Madam Heap

Do you ever find your mind drifting away? Maybe you need a dose of mindfulness in your life.

Research indicates that we spend half of our waking hours being distracted. We’re busier than ever and our fight-or-flight response is in overdrive. Leave all of that unchecked and it’s a slippery slope to depression and anxiety for some people. Luckily, there are tools to take it down a notch, including mindfulness. Mandy Dore and Dr Carrie Hayward, the duo behind Madam Heap, Middle Park’s new ‘school for mindful living’, are both experienced meditators and mindfulness practitioners. They explain mindfulness as paying attention on purpose. “It sounds so simple, but it’s amazing how little we do it,” Dore says. “Most of the time our mind is wandering, living in the past or the future – we’re not actually in the moment embracing life.” Mindfulness has formal and informal components. Meditation is the formal aspect; Dore finds it so powerful that describes it as her “secret weapon”. The informal component of mindfulness requires complete attention on what you’re doing and engaging all of your senses.

Madam Heap 106 Canterbury Rd, Middle Park 3206. www.madamheap.com.au.