We are delivering the above course both 1:1 and in a group setting to meet your needs.
Cultivating my own practice using compassion and kindness has been a positive game changer for me in the way l regulate my emotions, thoughts and actions. This has had a huge impact on my creativity, parenting, paid work and my general wellbeing.
What to expect....
A life changing experience as you increase your well-being, sense of self, self-love and care and love and compassion for others.
Each week we will focus on different areas linked to mindfulness such as:
-Coming out of auto pilot and experiencing the world for what it is, developing daily gratitude and being more responsive rather than reactive.
-Gaining a deeper sense of awareness of the choices you make and how to change these choices if they are no longer serving you and your family.
-Bringing balance to your daily life, allowing yourself to have YOU time, exploring what this may look like, and building it into your daily routine.
-Thoughts are not facts, combating negative thinking patterns, feelings of low self-worth, and developing self-compassion.
-Changing habits and negative habitual patterns of behaviour.
-Exploring how to bring compassion and kindness to the people around you, this may have been a challenge during these difficult times.
An investment in YOU and your life, a change in your thinking patterns, habitual negative behaviours and joining a community of like-minded people.
1-1.5 hours a week TIME OUT, investing in yourself. It is so important to look after ourselves as when we are at our best it has such a positive effect on the people around us.
What are you waiting for?
WHATS INCLUDED:
-Handouts and worksheets to keep,
-MP3 downloads to support the development of your practice at home,
For more information contact me directly at
jenny@butterfliesot.com
What is Mindfulness?
The core features of mindfulness practice involve turning down the volume of endless thoughts going around and around in the head, and increasing the volume of physical sensations to anchor in the present moment.
Mindfulness is about being in the here and now, accepting where we are, and coming out of autopilot. For example, can you remember the drive here this morning?, can you remember eating your breakfast (if you had any)? When we are on autopilot those details are not noticed.
Regular mindfulness helps to recognise habitual patterns by creating space to choose how to respond, rather than react to any given situation.
How do you respond to stress?
Take a moment to think about how you respond to stress, some examples include:
- Allergies / skin rash
- High blood pressure
- Chronic fatigue / exhaustion / burn out
- Diabetes
- Flu / common cold
- Alcohol / drug use
- Sleep disturbances / insomnia
- Increased nicotine / caffeine intake
- Teeth grinding
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Frequent crying
- Losing control
- Gossiping
- Rapid heartbeat
- Thinking 'I must have what l want' 'I must perform well' 'Other must approve of me'
- Competitive
- Passive / aggressive in relationships
Do some of these things sound like you? This list can seem overwhelming and 1-2 may sound like you, or all of them. Everyone responds differently to stress.
My personal experience of response to stress includes, teeth grinding, waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to go back to sleep, not being kind to myself, poor digestion and rapid heartbeat.
What can you do to reduce your stress?.....
!! Engage with regular Mindfulness and Compassion practice !!
The Benefits of regular Mindfulness and Compassion practice
Over the past 30 years there has been a vast amount of research completed around the benefits of practicing mindfulness. These include;
- Living in the 'here and now', the ability to interact with life and those around us in a more responsive and relaxed manner.
- Healthy acceptance of things that don't go our way, or events that we find challenging,
- Self-Kindness, by giving ourselves the time to undertake a daily mindfulness practice can be a catalyst for greater kindness and compassion in itself and implies a commitment to our own happiness and well-being,
- Habits - Seeing more clearly where turning to face life's challenges may be appropriate, and where habitual patterns of turning away and non-engagement may not be,
- 'Letting go' -Mindfulness gives us the ability to let go, let go of stress and anxiety, constant thinking, reliving of the past or pre-living of the future,
There have been numerous research studies highlighting the benefits of regular mindfulness, these include;
- Reduction in depression, stress reduce depression, stress, anxiety and pain (Schreiner and Malcolm, 2008).
- Increased resilience in difficult situations,
- Reduced heart rate and blood pressure,
- Deeper sleep,
- Improved confidence and self-esteem,
- Stronger immune systems,
- Increased empathy and compassion,
- Ability to regulate emotions,
- Create space for more positive thoughts,
- Thinking can become clearer,
- Building of self-compassion,
- Greater calmness and clarity,
- More effective concentration,
- Improved listening skills,
- Improved ability to quieten a chattering mind,
- Reduced heart rate,
- Better breathing patterns,
- Healthier digestion,
- Ability to be kinder to oneself and others,
- Heightened awareness of the body to recognition and release of pain,
- Strengthening of the immune system,
- Lower blood pressure.
Research has also widened its scope to much broader areas such as:
- The reduction of blood pressure and stress with patients with arterial hypertension (Marquez et al. 2018),
- Increased psychological outcomes for breast cancer survivors (Huang et al. 2015),
- Improved psychological functioning, empathy, compassion and resilience of teachers and their students (Weare, 2019),
- The increase of acute pain tolerance (Shires et al. 2020),
- The increase in quality of life of people with spinal cord injury (Hearn and Cross, 2020).
As you can see, regular mindfulness practice can have a HUGE effect on your overall health and well-being.
What are you waiting for?? Let's get started !!!
