Venue: Bruny Island Community Health Centre. 16 School Rd, Alonnah.
Course Dates: Preliminary interview on 26 July. The course runs from 23 August to 11 October 2011. 11.00am to 2.00pm, including a light lunch.
The last session will be Tuesday, 13 December.
Please book on 62931143 at Bruny Island Community Health Centre.
Cost: $5.00 for lunch per session. You will also need to purchase two CDs at $10.00 each for your daily practice.
Tutor: Dr Peter Davies
This 8-week course is based on the one developed by Dr Bruno Cayoun, an internationally recognised Psychologist and Mindfulness practitioner, who regularly teaches in Australia and abroad.
For further information please contact Peter Davies: Email pfreemandavies@gmail.com and mobile 0417528375 after 18 June.
What does a Mindfulness course involve?
Mindfulness is a mental state that is experienced as a heightened awareness of our senses in the present moment, free from judgement, reactivity and identification to the experience. As a training method, mindfulness requires paying attention in a particular way, on purpose, from moment to moment, with unconditional acceptance of the current experience. In a Mindfulness course, participants meet together as a class with an instructor for 8 weekly 2-hour classes, with an additional one half-day session 2 months after the 8th session.
The skill of mindfulness is taught through formal and informal mindfulness practices. Formal mindfulness meditation practices include mindfulness of breath, and body-scanning meditation, which help regulate attention and emotion. Informal mindfulness meditation practice involves integrating mindfulness into everyday life. In each class, participants have an opportunity to talk about their experience of the home practices, the obstacles that inevitably arise, and how to deal with them skillfully. Each class is organized around a theme that is explored through mindfulness practice, group inquiry and other relevant exercises.
As mindfulness training is primarily experiential in nature, the main ‘work’ of the course is done at home between classes, using CDs with guided meditations that support participants developing practice outside of class. This requires devoting approximately 30 minutes twice each day to home practice. In many ways this commitment to daily practice is the most important aspect of the course. It is through personal experiencing of mindfulness that we come to understand the possibilities it opens for us in our daily lives.
Over the eight weeks of the program, the practices help you to:
- become familiar with the workings of your mind
- notice the times when you are at risk of getting caught in old habits of mind that re-activate downward mood spirals
- explore ways of releasing yourself from those old and unhelpful habits
- get in touch with a different way of knowing yourself and the world
- notice small beauties and pleasures in the world around you instead of living in your head
- be kind to yourself instead of wishing things were different, or driving yourself to meet impossible goals
- improve your sense of self-worth
- accept yourself as you are, rather than judging or blaming yourself
- decrease stress and gain some peace of mind
- be able to exercise greater choice confidently in life.
Effects of developing mindfulness include:
- Lasting decreases in physical and psychological symptoms
- An increased ability to relax
- Reductions in pain levels and an enhanced ability to cope with pain that may not go away
- Greater energy and enthusiasm for life
- Improved self-esteem
- An ability to cope more effectively with both short and long-term stressful situations
- Enhanced interpersonal relationships
- Increased ability to manage anxiety and depression and/or low mood
- Reduced tension
- Better sleep
- Greater sense of meaning and purpose in life
