Q&A, Facts & Terminology

What is Mindfulness

You may have heard about Mindfulness in the paper, on the news, or in the media.

But do you know what it is?

Do you know the benefits it can have?

Mindfulness has been around for over 25 years in the UK and 40 years in the USA

Mindfulness means paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, with qualities like compassion, curiosity and acceptance.

Mindfulness in Sheffield will help you become more aware of your thoughts, feelings, body sensations, as well as giving you an in-depth understanding the practices involved for a better Health and Wellbeing, understanding you, your pain and your stress and learning to be with them and learn not to react to them.

The Facts and the Benefits

Mindfulness has been proven to help reduce

• Stress

• Anxiety

• Depression

• Pain

Other benefits of Mindfulness

• Help with Sleep/Insomnia

• Boosting your immune system

• Calming the mind

• Soothing your emotions

• Listening to your thoughts

• Making better decisions

• Coming to your senses

• Creating an attentive mind

• Managing feelings differently

• Promoting Health and Wellbeing

What is Involved in a Typical Session

Within the 8-Week Stress Reduction, Health and Wellbeing Programme, there is an Orientation and Assessment Session at the beginning.

Each Session is around 2hrs long once a week for the full 8-weeks.

The A&O session is to ensure the mindfulness course is right for the particular client, it's not suitable for active depression, recent change in medication, Schizophrenia, Alcoholics or even if your too busy in your life.

All programmes then follow a similar pattern. Each week has a topic. We discuss that particular weeks topic and introduce practices to keep you in the moment with mindful attitudes such as

• Acceptance.

• Curiosity.

• Self-compassion.

• Openness.

• Letting go.

• Gratitude.

Frequently Asked Question

Where are the programmes held?

Heaven is Homemade Vintage Tea rooms, Todwick, Sheffield. S26 1JH. This is 2 minutes from J31 of the M1 heading towards Worksop on the A57.​

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness means paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, with qualities like compassion, curiosity and acceptance.

In our day-to-day life we tend to be creatures of habit and much of what we do is a kind of unconscious reaction to life’s circumstances.

Will Mindfulness effect my religious beliefs?

No, Mindfulness originally comes from Buddhist traditions, but mindfulness itself is completely secular and has no religious element.

Is Mindfulness a FAD?

No, Mindfulness was originally designed and developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn an American professor emeritus of medicine and the creator of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Centre for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School over 40 years ago and has been in the UK for over 20 years.

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Can you do 1 to 1 sessions?

Yes we can. It is ok to do 1 to 1 sessions and we can come to you for an additional fee (Time & Travel). I always recommend group sessions. That way, even if you're not comfortable talking in a group or suffer from anxiety, you get to hear other peoples experiences and be able to relate with them. Also eventually you will have the confidence to participate in conversations as you realise no one is judging anyone's experience of pain, stress, life experiences or mindfulness.

How Long is a Typical Session?

Each session is around 2hrs dependant on size of group and group interaction. Reduction in Exam Stress for Teenagers is 1hr as we know children become bored very quickly.

Are you DBS checked so you can work with children?

Yes, Should you require a copy of the certificate, please kindly email me and I will be more than happy to send a copy to you. DBS checked certificate No. 000913749431

Are You Certified to Teach Mindfulness?

Yes I am. Breathworks accredited No. 105116 and Certified to teach and accredited by the Society of Holistic Therapists and Coaches. Should you require a copy of my certificate, please kindly email me and I will be more than happy to send a copy to you.

Will Mindfulness wipe my memory?

No, Mindfulness will help you become aware of your thoughts, feelings and body sensations, with mindful attitudes such as Acceptance, Curiosity, Self-compassion, Openness, Letting go, Gratitude.

Will there be help away from the sessions if I have difficulties?

Yes, all our clients know they can contact me at anytime to discuss any difficulties they are facing. This can be done via phone, email or social media.

How long will it take for me to notice a difference?

Everyone is unique and different. Some people start to feel the difference in weeks, with others, it can take months, it is all down to the individual. The important aspect is the practicing, the more you practice, the more you become to notice the moment to moment experiences.

If I miss a session will I be able to catch up?

At each session handouts are given with the weeks agenda and practices. Should you be unfortunate to miss a session due to unforeseen circumstances, all that weeks info will be sent to you and should you need to discuss anything, we are always available to answer your questions.

How will Mindfulness help me?

Mindfulness is the ability to be more aware, more awake to your experiences in the present moment. This ability enables you to choose how to respond to your experiences at that moment in time. Mindfulness can help you to break cycles of reactivity and to regain a sense of initiative, confidence and control.

Why would I want to become aware of my stress or pain?

When we suffer our instinct is to push the pain away. This is normal and natural. When we suffer long-term pain or stress it is very tiring pushing away the pain. This causes even more suffering, called 'secondary suffering'. In trying to ignore the pain, we often find we block out other experiences including pleasant ones. Mindfulness helps to reduce the stress of constant ‘blocking’ and hence removes some of the secondary suffering, and gives us greater possibilities to experience more of the pleasant aspects of life.

I don't know if I have time to fit in the full programme?

Some people think they are too busy in their daily lives. You will find that by practicing mindfulness, time becomes more available to you and you become more productive with your daily activities. For those who still think they are too busy, we do occasionally run a 4-week programme. Look at our Mindfulness programmes for dates and booking information.

