “Handbook of Implementation Science”. She spoke about making use of implementation Science in order to successfully transfer and replicate evidence-based approaches, outlining what an intervention needed in order to be implemented successfully. The factors for this included focusing on the beliefs and values of those trained to deliver the specific intervention and providing consultation and coaching during the implementation process itself.

Another keynote speaker was Elaine Wilson, also from the University of Cambridge. She presented two case studies in educational contexts; firstly Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in school-university partnerships and secondly, teacher education reform in Kazakhstan. She explained that certain factors were important to implementing sustainable change, including adopting a “can do” positive approach and focusing on a few, important ambitious goals.

Download the handout of the presentation on the MBAT intervention given at the Implementation Science Conference 28/7/14

One of the workshops was my presentation on the process by which the MBAT intervention had been developed through doctorate research and further refined when implemented in another setting. The MBAT intervention is a mindfulness training course for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND). It aims to empower the participants with skills for self-regulation of emotions, helping them be calmer and better focused. The intervention includes gathering information about the context in which the child or young persons needs to develop their skills and understanding. This enables the MBAT intervention to be adaptable to the needs of the individual concerned.

The process of developing the MBAT intervention was outlined in the presentation and the handout for this is available here. Overall, the conference was an inspirational experience, motivating me to learn more about Implementation Science. Currently the materials for the MBAT intervention are being developed into a practitioner workbook. If you are interested in this work, please contact Holistic Education.

How can mindfulness be adapted for different populations?

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Chris Cullen from the Oxford Mindfulness Centre and Mindfulness in Schools Project. He presented the workshop for the Exeter Mindfulness Network.

On 12 June, Chris Cullen, from the Mindfulness in Schools Project and Oxford Mindfulness Centre gave a workshop by the Exeter Mindfulness Network, University on “Adapting mindfulness for different populations”.

I was inspired. Here was a clear way to make mindfulness accessible to those with a range of needs, from young people to those in highly stressful work situations, while maintaining the essential integrity of the programme. The key message: follow the structure of the well-researched, tried and tested Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy programme.

The workshop was designed for those with training and experience in teaching mindfulness, following the Good Practice guidelines for teaching mindfulness-based courses. While MBCT was designed for preventing relapse into depression, with care and consideration, it can be made applicable to a much wider audience, including the general population itself, and maintain its essential integrity.

When considering how to adapt MBCT, the first step is to bring to mind are the core intentions of the programme itself and to ensure that the teaching is orientated towards these throughout. Then, bearing in mind the particular needs of the target group, the theoretical and practical reasons for making the changes are considered. Essentially, the training aims to empower the participants with mindfulness-based skills to better manage “crux” moments in their lives. These are times when mindfulness skills are drawn upon to respond rather than react, to make ‘wise’ choices, rather get drawn into automatic, habitual patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving.

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

These steps are key to the process of developing a well-structured mindfulness programme for a range of populations and needs, and it has been tried and tested in the development of the “.b” (dot-b) programme for teens by the Mindfulness in Schools Project and the Peace in a Frantic World course for in the general population wanting to enhance resilience to stress and promote well-being.

The workshop was run by the Exeter Mindfulness Network and held at the University of Exeter.

Mindfulness Interest Group meets again at the Hackney Learning Trust

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Hackney Learning Trust runs all the education services for the London Borough of Hackney.
It is responsible for schools, children’s centres, early years and adult education.

Last week, on 20th May, I held the third session of the Mindfulness Interest Group. It was heartening to see over twenty people, from Hackney Council and the Learning Trust, giving up their lunch break to learn about and practice mindfulness together.

I gave a short presentation on Mindfulness and Finding Peace in a Frantic World and we did the Raisin Exercise and a sitting mindfulness practice.

Overall, feedback was positive and I look forward to the next session on 17th June 2014. For more information about this, or if you’d like an introductory workshop on Mindfulness at your workplace, please contact me. Best wishes, Bernadette