Do you suffer from anxiety and stress?
You are not alone. We are constantly chatting in our minds, thinking this or that, saying this or that, or wanting this or that….rather being in the present moment. Often the this and that are in conflict. We are ruminating on these thoughts and living our lives on autopilot. This produces anxiety and leads to stress. In some people, it also leads or contributes to physical health problems such as body aches and pains, irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, etc. Anxiety and stress can also reduce our body immunity making us more prone to infections.
What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is one way by which we can reduce the chattering in our minds and thus reduce anxiety and stress. It is a mental training technique by which we learn to be more aware of our thoughts, feelings, body sensations as they are in the present moment. The practice of mindfulness declutters our minds and we learn to see the situations more clearly and make wiser decisions. This leads us to be calmer and more peaceful in our daily life with better physical health. More about the mental and physical health benefits of mindfulness….
Mindfulness is the awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgementally.....
Dr Jon Kabat-Zinn
Founder of mindfulness in West
Mindfulness in the West?
Mindfulness is a mental training technique brought from the meditation practices in the Eastern spiritual disciplines like Buddhism to the West as a secular practice by Dr Jon Kabat-Zinn, working at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Boston, USA in the late 1970’s. He developed a program called MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction) to treat patients with chronic physical pain, stress, and anxiety. Subsequently, in late 1990’s a group of psychologists (Profs Mark Williams, Zindel Segal, and John Teasdale) combined MBSR with cognitive behaviour therapy to form MBCT (Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy) for preventing recurrence of depression in those who have already had episodes of depression in the past. Several research trials have now shown that MBCT is equally effective to conventional treatment methods to prevent depression and is recommended by the UK’s NICE (National Institute of Health and Care Excellence) for this purpose.
How to learn Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is best learned as an 8-week course in a group format. Each weekly session is 2 to 2.5 hours long with a retreat of 6 hours to allow participants to consolidate all the practices.
Traditionally, the courses are taught in person, but now due to restrictions, all courses are offered online using virtual platforms such as Zoom.
Please read about the requirements of the 8-week course and if it would be suitable for you. You can join a taster session if you wish to know more about the full course and discuss it with the teacher.
If you have already done a previous MBCT or MBSR course, you can join our drop-in online meditation classes (Link).
If you are interested, please
Mindfulness teachers
Tarun is a medical doctor practicing as a consultant in a tertiary heart and lung hospital in London. He has been a Hatha Yoga teacher since 2008 and has been practicing MBCT since 2016, recently completing his teacher’s training with the Oxford Mindfulness Centre. He strongly believes that mindfulness practice can make us less reactive, calmer, and more efficient in our daily lives, and this also reduces as well as prevents any physical health problems that we may have.
He has recently completed a research study exploring the use of mindfulness in patients suffering from chest pain (MIPIC Study).
Tarun is currently offering MBCT courses.
To learn about the different mindfulness courses, please click here.
To know about the different mindfulness courses we are offering, please click here.
Olga is a Mindfulness and Compassion accredited teacher with a meditation practice of seven years and a teaching experience in different contexts to all ages and diversities for over 5 years. She is an active member of the Professional Association of Mindfulness MBSR Teachers -Asociación Profesional de Instructores de Mindfulness MBSR- in Spain, and is about to finalise her accreditation on the Breathworks approach in the UK.
Her experience resides in her own life journey and her commitment to a more fulfilling way of living for all. Having shared the practice of mindfulness and compassion to a wide range of people, from people suffering from physical illness to vulnerable youths and former drug dealers, as well as leaders and people in the workplace and many others; she has cultivated deep understanding, acceptance, and a loving presence. She seeks to continue to cultivate and transmit these qualities to every person she interacts with.......
Olga is currently offering a Breathworks mindfulness course.
"Calm mind brings inner strength and
self-confidence, so that's very important for
good health."