A peek at each week of the Swoop Coaching Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Course
The Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction course has helped people all over the world to alleviate stress, anxiety and depression and even pain, and just as importantly it helps people to find more joy in everyday life. (https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/mindfulness-based-stress-reduction#side-effects)
It’s a course that I simply love to run, as I get to see how beneficial it becomes for the practitioners. But what is inside? Most people beginning a journey of Mindfulness carry a lot of preconceptions about meditation and ‘clearing the mind’ (don’t worry, we don’t try and clear the mind during mindfulness).
First of all a quick overview:
Every 2 hour session contains a guided meditation or two to try, as well as some teachings about the nature of the human mind. During the week, students are given home practice in the form of listening to a guided meditation, as well as some other practices to help them to become more awake and aware in daily life. At the beginning of the next week there is the opportunity for students to share what they experienced during their mindfulness practices, and I act as teacher and guide for the journey.
Lets take a look at the theme of each week:
From Autopilot to Awareness
Week one begins with understanding some of the key principles of Mindfulness. In a few simple practices we can quickly begin to have moments of escaping from our default way of experiencing the world, and become more aware of how rich and vivid it really is. This is sometimes described as “waking up”.
2. From Reacting to Responding
In week two we start to explore the ‘feeling tone’ or ‘pulse’ of a thought. When we aren’t aware of this tone, and what our habitual response to it is, we react ‘on impulse’ and it doesn’t always go well for us. When we begin to practice noticing the feeling tone, it gives us a choice to slow down, observe what is ‘really’ happening and make wiser decisions.
3. Mindfulness of the Body
Our body and our brain are all one organism. Mindfulness isn’t only to do with ‘thinking’ it is equally to do with ‘sensing’ and ‘feeling.’ We all grow accustomed to experiencing our bodies in a certain way. In week 3 we begin the journey of fully returning to our body via meditations and movement practices, so that we can feel more ‘whole’ as a person and at home in our body. Many people can find a sense of peace, or acceptance or even some freedom from pain during these practices.
4. Working with Thoughts
To quote Willy Wonka we live in a world of “Pure Imagination”. Our thoughts are how we experience our reality. In week 4, we begin to hone our mindfulness skills towards ‘observing thoughts’ as rumours of the mind, and learning how to let them pass by without being utterly convinced by them.
5. Working with Difficult Thoughts and Experiences
Everybody has moments when their mind turns to something that troubles them. In this week we look at how holding thoughts in Mindful Awareness can take the sting out of them, and how we can become more grounded in difficult situations
6. Compassion #1 Beginning with self
In the first of two weeks about compassion we explore self-compassion, this also includes elements of forgiveness, acceptance and gratitude. A journey of Mindful compassion has the ability to bring more joy into our heart.
7. Compassion #2 Self and others
On the second week of compassion we begin to practice compassion for others. This practice commonly helps us to release difficulties that we carry with us, and allows us to get on better with others in our life.
8. Living Mindfully
In the final week, we explore how to continue on the Mindful path and the practicalities of sustaining a mindfulness practice.
