Mindfulness for Health Courses and Groups in Oxford
“Do not fight against pain; do not fight against irritation or jealousy. Embrace them with great tenderness, as though you were embracing a little baby.” Thich Nhat Hahn
In a way pain is a call- a call to attend, a call to tend and a call to tenderness. It is a call to embrace and saturate our pain with compassion and a loving heart.
The term Mindfulness was coined by Thich Nhat Hahn a Vietnamese Buddhist Monk and peace activist. He sought to bring present moment, kindly awareness into everyday life, thereby bringing years of meditators experiences out of monastries into the secular world. In a world that increasingly worships the intellect, logic, measurables and the rational, he taught kindness, simplicity, gratitude and embodied ways of being, bringing us more into balance. Buddha was concerned with learning about suffering and the end of suffering and it is perhaps this that has brought mindfulness into the health sector. Jon Kabat Zinn started teaching mindfulness to people with health issues. As he began to evidence his research he found that it was significantly helpful for many health conditions. His book, Full Catastrophe Living documents his explorations. Vidyamala Burch who has severe spinal damage and chronic pain found Jon Kabat Zinn’s mindfulness so helpful for her own suffering and pain that she developed Breathworks courses specifically for chronic pain and chronic ill health as well as stress. The training was a natural extension of my work as a physiotherapist and brought my love of meditation into my work. I started meditation 40 years ago and now teach the Breathworks course as well as using it one to one in my work if it seems appropriate.
Breathworks Courses for relieving chronic pain and ill health
Mindfulness is helpful for many conditions. Please call and ask about yours.
- Fibromyalgia and other chronic fatigue conditions
- Chronic pain whatever its origins…back, neck or centrally mediated pain ie from the brain Complex regional pain syndrome
- Breathing difficulties
- Stress and Anxiety
- Abdominal pains
- Radiotherapy or chemotherapy induced aches and pains
Breathworks Mindfulness for Health courses help with learning about suffering and the different ways we suffer. For instance primary suffering is the actual unpleasant sensations we feel, wheras secondary suffering is our resistance to the primary suffering. This can take the form of tensing our muscles against the pain, hardening against our experience or numbing out, breathing shallowly, excessive use of pain medications or alcohol, frustration, anger, endless problem solving, being overly busy or isolating yourself and withdrawing. Mindfulness helps with secondary suffering and often the primary suffering too as they are intimately woven together in our minds. It can actually be our thoughts of pain rather than the actual sensations of pain that are so stressful and drive us crazy.
Mindfulness helps to reduce fear by bringing our suffering into a loving, compassionate and non- judgemental embrace. We learn to gently inhabit our body again which can often feel like an enemy when it is wracked with pain. Our body responds to kindness, acceptance and gratitude. We learn the body scan, breathing anchor meditations, compassionate acceptance, open heart meditation and connection meditations to name a few, and we learn to find balance in our lives through pacing and to find equanimity by responding rather than reacting. Meditative movements are also a part of the course as physical fitness often deteriorates with chronic pain.
I run a monthly drop in group on a Thursday morning once a month. They are a mixture of online and in person.
Dates for the next session is:
April 20th 2023
If your interest is piqued do get in touch and I can put you on the mailing list.
A Mindfulness Sufi Retreat online
Awakening To True Nature
Saturday 10 June 10am to 5pm
I wish I could show you
When you are lonely
Or in darkness
The astonishing light
Of your own Being.
HAFIZ
Times of challenge may be calling us to remember our True Nature. Many of us long to be in True Nature. How did we forget? How can we remember who we truly are? Perhaps being conscious of our upsets in daily life can become our way home to the truth of who we are.
This day is a mindful stepping stone for transforming our upsets into gifts. These gifts may help us become more conscious of our identification with core negative beliefs and how we have forgotten the astonishing light of our Being.
The day will be led by four Sufi Mindfulness teachers: Kimberly Paumier, Pauline Sayhi, Delia SaidaTaylor-Brook and Suria Wallis. You are invited to explore a current upset with the help of mindfulness practices and meditations. There will also be sharing via breakout rooms and mindful movement to help us remember our True Nature and to forgive ourselves when we have forgotten.
Practical Matters
Timings:
The retreat starts at 10am. The Zoom room will be open at 9.45am to allow you to arrive and settle and we will finish by 5pm.
There will be a morning break for tea/coffee/a wander outside; lunch and an afternoon tea break.
Silence:
We encourage you to observe silence in the breaks as far as your personal circumstances allow you to do so. This helps the process of turning within.
Cost:
The fee for the day is £50, with a concessionary rate of £30. However, nobody will be turned away on financial grounds, so please make whatever donation is possible.
All proceeds will go to the Hope Project in India. Pir Vilayat Khan established this charity after returning home from a visit to India. He was inspired by his father’s vision of Love, Harmony and Beauty and conceived the idea of a program which would enable the poor to help themselves.
Booking:
If you wish to book your place, please contact Kimberly Paumier at kimberly.paumier@btinternet.com.