Awareness is at the heart of learning

Recently, a very well-known and highly respected teacher leading a taught session which included mindfulness, made a claim that really sparked my attention.  He said 'it is unusual for a 200hr teacher training to include mindfulness' and that it is a key skill for developing a more subtle awareness of yoga.

Thankfully this was an online training and my laptop was on mute, or he would have heard me exclaim 'Our trainings include mindfulness!!'.  When designing the curriculum for the 200hr yoga teacher training and the 30hr restorative yoga teacher training, it felt key to include some experience of mindfulness.  I find this a wonderfully rich way of developing awareness. We learn by doing: guided sitting practices, mindful movement, body scans and opportunity for group reflection.

Though the roots of mindfulness are Buddhist, the mindfulness approach that we take is completely secular. The skills taught in this approach have been and continue to be evaluated thoroughly, and shown to have a high degree of effectiveness in a variety of contexts. As the popularity of mindfulness continues to rise, so too do the number of published popular journal and peer reviewed research articles. Useful sources include the Mindfulness Research Guide and the American Mindfulness Research Association.

We have a vibrant community group who gather regularly online for a mindfulness practice - many of whom are graduates of our Fundamentals courses.  It is an open invitation to join, there is no charge.  I hope to welcome you to the group in our upcoming practice!