Cultivating openness and curiosity to the full and bare experience is the theme of Phase 2. By cultivating a flexible, attentional capacity, you will begin to recognise the negative effects of automatic, habitual stress reactivity. Recognition and acceptance will enable you to reduce negative effects and start to respond differently to stress and anxiety, and to recover more quickly from stressful situations.

Right from Session 1, you will be cultivating your interpersonal mindfulness and self-regulation, connecting mindfulness to the assessment of stressful situations by being aware of reactive physical sensations, emotions, thoughts and behaviours.

This can be a transformational part of the course where you learn to know your own feelings, and how you can express them accurately. You will be invited to inquire into your own coping strategies, their effectiveness, and explore ways to bring mindfulness into your relationships, enabling you to remain balanced and aware in the most stressful conditions.

You will then begin to develop an understanding of how to safely introduce mindfulness to your students and explore a range of age-appropriate activities that will ensure their experience is consistently positive.

All sessions are highly practical; your facilitator will gently guide you through each activity and practice so that you are ready to do the work at home. Home practice is an essential part of this and all our mindfulness courses as this is where the real ‘work’ is done. During each session there will be opportunities to share you experiences of the home practice and hear other people’s, often the same, often different to your own.