Mindfulness is said to be the very heart of Buddhist meditation, yet in essence it has very little to do with any kind of religion at all, and is used by scientists, engineers, artists and therapists of all persuasions.
Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way, on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally. During mindful practice we become more aware of the way our minds spend large amounts of their waking time simply distracted and often regretful about the past or anxious about the future, missing the very moments that are really all we have.
Mindfulness takes us out of any inner story we might have created and are caught up in and brings us into a fresh intimacy with our actual experience in an unconditioned way.
All these practices are not just in-the-moment practices though. You’ll see above the word “non-judgmentally” is used deliberately in the definition, and part of mindful practice is to bring a sense of non-judgment, a sense of compassion and loving kindness to self, to friends and to the world at large.
We become kinder to our bodies, our minds, we become more empathetic, considerate people; we take time and we have time, for we learn to truly savour the moments we live.
in this experiential workshop we will be using breathwork, sitting practice and visualisation to
explore how it is to sit with our thoughts and feelings
experience the sense of distracted mind
learn how we relate to our inner stories about ourselves
tentatively learn what conditions we might create to become more compassionately intimate with ourselves
Mindfulness: it’s not what you think