8 week online live
mindfulness courses
Learning to cope with life’s challenges
In these turbulent times of the pandemic, it is more important than ever to learn skills that help us deal with stressful situations. We need to develop resilience, peace of mind and mental clarity so we can carry on with our daily tasks.
This live online 8-week MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction) course will help you cultivate positive attitudes and self-compassion. You will learn how to live more in the present moment and be less overwhelmed by what life throws at you.
See structure and dates of the upcoming course below.
Why Mindfulness course?
“Humans are the only animals that can be physically safe, warm, dry, well-fed, healthy and well taken care of – and still be utterly miserable”. (Steven C. Hayes)
Indeed we are masters of inflicting unnecessary sufferings on ourselves by living mindlessly, ‘on the autopilot’. We forgot how it was to be a child - exploring the world with eyes wide open, marvelling at its wonders. We forgot how it feels dancing in the rain or running barefoot, the morning’s dew cool on our feet. Actually when did we stop dancing? I mean when did you last let go of the fear of being judged, and simply follow the body’s natural urge to move to rhythm?
Takeaway from the MBSR course:
Participants often say after the course that it is an eye-opening transformative experience. Feeling more alive, more connected with themselves and others is how they describe the changes. It also helps improve chronic and acute conditions related to stress - high blood pressure, migraines, heart problems, depressions, chronic pain etc.
Course structure and resources:
There will be 8 interactive sessions in Zoom, one per week.
Each lasts between 2 and 2,5 hours, so it’s quite a commitment for everyone.
You will be learning through:
• meditations and exercises, including mindful moment (walking meditation, simple yoga sequences and guided dance meditation);
• group discussions aimed at enhancing awareness in everyday life;
• systematic instruction in formal MBSR meditation practices, with the opportunity to check in with teacher.
You will get audio recordings of the meditations, course syllabus, plenty of other materials and the opportunity to have a one-on-one tutorial if you miss a class.
Cost: €250 (+ VAT)
Send me an email if you have difficulties paying the tuition fee.
I may be able to offer you a full or partial scholarship, depending on your need.
The next MBSR course will start on 29 March 2022 at 19.00 CET.
Course dates:
29/3; 5/4; 5/4; 12/4; 19/4; 26/4; 3/5; 10/5.
A free orientation session will be held on 22 April at 19.00 CET.
Introduction
During the free introductory session you will learn how this secular, scientific, evidence-based practice has become an accepted part of mainstream medicine, and discover how it can positively affect the quality of your everyday life.
Week 1
Here you will establish the learning context for the rest of the course. Through experience you'll be introduced to mindful eating, mindful breathing, and the body-scan method, with a special emphasis on what it means to be fully awake in the present moment.
Week 2
This week's session and practices will invite you to examine your perceptions, assumptions, and the way you view the world. You will learn to use the body-scan practice to cultivate a greater degree of awareness of how you react to stressful situations. Changing the way you perceive and respond to difficulties and challenges will impact the short- and long-term effects of stress on your mind and body.
Week 3
In this session, you'll practice several distinct yet interrelated mindfulness practices—mindful hatha yoga, sitting meditation, and walking meditation. This is an ideal time to share your insights about your experiences with formal practice and integrating mindfulness into your daily life. You will discover that there is both pleasure and power in being present—you'll directly attend to and investigate how your experiences create such reactions as pleasure or discomfort in the mind and body.
Week 4
By practicing mindfulness, we cultivate curiosity and openness to the full range of our experience, and through this process our ability to pay attention becomes more flexible. This week, your practice will focus on the development of your ability to concentrate and systematically expand your field of awareness. You'll learn about the physiological and psychological bases of stress reactivity, and experience mindful strategies for responding in positive, proactive ways to stressful situations.
Week 5
At the halfway point in this course, you should now be familiar with the foundations of mindfulness and able to focus on applying it more rapidly and effectively to specific challenges and stressors in your life. This week you will begin to pay attention to the places where you might be stuck in repeating, unhealthy patterns that you can disarm through mindful awareness. You will also learn how to apply mindfulness at the critical moment when you experience a physical sensation, intense emotion, or condition, with special attention to exploring the effect of reactivity in health and illness.
Week 6
Resilience or “stress hardiness” is our ability to return to equilibrium after stressful situations. This week, you will focus on transformational coping strategies to broaden your inner resources and enhance your resilience through mindfulness practice. You'll also learn the fundamentals of interpersonal mindfulness—applying awareness and presence at times when communication becomes difficult or fraught with strong emotions. You'll gain direct experience of a variety of styles for more effective and creative interpersonal communication.
Week 7
Mindfulness is most effective when it is a lifetime commitment. This week, you will explore the many ways that you can integrate mindfulness more fully and personally into your life. While having a dedicated regular practice for mindfulness meditation is important and beneficial, it is just as important to bring a broader sense of awareness and presence to every moment in your life, and to use non-judgmental mindfulness in your self-reflection and decision-making processes. You'll learn how to maintain the discipline and flexibility of daily practice as circumstances change over the course of your life.
Week 8
In the final week of the program, you will have a complete review of everything you've learned over the course, with an emphasis on carrying the momentum you've built forward into the coming months and years. You'll learn about resources available to you to pursue mindfulness in new directions as your life and practice evolve, as well as the support systems that exist to help you continue to integrate, learn, and grow. The final lesson creates a satisfying closure by honouring both the end of this program and the beginning of the rest of your life.
The next MBSR course will start on 29 March 2022 at 19.00 CET.
Course dates:
29/3; 5/4; 5/4; 12/4; 19/4; 26/4; 3/5; 10/5.
A free orientation session will be held on 22 March at 19.00 CET.
Here is a 7-minute video explaining the MBSR from Palouse Mindfulness: