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Mindfulness For Teenagers

7 week Course in Mindfulness for Teenagers
 
From Tuesday 13th April to Tuesday 25th May 2010

This course is designed to provide teenagers with a range of mindfulness skills so that you can learn to respond more wisely to stressful situations in your life.

The course is experiential.  Participants are asked to set aside between 20 minutes and half an hour each day for home practice.

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is a way of being rather than a skill.  When we practise Mindfulness over time we come to know and accept all our strengths and weaknesses with an attitude of kindness towards ourselves.

We learn to become our own best friend. 

This experience changes how we respond to events and people in our lives.  We recognise when we are stressed and we can take steps to manage it much more effectively.

Research has shown that developing and practising Mindfulness can benefit teenagers in many ways, including the following:

• reduced anxiety
• improved sleep
• greater self-awareness leading to less reactivity, anger and frustration
• increased self-confidence
• enhanced relationships with parents, teachers and peers
• greater capacity for focus and concentration leading to
• improved academic performance
• greater levels of happiness (in self-reports and reports by teachers and parents)

The Tasks of Adolescence

Adolescence is a key transition stage of life.  It can be a time of great stress and insecurity for many teenagers as they negotiate their way from childhood to adulthood, physically, emotionally and psychologically. This stress can lead to difficulties in sleeping, making friends, concentrating on studies, coping with exams and so on.  There may be ongoing and ever-changing tension between the desire for more independence and the continuing need for adult support. 

Teenagers are often managing the demands of school and exams and thinking about their future while trying to find out who they are and how to develop friendships and relationships.  It can be a time of isolation, of feeling misunderstood by parents, teachers and even peers.

Teenagers and Mindfulness

The teenage years can be wonderful, too, and this journey can be an enjoyable adventure if we can find a calm, still centre to keep us grounded.  Mindfulness practice can help us to find this calm place in the middle of the turmoil of thoughts and emotions.

In this course we will explore the aspects of this life-stage life with its many stresses and we will learn the skills of mindfulness meditation to help us to manage these stresses better.  An important aspect of the course is the practice you do yourself at home.  It is this practice which will really help you to change the way you handle stress in your life and which will help you to make these skills your own so that you have them for the rest of your life.  

The present is the only time that any of us has to be alive …
 to know anything … to perceive…to learn … to act
 … to change … to heal…”

(Jon Kabat-Zinn, Full Catastrophe Living)

Background to the Course

The course is based on an internationally recognised programme originally developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts Medical Centre.  More recently, training in the programme is also offered by Bangor University in North Wales.

Over the past 20 years, this approach has been adapted and integrated in a range of healthcare environments around the world, where it has been widely shown to help in the promotion of mental and physical well-being. The programme has been successfully adapted to meet the needs of teenagers.

Who is Running the Course?

Helen Byrne has a background in education, psychology and family therapy.  She is an experienced post-primary teacher who has been working with teenagers both inside and outside the classroom for 30 years.  She has been teaching mindfulness to adults and teenagers for the last 4 years. 

Helen is currently completing an M.Sc. in Mindfulness-Based Approaches to Social Care, Health and Education at the University of Bangor, Wales.

How Much:  The course fee of €200 includes a CD, course workbook and weekly classes.

When:  Tuesdays from 13th April to 25th May from 4.45pm – 6.15pm

Booking & Information:  Contact:  Fiona on (01) 660 3872  or email info@oscailt.com www.oscailt.com

Early booking is recommended as only a limited number of places are available on each course.

Where:  Oscailt Integrative Health Centre, 8 Pembroke Road, Dublin 4  www.oscailt.com

“TIME IS NOT MONEY, TIME IS LIFE.”

       – THICH NHAT HANH

MY MONEY AND ME

HOW MINDFULNESS TRANSFORMS OUR RELATION TO MONEY

WITH DR. KAI ROMHARDT FROM BERLIN

APRIL17TH & 18TH 2010

Oscailt Integrative Health Centre
 
8 PEMBROKE ROAD
DUBLIN 4
TEL: 01 6603872
WWW.OSCAILT.COM

MY MONEY AND ME

Everything has been said about “The Crisis” in the financial sector. And yet: Have we understood the central message? Have we liberated ourselves from destructive ideas – both on the individual and collective level? Do we truly understand the attitudes, ideas, and habit energies, in the financial dimension of our life? Have we tamed the dragon inside of us? What comes into our mind, when we see ourselves as a millionaire – or a Penniless? What is the mental impact of my financial action and hopes on my daily life and those of others? Money penetrates our mental models and shapes them in subtle ways. Money is a chameleon, a “Formwandler”, and a wonderful screen for our deepest desires and fears.

