Who’s to say what life is about ultimately? We are all going about our own unique lives, with our own unique story-lines, particular to our own unique circumstance.
🌿If we are lucky life seems manageable. For many life is a game of survival; moving from one catastrophe to the next, one panic to the next, one stressor to the next… our ‘fight and flight’ mode may seem like it is permanently switched on… always on high alert. This can make us feel rattled, panicky, frightened and pessimistic.
🌿We know at a deep level we need to take time out, but we are terrified that if we step aside, all the plates we are juggling will come crashing to the floor and smash… so we keep going, promising ourselves that we will stop just over the hill… it is there we will find respite…
🌿We believe we have to make a big grand gesture of a ‘Stop’. We believe that the only thing that will count, is if we stop for a significant amount of time … a month, a week, a full day… But we can’t afford to … how can life possibly function without us ???… so we keep going.
As a mindfulness coach I face the same challenges. I procrastinate, I avoid, I distract myself… until an inner voice calls and begins to whisper. Its whispers are always gentle, soft and hardly audible… for a time I ignore them and keep going, propelled by fears of failure, fears of not living up to expectations, fears of needing to do more and catastrophe if I don’t.
🌿Then … in a millisecond of wakefulness, that slips silently through the cracks of plans and lists … my attention opens … I become aware of this body taking a breath… I sense the fresh cool air entering my lungs and I remember……. I remember the doorway, the point of entry to the present moment …the ‘Breath’ … and step quietly back into my life …back into this direct experience that is happening here Now in this moment … I feel the paper thin skin of this unfolding onion I hold in my hand, I sense its sweet fragrance on the air and the tears swelling as I recognize the ‘still point of respite’ that is here NOW in this moment unfolding like the layers of this onion… my respite is here NOW in this moment, no longer over the hill somewhere else……
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If you are interested in exploring Mindfulness further and would like to take a course and develop skills
COURSES AVAILABLE
Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction 8 week Course:The clinical and scientific Gold Standard of Mindfulness Courses, which 95% of mindfulness research is based on.
Full Year Programme of Support: for anyone who has completed an 8 week MBSR course with either myself or another MBSR Instructor.
Weekend Full Day Retreats: Based in the Amber Springs Hotel Gorey (Includes your Lunch)
Corporate Workshops for the Workplace
Workshops and courses custom designed for your workplace. (Managers & Staff)
Training for Teachers : Primary & Secondary School teachers need to have completed the MBSR training as a prerequisite for all further professional Mindfulness training. Including the dot.B and dot.Paws courses
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CORPORATE WORKSHOPS
Una offers quality corporate workshops introducing Mindfulness into the workplace. Mindfulness Stress Reduction workshops can be custom designed to suit your workplace.