Online Mindfulness sessions
During August to November we’d run an online service providing activities, quizzes and ‘how to’ videos to families.
With support from Lottery Community funding we then moved to running sessions for two families at a time in the woodland in December. During that period we became very aware of the yearning that existed for greater social connection. So, when the latest lockdown was announced, meaning we couldn’t run sessions at the woodland at all, we decided it was most appropriate for us to support mental health and emotional wellbeing in our community using an interactive online provision.
Fortunately, I’m an accredited Mindfulness Teacher and could offer to run a series of mindfulness sessions, as a pilot project, during Janaury. The response to our small-scale promotion was much greater than anticipated and two sessions per week were run to accommodate the numbers of people who applied.
The feedback from the online Mindfulness sessions has been extremely positive. It has been really rewarding to hear back from people about how much they’ve got out of these ‘Introductions to Mindfulness’ sessions and how much they’ve looked forward to the next one and connecting with others, albeit online, durng lockdown.
“It has also been lovely to share this experience with the others in the group – this small piece of human contact really has made a difference to me! Thank you very much Susan and Outdoor Tribe!”
Participant – January 2021
How practicing Mindfulness helps
Practicing Mindfulness involves developing greater awareness and learning to notice more. That might seem strange as you might think you notice things all the time, because that’s just part of day to day living.
Actually, it’s said we live 80% of our lives in our heads, on automatic pilot, not really noticing much of what’s going on in the ‘present moment’ at all, rather crashing on through our days lurching from what can feel like one catastrophe to another!
If you stop for a few moments to think about how you live your life, doing what you can to ‘get through each day’ responding to the ‘pressures of living’ day to day, how much time do you spend really noticing what’s going on around you, or inside you for that matter?
“I haven’t got time” is a phrase we all know so well, but then if something is really important we make the time. We make the time to brush our teeth each day don’t we? We make time to make a cup of tea because we feel thirsty, we make time to get something to eat because we feel hungry. However, when it comes to making time to do something to help us feel better in ourselves, less exhausted, less anxious, less angry perhaps, we so often tell ourselves we just don’t have the time…
What can happen through taking time for you
By putting aside 40 minutes to attend the weekly Mindfulness sessions our participants committed to taking the first step to making some time for themselves, in a bid to discover if Mindfulness had something to help them, in one way or another.
As with any free courses a few people fell by the wayside after week 1, but most became really committed to attending, whatever it took, because they felt so much better in themselves by the end of the sessions. They also became intrigued about how much more they began to notice and about how they could use the Mindfulness exercies they learned to lower their stress levels, irritability, feelings of not coping, or to improve their sleep, amongst other benefits they described.
“I’ve really felt the sessions help to lift my mood and stop me from feeling all over the place”
Participant – January 2021
Being part of a community is good for wellbeing
Over the 4 weeks of Mindfulness sessions there was a definite sense of building a supportive community. I could tell this was happening as the weeks went by as people needed less coaxing to interact with the group through commenting and sharing their responses to exercices they were learning.
“The sessions are so full of kindness and bringing kindness to ourselves, which is just so lovely and so needed”
Participant – January 2021
Increasingly, I could see smiles beaming out from the little zoom box screens I was looking at and it was obvious people were finding the group a safe and supportive place to be and the sessions a nourishing experience. In fact, so much so that it was quite difficult to say our goodbyes at the end of the fourth session.
However, for those who want to carry on I have provided options, including a 4-week more in-depth Mindfulness training course and the opportunity to attend one of two Mindfulness Spa evenings (details to be published here very soon).
Future Mindfulness sessions online
We’ve just had a positive response from the Lottery Community Fund agreeing to us diverting more of our budget for running woodland sessions into running online Mindfulness sessions.
So, during February we will be offering a block of 4 free Mindfulness sessions for parents/carers of families with special needs children.
This is a great opportnnity not just to dip your toe into the warm water pool of Mindfulness but to experience some valuable ‘Me Time’ too.
If you’re interested in attending a session on a Monday morning or a Wednesday evening then complete the form below and I’ll get in touch with you for a chat about what’s involved.
“The cumulative effect of the 4 sessions has meant I can do something to stop much more of the chatter in my head. It really has worked for me and I’ve been really impressed with these sessions”
Participant – January 2021
Hi
I just reread the 24th December 2020 and 31st January blogs. They were great. We should send them to the The National Lottery Community Fund team.