Mindfulness Courses
Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR)
All the Mindfulness training offered at Inner Space Works is based on the original, gold-standard Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR). The MBSR programme was originally developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn in 1979 at the Massachusetts Medical Centre.
The programme served as a “training vehicle for the relief of suffering” for patients referred by physicians and healthcare professionals, who were having to deal with stress, pain and illness in their lives.
From the initial programmes being run at the Massachusetts Medical Centre, MBSR became a model for other hospitals and medical centres to use. Some 40 years later, the MBSR programme has been adapted to other environments in which stress, emotional and physical pain are present such as workplaces, UK parliament, prisons, charities and schools.
Mindfulness is about cultivation
Reasons people want to learn mindfulness and take a mindfulness course
You might be sensing that something is simply not ‘right’ in your life. This could be at work or in your personal life. You might be feeling restless, unsettled, full of worries about the future, or feeling low in mood when you think about challenging events that have happened in the past.
When you’re used to rushing through life, heading for goals with your head down, really knuckling down, pushing forwards, you might find that you’re not noticing or appreciating the important events and people in your life.
Our minds can become cluttered and full very quickly or, it can happen slowly over a length of time and the stress sneaks up on us. We sometimes have the sense of not being able to see clearly, but we soldier on as there appears to be no alternative.
Mindfulness offers us an alternative – by becoming more self-aware of our thoughts, feelings, emotions and bodily sensations we are able to take control and we are able to re-wire, re-frame and learn new ways of thinking and being.
In life, we get so used to looking for problems to solve and wanting a quick way to solve them that we can find ourselves ignoring or pushing the problem aside. And, because life is life, we are then faced with another problem and, because we do not have the time or patience to fully resolve the issue, we bury it, or ‘sweep it under the carpet’, or ignore it. And so the pattern repeats again and again.
Mindfulness helps us to face up to difficulties or problems by teaching us how to approach the problem or difficulty with a different attitude, one of openness, curiosity, interest and intrigue.
We learn to look at problem-solving differently, discovering how our body reacts with an automatic response of Fight, Flight or Freeze which, if prolonged can cause physical and psychological symptoms such as high blood pressure, aching, tense muscles, anxiety or depression.
Through Mindfulness training, we learn to listen to our mind and body giving us the ‘heads up’, a warning if something is not quite right.
Through Mindfulness training, we cultivate qualities that can help us to take control of our lives, such as awareness, curiosity, kindness, compassion and empathy.