We work for money and shop with it. We invest it, save it, and lend it to others. We expect our money to grow over time, or not. We measure success by profitability rates, or not. The way we use our money is a good mirror to look into our lives. Do we strive for it or avoid contact? Do we see a euro as a neutral entity or a meaningful energy that nourishes future manifestations, or not.

Money seems to be a universal key to the realms of power, security, control, or fame – maybe also towards happiness. Part of us knows that this is not true.
 
CULTIVATING CLARITY

In this workshop we will explore and examine our financial actions and beliefs with a clear look. We will look into deeper layers of our relationship to money and other financial issues. We will challenge our perceptions and theories. The key to these insights is our personal mindfulness, that will be nourished throughout the workshop.

We will introduce and deepen various effective meditation methods that have been taught by the Plum Village Dhyana School of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh for over 40 years in the West.

Practical exercises will help us to explore the deeper dimensions of our financial life.

Mindfulness will help us to see our relationship to money in a clearer way and will help us to transform misperceptions or misguided thinking. Through mindful sharing in our group we will deepen our understanding and learn in very concrete ways from each other.

TRAINING IN MINDFULNESS

Mindfulness is the ability to see clearly and without prejudice what is happening in the present moment. Our motivation and the effect of our physical action, our words, and our thinking can be experienced directly. The interdependence of all realms of life can be seen. Developing mindfulness helps us to wake up and to step out of reactivity and un-free action. We cultivate space and start shaping the mental dimension of our life instead of “letting-it-happen”.

The workshop will be supported by several exercises to cultivate mindfulness including:

•  Sitting and walking meditation
•  Mindful Meals
•  Mindful Exchange (deep listening, loving speech)
•  Deep relaxation

We will walk during these days in a relaxed and mindful way, supporting each other.

Lectures, personal exercises, and group exchange will help us to explore the realm of money.

KAI ROMHARDT

Dr. Kai Romhardt has studied business adminstration in Hamburg, St. Gallen und Geneva. He has published six books and works as a meditation teacher, trainer for companies, university lecturer, coach, and consultant.

He has lived for two years in Plum Village, the international meditation and study centre of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh in France. He is a member of the international Order of Interbeing (Tiep Hien). He will receive the transmission of the lamp as a dharmacharya (dharmateacher) by Thich Nhat Hanh in the winter of 2010.

Kai set up the Network for Mindful Business (Netzwerk Achtsame Wirtschaft) in Germany in 2004. This Network explores new ways to bring the wisdom of Buddhist teachings and mindfulness practice to the realm of business in many ways.

Kai lives in Berlin with his wife Bettina (dharma teacher in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh) and their son Jonathan. For more information (only in German), see: www.romhardt.com and www. achtsame-wirtschaft.de.

His new book: „Wir sind die Wirtschaft: Achtsam Leben – Sinnvoll Handeln“ (“We are the Economy – Living Mindfully – Acting Meaningfully”) was  published in September 2009 by J.Kamphausen Verlag.

PRACTICAL DETAILS

VENUE: OSCAILT MEWS, 8 BAGGOT LANE, BALLSBRIDGE, DUBLIN 4

DATE: SATURDAY 17TH & SUNDAY 18TH APRIL 2010

TIMES: 10AM TO 5.30PM (BOTH DAYS)

COST:   €190

BOOK: PHONE OSCAILT: 016603872 OR EMAIL INFO@OSCAILT.COM

Mindfulness and Everyday Life

a non-residential retreat with Martine Batchelor

Oscailt, 13-14 March 2010

‘During this retreat we will explore mindfulness and how we can cultivate it in our daily life. We will use various meditative tools to develop further wisdom and compassion. This retreat will help us to make mindfulness our own so that it can become the ground for our life, and bring more spaciousness and alertness to life and all that we do’.

