Sussex Mindfulness & Compassion volunteer, Hannah Andrews, shares her experience of attending a retreat in Plum Village, and describes the impact it’s had for her. Not long ago I was a total mindfulness novice. I was aware of its benefits: reduced stress, improved sleep, reduced anxiety etc. There are no side-effects, and it’s free! It seemed a no brainer. I downloaded various apps and promised myself to meditate daily, but it never seemed to stick. I couldn’t get past meditating three days in a row before life would get in the way. I was well aware that I would need…
New departure for the Sussex Mindfulness & Compassion as we offer mindfulness and compassion courses to the public and underrepresented communities, for the first time…
You may have noticed the Sussex Mindfulness & Compassion website has undergone a refresh. We have a slightly revised logo, a cleaner, fresher look and a website designed with you, the user, in mind. We hope you like it. While a lot of thought and effort has gone into the refresh, we were also keen to build on what we had, and what our users and audiences are already familiar with. So we slightly revised our shell logo that symbolises our connection with nature and our location near the sea, to make it work better in social media. New line…
Julia Powell writes about her recent humbling experience co-leading mindfulness for groups of women refugees, asylum seekers and migrants… Lana Jackson and I have just finished co-leading our second ten-week mindfulness course for women refugees. We’ve been using the trauma-informed Mindfulness Across Borders curriculum developed by Ariana Faris and Sheila Webb and funded by the Oxford Mindfulness Foundation. The initiative is part of the Sussex Mindfulness & Compassion’s effort to reach underrepresented communities. With Lana’s encouragement and enthusiasm for eco-therapy, we ran this second course outdoors, in a secluded garden in Stanmer Park, Brighton. The setting was perfect. We had…
Indi, Quality Improvement Advisor for Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, writes from the heart about her mindfulness journey and her more recent experience of Sussex Mindfulness & Compassion’s eight-week Mindful Self-Compassion course. When I learnt how to apply self compassion, it was literally transformational for me. That’s not a word I use lightly. Indi, Quality Improvement Advisor, Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust I had done the standard eight-week mindfulness courses a number of times, getting different benefits each time. My meditation practice had been a constant, if somewhat inconsistent thread in my wellbeing recovery over a couple of decades. I’d…
The theme of our conference this year was ‘mindful culture’. With all the many challenges and pressures facing our society and the organisations we work for the topic couldn’t have been more prescient. Speakers and participants posed and answered central questions during key note talks and workshops: What is mindful culture? How can a more mindful culture help improve access to improved mental health and flourishing for all? What is the impact of the wider environment such as social media, the polarisation of debate, the cost-of-living crisis, climate change and the increasing pressures facing children and young people? What are…