Mental Health & Body Balance
Awareness · Regulation · Resilience
8 Weeks for Mental & Body Health
This 8-Weeks Program offers a guided process to strengthen awareness, emotional regulation and resilience. Grounded in evidence and daily experience, NL MINDFUL connects scientific understanding with Mindfulness practice
Each week addresses one aspect of awareness- the interplay of attention, emotion and the body’s capacity for balance. Mindfulness becomes a form of prevention and self-care, enhancing mental health & body balance.
More about Health & Mindfulness
We adapt this 8 week program individually to your life and needs. We proceed in a rhythm that gives you enough time for learning and experiencing Mindfulness. You can add sessions further on to deepen your knowledge, to get motivation or to discuss new life situations that may challenge your Mindfulness practice and learn tools to adapt. Mindfulness is a longterm path for your life, we stay by your side.
NL MINDFUL Curriculum
Week 1 — Wandering Mind & Mindful Breathing
Coming Back to Present Moment
Through Mindful Breathing and our first Mindfulness Meditation practice, we start training Awareness & Anchoring. Being lost in stressful thoughts & Rushing through our daily life thoughts increase Anxiety and Stress. Mindfulness trains the ability to return to our anchor the breath.
Breath Awareness & Focusing improve concentration and self-regulation and activate the parasympathetic nervous system, calming body and mind. We combine Mindful Breathing with Releasing of tensions to get in touch with ourselves in the present moment.
Week 2 — A Mindful Morning & Principles of Mindfulness
Awakening to the Day
Inspired by the Japanese tea culture, we explore Awareness of the senses in our Tea Mind Meditation. We develop a Mindful Morning routine to start the day with intention and stillness: Begin your day with Tea-Mind: a calm, alert presence in the moment. Mindfulness reduces stress hormones in our body, when we start the day with Awareness instead of Rushing.
We get to know the Principles of Mindfulness of Dr. Jon Kabat Zinn and learn how to apply them to our Mindfulness practice and daily life.
More about the Principles of Mindfulness
Week 3 — Mindful Movement & Walking Meditation
Body & Breath as Anchor
In week 4 we explore Mindfulness in Movement and Walking Meditation: We bring Awareness to our movement and connect with the rhythm of our breath while moving- body & mind in sync. The body becomes a teacher of stillness in motion. Every step, every gesture can be a moment of calm and presence.
We apply Walking Meditation & Mindful Movement to sports, Yoga, Stretching and daily walking, bringing Mindfulness into our day.
More about Mindfulness in Movement
Week 3 — Stress Reaction & Mindful Responding
From Reaction to Response
We explore the biological stress reaction of body & mind. Chronic Stress may lead to sleep disorders, heart symptoms, muscle problems, anxiety, Depression, Cardiac Arrythmia, Inflammation or chronic pain. We learn to calm our nervous system and practice the technique Long Exhale Breathing.
We learn: Our mind is connected with our body. Everything we think can have an effect on our body sensations and vice versa. Depressed mind- depressed body & Depressed body- depressed mind.
Mindful Responding transforms pressure into pause — Awareness into choice. We learn Rebalancing much faster, when stressed or under pressure and how to become a gentle Observer. We practice the Mountain Meditation to get in touch with our own strength and Resilience.
More about Biology of Stress
Week 5 — Allowing the Rain
Willingness to Be with What Is
We meet the Willingness to Be with What Is by Diana Winston at University of Los Angeles: Learning to identify what we can change and what we cannot change.
We explore the attitude of Putting out the Welcome Mat by Jon Kabat Zinn, when facing difficulties in life. We learn mental & physical Self Compassion when under pressure.
By meeting discomfort with awareness, we cultivate emotional courage and gentleness. Acceptance becomes the quiet strength beneath the storm.
Week 6 — Kindness
Strength through Kindness
Habitual self-criticism is stress for body and mind, letting us feel threatened: With self-criticism we are both the attacker and the attacked. Neff/Germer: The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook, 2018.
With Kindness & Self Compassion we build an inner climate of safety. Gentleness rewires the heart.
For Participants who want to practice with physical pain we explore the Meditation Safeplace. Neuroscience shows that Mindfulness Meditation those areas of the brain that regulate pain.Tessa Watt: Mindfulness, 2016. Safeplace can be used for inner pain as well.
Week 7 — Mindfulness Bells & Back to Basics
Returning to Simplicity
We revisit the steps of Mindfulness Meditation practice to memorize them easier. We develop a personal Mindfulness Bells list developed by Prof. Mark Williams at Oxford University to navigate through daily life with our personal Mindfulness Reminder list.
We learn that our motivation helps to stay true to our values and our Mindfulness routine. If you lost your track: Today is the perfect day to begin again. Mindful Walking/ Mindful Movement & Mindful Breathing are helpful for keeping up the practice
We use repetitive actions on a daily basis for Awareness.
Week 8 — Mindfulness Parachute
Your Personal Parachute for Life
In week 8 we create a Mindfulness Parachute developed by Dr. Jon Kabat Zinn that protects us when times get tough in life. Your parachute will give you a sense of control and confidence in your ability to cope with difficult moments. You will be prepared for life with a tool that provides you with trust and hope, core attitudes of Resilience.
Participants receive the poem Hokusai Says by Roger Keyes as a gift.
You get again our Stress Screening for your own personal check-up.
See if you can release your busy day, releasing all plans, worries. Just Coming back to our cup of tea, to our breathing here and now– the present moment is the only moment we can smell, hear, touch, taste. Holding your warm cup in your hands. Just this moment. Just this breath.Just this sitting here. Just this cup of tea, no need to chase after anything, no need to cling, no need to compete, no need to win just feeling the warmth of your cup…
Mindfulness in Print with our NL MAGAZINE
