New Mindfulness Course starting February 2020

Mindfulness Course: The Four Foundations of Mindfulness

We are so pleased to offer this course!

In this practical 5-part course, you will learn the practices linked to each one of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. In addition to teaching the different meditations, the teacher will give detailed explanations of the practices, the scientific background on their benefits, and in which situations they can be used or should be avoided*. Special attention will be given to practices that can be integrated into our busy lives, so that participants slowly learn to make Mindfulness a way of life and become more aware of what is going on in their mind, body and emotions, in order to be able to live a fuller, more connected life.

Voluntary homework will be provided from one session to the next, as well as suggested reading.

*not all practices are suitable for people suffering from anxiety, depression or trauma. Alternative practices will be given for people suffering from these conditions. Discretion is guaranteed.

Who is this course for?
This course is for anyone interested in learning Mindfulness as well as for people who are already familiar with Mindfulness, but would like to get a deeper understanding of the structure of Mindfulness and how to practice in a safe, informed, gradual and organised way.

Course dates:
Saturday, 8th February (10-12h30)
Saturday, 29th February (10-12h30)
Saturday, 28th March (10-12h30)
Saturday, 25th April (10-12h30)
Saturday, 30th May (10-12h30)

Where: yogaloft. – Kirchberg , Luxembourg

Sign up here: https://clients.mindbodyonline.com/classic/ws?studioid=37185&stype=-8&sTG=51&sView=day&sLoc=0

Price: 250€ (for the full course) or 60€ per session if taken separately. Priority is given to people who book the full course.

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present and aware of where we are and what we’re doing instead of being overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us.

What is Mindfulness Meditation?

Mindfulness Meditation is an evidence-based form of meditation derived from a 2,500 year-old Buddhist practice called Vipassana or Insight Meditation. It is a form of meditation designed to develop the skill of paying attention to our inner and outer experiences with acceptance, patience, and compassion.

Instead of finding ourselves at the mercy of worry, fear, anger, and the like, we grow in our ability to choose how we want to act in situations, often in ways that might have been out of our reach before.

Benefits include:

· Increased energy
· Improved mental function, intelligence, and memory
· Improved decision-making ability
· Reduced stress, irritability, anxiety, and depression
· Improved interpersonal relationships
· Increased resilience to change
· Aid to smoking cessation efforts
· Elevated immune system function
· Reduced frequency and duration of illnesses
· Improved management of pain
· Decreased heart rate and blood pressure
· Improved sleep and digestion

What are the Four Foundations of Mindfulness?

The Four Foundations of Mindfulness are a frame of reference taught by the Buddha that allows the practitioner to learn Mindfulness in a safe, gradual and organised way.

They are:

1) Mindfulness of Body (8th February: Breath – 29th February: Body)
The First Foundation establishes an awareness of breath and body as flesh and bone. As the ability to maintain awareness grows stronger, the practitioner learns to become aware of the whole body in stillness, movement and daily life. This embodied awareness leads to a better relationship with our body and its needs.

2) Vedanā – Mindfulness of Feeling Tone (28th March)
The Second Foundation establishes an awareness of felt experience. Is it pleasant, unpleasant or neutral, is it arising, disappearing or manifesting? How do we experience it in our body and to which emotions and behaviour do they lead? Is its source physical or mental? Practicing with feeling tone, or vedanā, is an important practice. Noticing the feeling tone of each experience, we are able to see it more clearly. As we develop the ability to tune into the vedanā of experience, we no longer identify so strongly with each experience. Unpleasantness often leads to aversion and pleasantness may lead to craving or clinging. When we know the feeling tone, we can begin to see this cycle and break it.

3) Mindfulness of Mind (25th April)
The Third Foundation teaches us to become aware of our mental states. Is our mind distracted or concentrated? Anxious, worried, irritated, agitated, tense? What is the mood of our mind and how does it influence our body, our thoughts, our emotions and our behaviour? As with the second foundation, awareness of our mental states allows us to dis-identify with our mind, and makes us aware that we do not have to be at its mercy. As with feeling tone, we can begin to see and understand the waves of the mind and break their cycle.

4) Mindfulness of Dharma (30th May)
In the Fourth Foundation we essentially practice mindfulness of reality. This practice is an investigation of whether the mental states present are wholesome, harmful or helpful, whether they lead to suffering or freedom. In a nutshell, in this Fourth Foundation we learn to understand how the mind creates negative states and how we can return to well-being.

At the end of the course you will be able to establish your own Mindfulness practice.

I’m looking forward to seeing you in class!

Love,

Pamela