New 8 Week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Course (MBSR)
Starts Monday 13th January, 2020
Day / Time: Monday mornings 10.30 -12.30
Dates: Jan 13, 20, 27, Feb 3, 10, 17, 24, March 2
Course fee: £250 per person
Venue: St John’s Centre, Merrow, Guildford, GU4 7AA
About the Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction Course
The 8 week Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course is commonly acknowledged to be the ‘Gold Standard’ Mindfulness course and is suitable for anyone who wishes to learn some simple techniques and strategies to reduce stress and improve well-being.
The MBSR consists of 8 weekly sessions, each lasting two hours. If you attend the course you will learn some simple practices and exercises, which can be easily incorporated into your daily life. Research into the benefits of Mindfulness shows that regular practice of the Mindfulness exercises reduces stress, improves emotional resilience and enhances sense of well-being.
If you would like to attend this course, please click on the button below.
Now is a good time to be mindful
Time to be Mindful courses are run by Rachel Crookenden.
Rachel is a Mindfulness Coach and Clinical Specialist Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist working in Guildford.
Mindfulness provides us with effective techniques to combat the stresses and strains of our everyday lives. Mindfulness helps us cope with the external pressures of our work and family commitments and it can also help us when we feel overwhelmed by our internal thoughts and feelings. Feel free to check our pages about Mindfulness, what to expect; the evidence and history of Mindfulness and more about Rachel’s background.
If the course below doesn’t suit your needs, then please get in touch to ensure a place in the next course.
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The Benefits of Mindfulness
Mindfulness can help in the following ways:
• Reduce stress
and feel calmer
• Improve concentration
be better able to focus
• Reduce worry
about the past and future
• Become less emotionally reactive
take more control
• Feel happer and more content
• Help manage chronic pain/discomfort
• Increase sense of well-being
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New 8 Week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Course (MBSR)
Starts Monday 13th January, 2020
Day / Time: Monday mornings 10.30 – 12.30
Dates: Jan 13, 20, 27, Feb 3, 10, 17, 24, March 2
Course fee: £250 per person
Venue: St John’s Centre, Merrow, Guildford, GU4 7AA
Please use the Contact Form to express an interest in this course.
What is Mindfulness?
In a nutshell, Mindfulness is about paying attention to each present moment; being ‘in the moment’, rather than being ‘lost in our thoughts’, preoccupied with things that have either happened in the past, or which may, or may not, happen in the future.
We all live very busy lives these days and it is easy to feel pressured by all the things we have to do and remember and that can be very stressful.
Mindfulness is about learning some simple techniques that will give you more ‘space’ in your head; that will help you not feel overwhelmed by your thoughts or emotions, and will enable you to be more content in your everyday life.
An increasing number of research studies show that learning to be more mindful can be beneficial for us all. There is more information about the history and development of Mindfulness and also a summary of research findings on the ‘About‘ page.
Many of my clients have questions regarding mindfulness and I am very happy to provide more information. I look forward to hearing from you.
What people say about Rachel’s Mindfulness courses …
What does Mindfulness consist of?
What will you learn when you come to the ‘Time to be Mindful’ sessions of Mindfulness in Merrow, Guildford?
When you attend the Time to be Mindful’ Mindfulness sessions in Merrow, Guildford, you will learn the following Mindfulness practices – sometimes also called exercises, or meditations.
Breath Aware
With the Breath Aware practice (or exercise), we learn to reconnect with our breathing – paying mindful attention to the automatic process of breathing brings us into the present moment. Focussing on our breathing gives us a few moments to take a break from the hurly-burly of life going on around us; we can stop for a moment; come back to the present, so that we feel more composed, less overwhelmed by our circumstances.
Body Scan
With the Body Scan we learn to reconnect with our bodies: we become reaquainted with the sensations from each part of our body in turn. With the Body Scan we learn to ‘listen’ to the messages our body sends us and this makes us better able to identify how we feel – whether we feel tense, relaxed, or experiencing some pain or discomfort . By paying mindful attention to the breath and body, we learn to live more in the present moment, rather than in the past or the future.
Thought Aware
So much of the time we operate on ‘automatic pilot’ – peforming routine tasks without being aware of what we are doing, while we are ‘miles away’; thinking about something that happened in the past, or worrying about something that might happen in the future. Thought Aware helps us not be so ‘caught up’ in our thoughts; it helps us learn to let our thoughts ‘pass by’, so that we can pay attention to what is actually going on around us in the present moment.
Feelings Aware
As with our thoughts, it is easy to feel overwhelmed by our emotions: all too often we find ourselves flooded with a strong, often negative emotions – anger, sadness, depression, anxiety – and we can do, or say things we later regret. Mindfulness teaches us to be aware of our internal emotional climate; we learn how to identify how we are feeling; what thoughts might be adding to the feelings and how all this manifests itself physically.
Senses Aware
Our five senses – touch, taste, smell, sight and hearing are powerful forces we can use to bring us into the present moment: paying attention to what we can see, hear, touch, taste and smell helps us come into, and stay in the present moment.
Facing Difficulties
Difficult situations, circumstances and emotions are part of life, but instead of rejecting or ignoring difficulties, Mindfulness helps us learn to accept them; to allow what is happening, so that we can learn to avoid adding ‘secondary’ pain to any primary difficulty.
Bringing it all Together
Mindfulness is about being aware of your breath; your body; your thoughts, feelings and senses. With Mindfulness we learn to integrate all these elements, so that we feel ‘at home in our body, with ‘space’ in our heads, feeling calm and mindful of each moment.