Deeper Mindfulness April 2024

Deeper Mindfulness Exploring Feeling Tone Frame By Frame - 8 week Mindfulness Course

Join TMG and Dr Neil Pillai for our brand new 8-week Deeper Mindfulness course where we will be exploring ‘feeling tone’ frame by frame. This training is designed for those who have already completed a mindfulness-based program and want to explore mindfulness more deeply. It is informed by recent psychological findings revealing that in every waking moment, our understanding of the world is dominated by imagining how we can take action within it, coloured by what is called ‘feeling tone’.

Feeling tone is the moment-by-moment ‘read-out’ of how much a sensation, thought or emotion feels pleasant, unpleasant, or neither. Based on this moment-by-moment ‘read out’, the body allocates its resources as it gears up for real or imagined action. This can prepare us well for action, but it can also put us at risk of becoming exhausted without our realising it.

During these eight weeks you will learn meditations that prepare you for, then help you tune in to feeling tone frame by frame. This provides an opportunity to see more clearly both the tipping points for distress and exhaustion and also how to flourish by freeing yourself to appreciate life again, even in the midst of difficulty.

On this course you will learn the following skills:

• How to ‘find your ground’ by exploring different ways to anchor your attention, to see what provides the most helpful way of stabilising and calming your mind
• How to take a pause when your mind wanders, and to cultivate a sense of kindness and gratitude for the mind’s activity instead of seeing it as an enemy to be overcome
• How to recognise the feeling tone of any contact with mind and body, and how it is the tipping point for reactions that are often self-defeating • 
• How to allow feeling tone to be present for longer without reacting, so the mind is freed from habitual cascades of stress and exhaustion
• How to see when and how the body gears up for action unnecessarily, and how to allay the busyness to allow wise action to emerge
• How to use mindfulness of feeling tone to help turn towards difficult emotions and concerns
• How to use mindfulness of feeling tone to notice moments of appreciation in your everyday life and to deal skilfully with the symptoms of exhaustion (e.g., procrastination)
• In the final session you will learn ways to sustain your mindfulness practice, including a template for a year of practice you can use or adapt

Course Dates

This face to face course runs for 8 weeks on a Thursday evening from 18:00 - 20:00 at West View Integrated Care Centre in Tenterden with a one week break in the middle. The dates are:

• Thursday 18th April 2024
• Thursday 25th April 2024
• Thursday 2nd May 2024
• Thursday 9th May 2024
• Mid Course Break
• Thursday 23rd May 2024
• Thursday 30th May 2024
• Thursday 6th June 2024
• Thursday 13th June 2024

Costs

The cost of this course is £250

Course Materials

We will provide you with a participant handbook however in addition participants are required to purchase the following book themselves prior to the start of the course:

• Deeper Mindfulness: The New Way to Rediscover Calm in a Chaotic World by Mark Williams and Danny Penman

The book is available from Amazon or other online retailers.

Post Course Support

On completion of the course you will be able to attend our on-going program of Hybrid Mindulness Drop In sessions and monthly Mindfulness events.

Concessionary Rate

As a small charity we are hugely grateful to our donors for their on-going generosity which enables us to offer concessionary rates for those unable to afford the full course fee.  The following applicants are eligible for the concessionary rate:

• Full-time students (aged 18+)
• Unemployed (in receipt of state benefits)
• Low-income (eligible for income assistance from the government)

If you are unable to afford to pay the full fee, then please contact our office PRIOR to booking at contact@tenterdenmindfulness.co.uk to discuss your situation. Thank you.

Tenterden Mindfulness Group reserve the right to amend the dates of this course within 4 days of start should insufficient attendance mean the course would need to be re-arranged.