phone or message: + 44 7701 322 853
email: ella@serenityyoga.co.uk
Mindfulness & Meditation
Would you love to have the endless benefits of mindfulness or meditation, but just can't settle, can't stop thinking?
Working with an experienced guide can make the impossible, possible!
Care for your mental, emotional & physical wellbeing with practices you can
integrate into your daily life
- Mindfulness and meditation are always included in yoga classes and 121 lessons, in ways which are accessible and appropriate for the participants' needs and the context. The awareness which is often referred to as mindfulness, is one of the things which make yoga, yoga.
- We can also arrange group classes and one to ones for you &/or your people, which focus specifically on mindfulness and meditation
- in person in Wells & Glastonbury, Taunton & Bridagewater, across Somerset, Bath & Bristol
- online, worldwide
- Full and half day mindfulness workshops can be arranged across the UK
Benefits include:
- a greater feeling of emotional, mental and physical wellbeing
- more ability to enjoy pleasant experiences and be less overwhelmed by unpleasant experiences
- reduced anxiety & stress with improved fear modulation
- increased immune functioning
- reduced rumination - a calmer mind
- decreased depression
- more emotional regulation
- stronger relationships
- enhanced self-insight & intuition
- boosts to working memory
- increased ability to focus
- more cognitive flexibility
- and improvements in all functions associated with the brain's middle prefrontal lobe area
Classes include:
- Trying different techniques to find the ones which work best for you
- Guided practice and the development of independent practice by gradually lengthening the time for which you practice without "cues"
- Guidance to overcome challenges
- Vagus nerve exercises and other tools to help regulate the nervous system
- 2 minute tools for calming an activated nervous system
- in 121s and any sessions which focus on mindfulness & meditation there will be opportunities to share what you experience and receive supportive feedback and advice
Mindfulness and meditation are a little different but very closely related - one way of putting it in a nutshell, is that mindfulness is eyes open, meditation is eyes closed.
Mindfulness is always mindfulness of something - your breath, your body, the environment around your what you're doing, etc. Once you learn a few very simple techniques, you can bring mindfulness to any and every moment and activity, to your inner world and your outer world.
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Different traditions have their own definitions of meditation. In traditional Hatha Yoga, what many people call meditation would be called concentration or visualisation, and the term meditation is used to describe a very specific state of consciousness (Samadhi); while in Kundalini Yoga, meditation involves using a mantra - the list could go on.....
...but for our purposes, we'll use the term mediation to include all practices in which we're sitting or lying down, more or less still, with our eyes closed and focussing our attention in a specific way
And please note, you do not have to sit in a lotus position to meditate! With Serenity Yoga, you are encouraged to be comfortable!!!
These can include (but are not limited to) directing our attention and awareness towards
- the sensation of breathing
- counting the length of the in-breath and the out-breath
- visualisations
- the physical body
- the subtle body (yogic anatomy, the chakra system)
- different elements and movements of energy
- and other ways which give the mind a place to rest.
Sounds too difficult or you've tried before and it just hasn't worked? Scroll down, to a note from Ella.
Plenty of guidance is given and of course there is also space for you to use ways which are already familiar and comfortable, if you have them.
Every kind of mindfulness and meditation have benefits which go even further than the amazing mental and cognitive benefits. They also help us to cleanse, to feel rested and fresh - within the physical body, the emotional body and the entire electromagnetic energy field which surrounds the physical body. All of which in turn, helps to feel more "centred" - clear, integrated and in harmony with ourselves.
A note from Ella:
I have taught many people mindfulness and meditation, using a variety of techniques and I truly believe everyone can do it if they're willing and open to try.
It's more important than ever these days, to be able to calm our minds! It's an essential act of kindness to yourself and absolutely vital for our physical, mental and emotional health and wellbeing to able to take a break from thinking and worrying. Yoga, sports, being in nature and with animals, being with friends and creating for its own sake, are all brilliant ways to take a break too.
Learning simple mindfulness practices can help you to enjoy the things you love to do even more and to be 100% there when you do them. These practices can help you to ruminate less when you're doing day to day tasks and instead use them to anchor you into calm presence. And mindfulness gives you tools which make the tough times easier to deal with.
The way I teach, is that we are not trying to control the mind or force ourselves to stop thinking, but to simply direct our awareness - away from the busy-ness of the thinking and towards an anchor. As we do this, the mind becomes more clear and more free.
When we first begin to practice mindfulness and/or meditate, it can seem too difficult so a lot of people believe they can't do it, give up and believe they just can't have the innumerable benefits, which is really sad...and not true! All that is needed is a little support and the understanding that we are not trying to force anything. With positive, compassionate guidance and the willingness to practice for a few minutes each day, it gets easier, you start to feel the benefits very quickly and everyone can do it.
I hope to see you soon!
With best wishes, Ella
to live in harmony with ourselves, each other, spirit & nature
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