Many of us begin each year with a resolution to change something in ourselves – this is echoed all around us in TV advertising, social media and magazines. Gym memberships and keep fit classes, even online, make their best sales at this time of the year. A wish for “New Year, New You” is all around us, coming from inside and out. A collective desire for self – improvement, and to be ‘better’ than we already are. All well and good – so it seems. However, often, by the time we are approaching the end of January, our resolutions are fraying, our intentions are a little tattered along with the billboards, and our new found optimism is feeling a little tired. We may find that perhaps a ‘Dry January’ or a ‘New You’ Diet and Health regime isn’t reaching the parts that we had hoped for! Perhaps our determination to make a fresh start has dissolved with the fading of new year optimism. Perhaps, with the current lockdown, we feel helpless in making real differences. By February the comforting sense of ourselves as we know us has slipped back into a comfortable, if slightly disgruntled, hum.
But – can we have find a different way to have our New Year, and genuinely make a commitment to starting just where we are? A way to be with ourselves that grows slowly and lastingly, without the thrust and disappointment of trying and failing to get it right? Taking a closer look at what our perceptions that we should be improved, develop a better version of ourselves? Striving and achieving goals is an important part of the thrust of life. To grow, develop, make progress. But – the expectations and the disappointment if these are not achieved can be less than rewarding. Our inner chatter can be critical. “Oh dear – here I go again”, “Another year started and I already can’t even keep one promise to myself”. Sometimes a sense of guilt and shame can set in, whether that is about not managing to give up a something, or to start a new habit – perhaps even to meditate. Maybe we have bought the meditation app, bought the yoga mat, got the gym kit – and somehow, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
This kind of thinking gives the inner critic all the fuel it needs to proliferate and feed on the negative spirals that can subtly lower our mood.
Our Mindfulness for Everyday Living courses offers something different. They offer an invitation to start just where you are, just how you are. With mindfulness we get a chance to really notice our thoughts and reactions, and we train our minds to wake up to the default wandering that make us feel less than good about ourselves. By learning how to notice moments of well – being in the body, as well as making room for the difficult moments of life, we learn how to cultivate an attitude of curiosity, patience and self-compassion towards our experience. By practising mindfulness in a group setting, you will increase your capacity to live more fully in the present – the only moment we actually ever have.
You will learn to enjoy life more fully and;
- Increase a sense of joy
- Manage better with stress and anxiety
- Build resilience
- Improve health and wellbeing
- Cope better at times of difficulty
- Improve concentration and attention
- Accept ourselves and others
Our courses are running currently online via Zoom video conferencing. Please check out our courses here.
Comments from previous participants
“I found the sessions a real revelation and helped me cope better with everyday stresses”
“I notice things more and relish the good things. I enjoyed the group practices”
Mindfulness for Everyday Living 