Finding Peace in a Frantic World – Fridays

Description

Mindfulness: Finding Peace in a Frantic World (‘Finding Peace’ for short) is a course designed to cultivate mindful awareness of our body, emotions and mind so that we can live our lives with a greater sense of wellbeing, kindness and resilience to life’s ups and downs. It is an evidence-based course, developed in the light of research at Oxford University and other leading research centres.

Please note: 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.

Full Dates: Fridays: 18/10, 25/10, 01/11, 08/11, 15/11, 22/11, 29/11, 06/12 from 12:00 -13:30 UK Time

What happens after I complete the course?

• You will be invited to give your feedback
• In the final session you will be given information about ways to carry your practice forwards if you wish to do so
• The OMF provides Confirmation of Attendance letters to participants who fully attend at least 6 of the 8 Finding Peace sessions What will I do on this course?

What will I do on this course?

• Attend 8 weekly sessions lasting 90 minutes each. This is a structured course where each session builds upon the skills and understanding developed in previous sessions. This is why it is important to attend all the sessions if possible.
• You will be in a group of up to 16 people, led by one of OMF’s experienced mindfulness teachers
• Each session includes:
• guided and structured meditation practices, and some cognitive exercises
• 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’ past history
• suggestions for personal practice of up to 45 minutes. This includes both recommended guided practices, and also ways to cultivate new habits of mindfulness in everyday life
• a review of the previous week’s personal practice
• You will also have access to a web resource which gives you guided practices and written material to support each session

Learning Outcomes

• How to ‘stabilise the attention’: to recognise mind-wandering and ‘autopilot’, and how to bring the attention back to where we want it to be – with interest, patience, and care
• Learning more about two different ways of being and knowing: through direct experience and through thinking. Understanding more about how the mind creates meaning
• Learning to recognise our patterns of reactivity and how trying to get rid of distress may actually keep us stuck
• Bringing a sense of care and kindness to ourselves in those moments of distress and reactivity
• Using mindfulness to respond skilfully, in contrast to reacting – in ways that support the wellbeing of ourselves and of others around us
• To ‘step back’ a little from our direct experience so that we can see it more clearly, and so choose a kinder response
• Building what we have learnt into our everyday lives