Terminology

Acceptance

Seeing things as they actually are in the present moment. Sometimes we confuse acceptance with approval or resignation. Acceptance is about turning towards experience not running away from it (let go of fight). The attitude of acceptance can have a quality of compassion and understanding to it. You are much more likely to know what to do with a better state of mind when you have a clear picture of what is actually happening. Accept because you want to change is not accepting.

Automatic Pilot

• Without really being aware of what we are doing, we can often be “in our own little world” without knowing we’re actually in “automatic pilot” and not really being “in the present moment” which can be for much of our lives.

• On automatic pilot, we are more likely to have our thoughts, feelings and sensations in the mind that are often unhelpful, leading to a circle of thoughts, emotions, bodily sensations and behavior.

• By becoming more aware of our thoughts, feelings, and body sensations, we give ourselves the possibility of greater freedom and choice by not going down the same route that may have caused problems in the past.

Beginner's Mind

• Often, we let our thinking, beliefs and assumptions about what we know or the way something is stops us from seeing things as they really are and prevents us from experiencing the present moment.

• With a beginner’s mind it is possible to approach thinking, beliefs and assumptions with a fresh set of sensors which will give us something new to be noticed.

• Like a child’s mind, we have to cultivate our mind with being receptive and curious to new possibilities in each moment to see, sense and feel everything as if it was the first time.

Being Mode

• Connection with the present moment. You’re mindful of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. You’re not thinking about the past or future.

• Acknowledge and allow things to be as they are. You’re less goal oriented and have less of a burning desire for situations to change. You accept how things are before moving to change anything. Being mode is about acknowledging where you are.

• Open to pleasant, unpleasant and neutral emotions. Willing to open up to painful and unpleasant sensations or emotions without trying to run away from them. Understand that avoiding an emotion just locks you into it.

Compassion

You deal gently, kindly, and patiently with yourself and others. Rather than judging, or condemning, you open your heart to really listen and try to understand your own and other people's experiences. You allow yourself to feel other people's suffering. You love people not for what they can give you or because you need something from them, but because you connect and empathise with their experiences.

Curiosity

Curiosity allows us to begin to turn toward the entirety of experience, moving us from avoidance to approach, including that which we don’t like. Curiosity can be used as a way to inquire into our experience—the joyful and painful alike. Curiosity or interest can thus lead us to mindful investigation and exploration, coming to fully know experience as it is. Staying with whatever is happening, whether it is wanted or unwanted, can help us to accept what is, and enhance our capacity for compassion.

Doing Mode

• Doing mode is being aware of how things are, and how they should be. E.g. Filling the car up with fuel. You’re aware that you are running low and at some point soon you will need to purchase some fuel before you run out.

• You set a goal to fix things. Setting goals as to the way things should be and happens without you being conscious of it.

• Achieve your goal. Feel driven. You know what you want and you try hard to get it.

• Automatic.You’re not really aware when you’re in doing mode.

• You’re completing tasks in automatic pilot mode.

• Not in the present moment. Not connected with your senses, in the now or focusing in the present moment, you’re thinking about how things should be in the future, or replaying events from the past.

Gratitude

The quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.

Increased gratitude is a common result of practicing mindfulness. As we start paying more attention to our thoughts, we notice where we block ourselves from appreciating the good things in life. E.G, that you always used to get angry when stuck in traffic, but now when you bring your focus to where you are (rather than where you want to get to) you notice things such as the song on the radio or a beautiful scene beyond the car window. We can’t feel grateful for things we don’t notice, and so mindfulness and gratitude go hand-in-hand.

Letting Go

Letting go is a way of letting things be, of accepting things as they are. Holding on is the opposite of letting go. Being willing to look at the ways we hold on shows a lot about its opposite. Using trust, acceptance, non-striving, patience, beginner’s mind and non-judging can lead us to the ability to let go. Keeping in mind, it is also very natural to cling to the things we love and want or believe are important to our well-being, so we don’t have to force ourselves to let go.

Non-Judging

Often, we judge everything that comes into our experience moment to moment. Taking the stance of an impartial witness to any experience (Thoughts, Feelings and body sensations)

Non-Striving

Another aspect to living mindfully is practicing without striving for any particular outcome, meditation has no goal other than for you to be yourself and paying attention to how you are right now. To achieve your own goals is to back off from striving and start to focus on seeing and accepting things as they are, moment by moment along with patience and regular practice, movement towards your goals will take place by itself.

Openness

Rather than dreading and shutting out your own feelings and experiences because you think you can't handle them, you welcome with curiosity any thoughts and feelings that naturally arise, knowing they are merely sensations in the moment and the next moment can be different. You create mental spaciousness to contain these thoughts and fellings. Become aware of your experience as a flow of sensations, thoughts, and feelings and watch how these change and transform naturally over time.

Patience

Letting things unfold in their own time, being completely open to each moment, accepting its fullness, knowing that things will emerge in their own time.

Trust

Developing a basic trust in yourself and your feelings. Pay attention to self-doubting thoughts when they arise and look deeply into where they really come from, instead of just believing them. Honour your feelings and take responsibility for yourself and your own well-being.