The Six Week Mindfulness Course

A few months back, in November to be precise I went to see Ruby Wax at the Warwick Arts Centre as part of her Frazzled tour. If you want to know a little bit more, you guessed right, I blogged it – have a read here.

Mum and I snapped up one of her books, Sane New World that was being sold there as we already own A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled. Both amazing reads, but I wanted to talk a little more about Frazzled and the six-week course it includes. At Ruby’s show she talked about the important impact that mindfulness has on our mental health and although it doesn’t work for everyone, it can do miracles to minus mental wobbles lets say.

This is basically my little introduction to the six-week course because I am going to have a go myself and (try) to record the results each week. I am determined to complete this because it will be a brilliant self-achievement and a mini experiment to test how well the world of mindfulness really works. As Ruby completed a masters degree in Mindfulness-based Cognitive Behavioural therapy, I have high hopes for this working and not being a big pile of rubbish, so fingers crossed.

So, what does the course entail? Each week gets you to do a variety of sensory activities to link your mind to your senses and encourages you to record your details, making you more aware of how your body really works. There are small ‘homework’ sections and exercises to keep your busy mind well, busy! In case you are wondering, here are what the six weeks entail:

Week One: Noticing and Waking Up
Week Two: Noticing Your Mind Has a Mind of Its Own
Week Three: Mindful Movement
Week Four: Mindfulness of Feelings and Emotions
Week Five: Mindfulness of Support
Week Six: Overview: Putting It All Together

The introduction of the mindfulness chapter resonated well with me so I thought it was worthy of a quote:

“With mindfulness, unlike anything else you do in your life, there is no getting it right […] These exercises don’t have to be done in an isolated place, in a darkened room with a single piece of gluten-free incense, or on a meditation cushion. I encourage you to incorporate these exercises into your real life because that’s where you’ll be using them.” – A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled, page 96

Until next time,