New course in Mindfulness to help live a full life

THE benefits of Mindfulness have been well publicised in recent years and local women, Jean Connolly and Mairead Heaney, both psychotherapists who have trained with Bangor University and the Institute for Mindfulness -Based Approaches, are offering a course for those who wish to incorporate Mindfulness in thier lives. THEY teamed up through a shared interest in Mindfulness as a way to live with integrity and love of life. From their experience, which is supported by vast scientific evidence, Mindfulness training is a practical way in which people can build inner resources. THEY have both experienced in themselves, and witnessed in others, the destructive power of judgemental and self-critical patterns. RESEARCH over the past 35 years indicates that a regular mindfulness practice helps the mind/body respond rather than react to stress, leaving valuable resources for taking care of our general health and well-being. IN a Mindfulness Course the emphasis is on experiential learning, there is ample time for discussion but, while the course can be very healing, it is not group therapy. Participants learn a different way of being with experience, bringing attention to what is happening here and now, rather than to what may happen in the future or what has happened in the past. THEIR next course gets under way at the Magnet Pastoral Centre, Dundalk, on Thursday February 16, from 7pm to 9.30 pm and continuing for eight weeks finishing on April 6, with a full retreat day on Saturday March 25th. The cost is €275 with the possibility of concessions if cost is an issue.