Courses

  Will it just be another year of the same thinking, emotions, sensations and behaviours you have known? There is an opportunity here to learn how to begin the process of making choices and changes about what serves you and what does not serve you for the year ahead. 

The aim of this course is to teach techniques and attitudes for managing the thinking, emotions and sensations that drive your lives. The objective of the course is for participants to cultivate a level of self-awareness and kindness that will enable them to feel they have head space to make skilful choices, rather than acting out unhelpful habits and impulses.

Over the even weeks participants will learn the key principles of mindfulness from a very experienced teacher. Each week you will be introduced to a new technique and attitude within a group context, such as working with the unsettled mind, settling the mind, the mind and body integration, distraction, allowing and letting do, movement and kindness .
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There will be an opportunity for discussions of the experience of each new technique and attitude, but participation in these discussions is invited not demanded.

All correspondence via bill@bemindfulfife.co.uk

Compassion: Developing and Managing Relationships

Once participants have completed a mindfulness course, they often ask “What is next?” … “What do I do now? My answer is the Compassion course that focuses on Developing and Managing Relationships. It is the next step in any mindfulness journey because it is focused on the qualities of a good relationship with the self and how this can be extended to everyone we meet. Here compassion is explicitly introduced as the central attitude for meeting our own experience and our experience of other people. In this course we begin to explore what gets in the way of being with our own experiences, and the difficulties we have with other people. The outcomes of the course are to enable participants to learn the qualities and practices of compassion so that they might meet their experience of the self and others with more skill. Practicing these together can enable participants to live a fuller and more liberated life, such that they can develop deeper understanding and connection in all relationships.

The course will be delivered in 90 minute session per week for eight weeks, and participants will have access to a manual and sound-files.

There is also the option of a full day of practice,

and access to a monthly Compassionate Support Group

The full cost of the course is £160.00. To book a place on the course you only have to make payment. I’m happy for a payment of £80.00 to be paid to reserve a place, and then to pay the full amount before the course starts (£160.00)

There are two places for individuals experiencing unemployment at £80.00. In these cases I am happy to accept a payment of £40.00 to reserve a place, and then to pay the full amount before the course starts (£80.00)

Note

You must have completed an introductory mindfulness course before seeking entry onto this course. 

Once a deposit is made it will not be refunded unless the course is cancelled.

Please contact bill@bemindfulfife.co.uk for inquires, cost and to book a place.

1. What two words sum up your experience of the Compassion course?

Nurturing/Empowering

Thought provoking/Kind

Enlightening

Explorative/ Motivating

Insightful / Thought provoking

Understanding/ Compassion

2. What, if anything, was the most important thing you learned and why

I learned how to tune in to my feelings, physical reactions and emotions and then responding to these with a greater sense of acceptance and kindness. Looking at the bigger picture is helping me to shift out of my habitual thought patterns. I have enjoyed exploring the CBL techniques and this has given me a sense of the many opportunities that lie ahead.

How to address and react to my self-critic – I feel like this is something I used to struggle with on a daily basis – becoming involved with my own criticism and creating negativity towards myself. I know have the tools to combat this!

I have learned to observe and respond with kindness and curiosity when my mind will not settle and be grounded, and when I struggle to focus on what is happening in the body. I learned that there is so much more to learn about compassion based practice. I believe it will be a lifetime journey.

The arrows – I loved the three arrows. The first arrow is the unavoidable pain of life – we get sick, experience pain, loved ones die and we feel grief, and so on. The second arrow is the suffering we cause ourselves from seeking to avoid and resist the reality of the pain from the first arrow. The third arrow is the belief that because we have been struck by two arrows something is wrong with us; we feel like we are a flawed human being (Tara Brach the ‘trance of unworthiness’). It is argued that the first arrow is an inevitable part of human life, but the other two arrows are self inflicted. We cause ourselves a great deal of unnecessary suffering. Therefore with training we can stop inflicting more suffering on our wounds by turning towards these difficulties with acceptance, kindness and equanimity.

That it’s ok not to get on with everyone but you can still wish then happiness/love in their life.

 I learned to be kinder and more forgiving to myself in order that I can  be  compassionate to others.

3. Has the course impact on your engagement with colleagues, family and friends? Please explain.

I am noticing my physical and emotional reactions more and responding to these in more positive ways. I am feeling more connected and responsive to others’ reactions & emotions.

I use the CBLC at work, with family and friends – and on myself. It has helped me explain inner critic to a young person who struggles with anxiety and also to my friend.

This course has allowed me to look at myself and others differently. It has helped me develop my compassion for others. I have used it at work to help myself not to get wrapped up in the negative parts of relationships.

Frequently, I am placed in stressful situations at work where I am open to making mistakes. I now feel more confident challenging self-criticism, and instead bringing compassion to my difficulty.

I am aware of my self-critic that often nags at me and I sometimes remember to have a self-compassion break, to take in the good and to tap into my compassionate self repeating words of kindness to myself. I sometimes feel critical of or negative towards some people and now I offer them (silent) words of kindness. 

I have developed more patience and understanding when interacting with family and friends. I think more about how life must be for them and what they may be suffering or have suffered in the past. I am less judgemental and more reflective.

4. Would you recommend this course to others

I would highly recommend this course to other people (unanimous)