The retreat will take place in the Mews at Oscailt Integrative Health Centre, 8 Baggot Lane, Dublin 4 and run from 10am-5.30pm on Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th March 2010. For more info or to book your place call Oscailt on 660 3872 or email info@oscailt.com

Cost €170 (a small number of concessions will be available)

About Martine:  Oscailt are delighted to welcome Martine Batchelor to Ireland, and to offer people the opportunity to practice with one of the most accessible and down-to-earth teachers in Western Buddism. Martine was born in France in 1953. She lived in Korea as a Zen nun under the guidance of Master Kusan for ten years before returning to Europe with her husband, Stephen, in 1985 and working as a lecturer and spiritual counsellor both at Gaia House and elsewhere in Britain. She is the author of Meditation for Life, The Path of Compassion, Women in Korean Zen and Let Go: A Buddhist Guide to Breaking Free of Habits. Martine teaches meditation retreats worldwide and lives in South West France. Her latest work is the forthcoming Spirit of the Buddha for Modern Times.

www.oscailt.com                         www.martinebatchelor.org

Interview with Fidelma Farley who teaches Mindfulness meditation at Oscailt. Fidelma specialises in Mindfulness for people who suffer from chronic pain or a long term illness. She also teaches a weekly drop in meditation and a course on the Loving Kindness meditation practice.

How did you come to be teaching Mindfulness?
I was a lecturer in film studies for 15 years and I was working the last two years in Galway University when my contract came to an end. There were very few jobs out there and at that point I realised that this was the opportunity to explore other things. By this stage my heart wasn’t in teaching film and I wanted to find something that I could feel passionate about. I had learnt how to meditate 2 years previously at the Dublin Buddhist Centre, originally to deal with stress, but as time went on, I found that meditation was helping me to work through some very difficult personal issues. Experiencing first hand how Mindful meditation can transform difficult circumstances, I wanted to pass those benefits on to others. 

So what kind of training did you do and where?
I trained with Breathworks, a not-for-profit organisation based in the UK who run Mindfulness courses for people with pain, illness and/or stress. The training was very experiential, based primarily on your own practice, with intensive retreats providing guidance on how to teach Mindfulness. After that I assisted on Mindfulness-based courses for people with stress and pain and illness and in the past year I’ve been teaching my own courses. I really love the work and I especially like to see how people gradually change during the course. By the end of the course most people are sleeping better, are calmer, more relaxed and more open.
 
How does Mindfulness specifically help people suffering from chronic pain or a long term health condition?
In general, Mindfulness enhances people’s ability for self-care, by allowing them to draw on their own inner resources. For people with pain or illness, stress and tension, anxiety, grief or anger may often arise, or they may have difficulty sleeping, and their perspective of the world can come to revolve around the pain and illness. Mindfulness can’t get rid of the pain or illness but it can significantly reduce the ‘secondary suffering’ i.e. those difficult reactions to the pain or illness.

To give an everyday example, if you are stuck in traffic you may experience frustration, impatience, anger and anxiety. Mindfulness won’t get the traffic moving but will reduce those difficult reactions.

How does it do that Fidelma?
Mindfulness has three principal characteristics: Awareness, Being in the Moment and Kindness.

With Awareness we get to know ourselves, getting more in touch with our experience physically, mentally and emotionally. With that awareness, we can choose how to respond to our circumstances rather than reacting unthinkingly in our habitual manner.

Learning to be in the present moment works against the tendency to be either worrying about the future or looking back nostalgically at the past. If we are aware of what is going on right now, we are seeing things as they really are, rather than how we think things should be or how we’d like them to be. This means that any changes that we make will be sustainable.

Kindness is the quality that allows us to make the changes to care for ourselves better. So many people are hard on themselves, even when their lives are already difficult, and kindness allows them to give themselves a break.

In your experience, what kind of conditions are conducive to the Mindfulness for Pain & Illness course?

I have taught people with back pain, with MS, cancer, ME, fibromyalgia, post-operative pain and IBS, but Mindfulness can help people to live with pretty much any illness or condition. However, I always talk to people who are interested in the course beforehand to make sure that it is suitable for them.

When is the next Mindfulness for Pain & Illness course you are running? How long is the course and how much does it cost?
The next course starts Tuesday, 13th October at 6pm.

The course lasts 8 weeks with just over two hours sessions each week as well as a full practice day at the weekend on the 7th week. It costs €350 which includes course notes and meditation CDs.

What other courses do you teach at Oscailt?
I teach a 4 week course on Loving Kindness, a Mindful meditation practice. This is a beautiful practice that can really transform people. Through this practice we learn to accept and love ourselves more, to open our hearts to other people and in the long term to live more from the heart and from our deepest held values.

I also lead a weekly drop-in meditation on Monday evenings from 6.15-7.15pm. This is open to all, beginners as well as more experienced meditators. Generally we do a 30-40 minute guided meditation followed by a discussion. There is a very open and friendly atmosphere and all are very welcome.

And, when is the next Loving Kindness course?

The next course starts on Wednesday, 18th November from 6.30-8.00pm. I thought it was an appropriate course to teach coming up to Christmas as it can be such a stressful time for people.