The Introducing Mindfulness course offers a brief taste of mindfulness practice and theory in a format intended to be accessible to anyone new to mindfulness.
This course is designed for anyone interested in exploring some key mindfulness themes and practices in ways that might support them personally, in everyday life and work.
The course takes place over 3 sessions, each of which explores a core theme:
Session 1: Paying Attention, On Purpose, With Curiosity and Care:
· What is attention?
· Attention as a gateway to experience
· Where and how we choose to place our attention shapes our experience
· Attention is a foundational skill for life
Session 2: Perspective - learning new ways of being:
· How we can learn to take different perspectives
· Different ways of knowing/being as a foundation for wisdom and self-care.
Session 3: Responding (not reacting):
· Responding skilfully is a practice for all aspects of our life
· Recognising, allowing and de-centring from our experience is a key step
· Responding rather than reacting
· The context for any moment powerfully shapes our capacity to respond
How is the course different to 8-week courses such as the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Course?
There are 3 sessions of one hour each as opposed to 8 sessions of 2-and-a-quarter hours. Despite being briefer than the 8-session format, Introducing Mindfulness explores some key mindfulness themes and practices in ways that can support you personally, in everyday life and work.
This course is not being offered as a treatment for any specific physical or psychological conditions. Please do not sign up for this training if you are currently experiencing severe problems in these areas.
What happens after I complete the course?
In the final session, you will be given information about ways to carry your practice forward if you wish to do so. You will be invited to give your feedback, however, this is not compulsory.
What will I do on this course?
The sessions are group-based, and involve a combination of teaching, mindfulness practices, trying out what is learned in everyday life, and discussion.
Attend 3 weekly sessions lasting one hour each week.
This is a structured course where each session builds upon what has been introduced before. This is why it is important to attend all the sessions.
You will be in a group of up to 8 people, led by Toby Wiltshire, an experienced mindfulness teacher.
Each session will have guided and structured meditation practices. Many are drawn from modern psychology.
Each practice or exercise is followed by a review of what you and/or other participants experienced or discovered in that practice/exercise. This review does not include a discussion of participants’ history.
Each session is followed by suggestions for personal practice. This includes both recommended guided practices, and also ways to cultivate new habits of mindfulness in everyday life.
Each session (except the first) includes a review of the previous week’s personal practice.
You will have access to a web resource which gives you guided practices and written material to support each session.
Learning Outcomes
Understanding the mind’s natural tendency to be scattered and to wander; how we can train attention to create choices about where and how we place attention, and how this can fundamentally shape our experience.
Exploring different ways of being and knowing; recognising how much of our experience is shaped by thought; that other more experiential and observing modes are also available to us, and how we can learn to use them to help us flourish over time.
Recognising the difference between reacting and responding; developing ways to create the space to make choices between them, and exploring how this understanding can shape our experience and the quality of our lives.
Introducing Mindfulness was developed by the Oxford Mindfulness Foundation, a world-renowned centre for mindfulness research and practice at Oxford University.
Cost: £60