Taking it Further Course – Thursdays

Description

This Taking it Further curriculum develops your learning from the 8-week course in a number of new ways as a broader set of formal mindfulness practices are introduced. You will have already learned how mindfulness can be your teacher, offering you skills to meet life’s challenges and difficulties. New practices will be introduced to further support your learning (for example to calm agitation or to help with sleep or prepare for a challenging situation).

Many people’s practice tends to ebb and flow; some people discontinue their practice altogether. This course is intended to help you overcome blocks to continuing practice, identify positive reasons to practice, and reinforce the learning from mindfulness practice that supports your mental health and well-being.

The place of informal, everyday practice is emphasised. Our experience and research suggests that participants value being reminded of practice, sharing their experiences and learning from one other (Hopkins & Kuyken, 2012). Informal practices are introduced in a way that takes things that you are, perhaps, already doing and supports you to do them with increased awareness and responsiveness.

This 12-session course can be delivered in a number of different formats: once per week; once every two weeks; once a month; or in a more intensive retreat-like format. It is intended to:

• Reinforce, broaden, build and deepen your mindfulness practice
• Develop your learning of the key themes from the 8-week course
• Extend your learning about how to respond skilfully
• Weave mindfulness more fully into everyday life – Mindfulness for Life, for life

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: Thursdays: 21/03, 28/03, Week Break, 11/04,18/04, 25/04, 2/05, 9/05, 16/05, 23/05, Week Break, 06/06,13/06, 20/06 from 17:00 -19:15 UK Time

PLEASE NOTE: The UK time zone changes during this course. The UK is currently in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and changes to British Summer Time (BST) on last Sunday in March. Sessions 1-2 will be on GMT, and the remaining sessions will be on BST. Please ensure you check the timings of this course and how this corresponds to your own time zone HERE.

What happens after I complete the course?

• You will be invited to give your feedback – this is not compulsory
• In the final session you will be given information about ways to carry your practice forwards if you wish to do so
• The OMC provides Confirmation of Attendance letters to all participants who attend our courses, confirming the number of sessions attended

What will I do on this course?

• Attend 12 sessions lasting 2 hours and 15 minutes. The first session is 2 hours and 30 minutes
• This is a structured course where each session builds upon what has been introduced before. This is why it is important to attend all the sessions
• You will be in a group of up to 12 people, led by one of OMC’s experienced mindfulness teachers
• Each session will have guided and structured meditation practices. Many sessions also have exercises drawn from modern psychology
• Each practice or exercise is followed by 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
• Each session is followed by 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
• You will have access to a web resource which gives you guided practices and written material to support each session.

Learning Outcomes

• How to learn more about attention and how to use it skilfully
• How to cultivate the attitudes of mindfulness, in practice and in life
• To understand how we can choose to vary the perspective we are taking in order to respond more skilfully
• To extend our learning to include both our inner and our outer, wider world in ways that are consistent with our values