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Mindfulness

“If we are to grasp the reality of our life while we have it, we will need to wake up to our moments. Otherwise, whole days, even a whole life, could slip past unnoticed.”
– Jon Kabat-Zinn

8-Week Living Mindfully Program – May 2023
(in-person & online program)

Cultivate the capacity to work more skilfully with stress and uncertainty .

 We invite you to join our in-person program if you wish to learn about Mindfulness, understand some of the neuroscience behind it, and deepen your Mindfulness practice.

This 8-week program is based on the book “Mindfulness – Finding Peace in a Frantic World” by Mark Williams and Danny Penman, as well as elements of the 8-week MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction) course designed by Jon Kabat-Zinn.

You will have the opportunity to experientially explore your relationship to stress and life in general. By building awareness of your thoughts, emotions, and sensations, you can use your innate resources and abilities to meet everyday challenges with calm, wisdom, and clarity.

Mindfulness refers to the willingness or ability to show up fully in our lives and live them as if they truly mattered. Typically, it is cultivated by a range of simple meditation practices that bring greater awareness to thinking, feeling, and behavioural patterns, and that develop the capacity to manage these with greater skill and compassion. This leads to an expansion of choice and capacity in how to meet and respond to life’s challenges and, therefore, live with enhanced well-being, mental clarity, and care for yourself and others.

Some of the benefits of mindfulness may include emotional regulation, increased self-awareness, wiser decision-making, improved concentration, greater focus, stress management, and an overall sense of well-being.

Program Structure:

  • A free introductory one-hour session to find out more about Mindfulness and the 8-week Living Mindfully program
    (In Person on Tuesday 9th May, 9.30am-10.30am) (Online, Zoom Room on Thursday 11th May, 8.30am-9.15am)
  • Completion of a brief written assessment form, to determine if the program is suitable for you as well as to create an opportunity to mention expectations and ask questions
  • In Person – 2-hour group session once a week (8 consecutive Tuesdays, starting 23rd May, 9.30-11.30am)
    Online – 90-minute group session once a week (8 consecutive Thursdays, starting 25th May, 8.30-10.00am
  • Your commitment to do home practises and exercises six out of seven days during the program
    (between 10 to 30 mins per day)
  • Places are limited to 15 people per group

Investment: 

  • R3 200 per person or R2 800 p/p, (early bird, by 12th May 2023)
  • Investment  includes evaluation form, all sessions, and program material (e-workbook and guided meditations)
  • Please contact us if you would like to make a payment arrangement

Program Dates: Tues 23rd May to Tues 11th July (in-person) or Thurs 25th May to Thurs 13th June (online)
(8 consecutive weeks)  9h30-11h30am (in-person) / 8h30-10am (online)

Introductory Talk – anyone is welcome to attend this talk to find out more about what Mindfulness is, and to ask questions about the 8-week program
In Person – Tuesday 9th May (9h30-10h30am) at Kaya Shala Yoga Studio, Claremont Farm, Sheffield Beach Road, Umhlali, Dolphin Coast, KZN
Online – Thursday 11th May (8h30-9h15am) in the Zoom-room (link to emailed when you sign up)

Learning and practice of:

  • Gentle mindful movement
  • Body scan meditation
  • Sitting meditations (including Finding an Anchor, Awareness of Breath, Sounds and Thoughts, Turning towards Difficulty,  and Loving-Kindness/ Befriending)
  • Walking meditation
  • Group dialogue, Inquiry & interpersonal learning

 Guidelines:

  • In person – Bring a yoga/ exercise mat, a cushion and a small blanket / towel with you (the blanket/ towel can be used if you don’t have a yoga mat)
  • Online – ensure you have a space that will be undisturbed, and can sit comfortably
  • Wear something warm and comfortable

“In a sense, you could say that {Mindfulness} refreshes us, makes this moment fresh, timeless, freed up, wide open. In such moments, we transcend who we think we are. We go beyond our stories and all our incessant thinking, however deep and important it sometimes is, and reside in the seeing of what is here to be seen and the direct, non-conceptual knowing of what is here to be known, which we don’t have to seek because it is already and always there. We rest in awareness, in the knowing itself which includes, of course, not knowing as well. We become the knowing and the not knowing, as we shall see over and over again.”
–  Jon Kabat-Zinn