What people say about us
"I have to say that attending the course has changed my life, especially in my personal life. I am no longer stressed and anxious about where my life is going and the pressures that I was putting on myself in my relationship have disappeared, so much so, my boyfriend can’t believe some of the words that come out of my mouth!
"I still struggle with keeping my cool at work, with certain emails, but I certainly don’t dwell and over think things as much as I used too!
"I have recommended your course to nearly everyone that I have spoken too and wish you luck in the future with expanding the reach of your courses in County Durham and Darlington.
"Thanks to you and your team, for this life changing experience."
Abbie
Darlington
"I keep intending to get in touch with you to say thank you for all the wonderful work you have done with my patients! The phrase “life changing” has been used on a number of occasions. Attending your course and developing more positive ways of dealing with stress and negative emotions really has had a huge positive impact on people’s progress in voice therapy and on the wider scale, has enabled patients to achieve a quality of life that they previously didn’t believe was possible."
"I cannot recommend you highly enough."
Jen Murphy
Specialist Speech and Language Therapist
"I found the 5 week Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction course I attended one of the most useful things I've ever done. It has been easy to apply the skills I learnt to everyday life and the audio CDs provided have been helpful in supporting me since the course finished. The refresher sessions Living Mindfully have run have also been invaluable."
Sarah
Consett, County Durham
"The course has reinforced my belief that we all have the resources within us to lead a full and satisfying life and has offered ways of practising mindfulness in my daily life. I think it is an extremely valuable course; particularly for those who are looking for different ways of managing stress."
Karen
Counsellor
"I have chilled out a lot. I am able to take time out for me. I have... learned not to panic and fly on autopilot during the course of the working day when things start to build up... I can read the signs and use my meditation and relaxation exercise to calm myself and gather my positive strength. I mindfully enjoy the simple things in life and feel the better for it."
Silvia Coates
Employment Advisor
I would like you to know that your courses I attended helped me become a stronger more focused person, with a different outlook on life. As you know I can drive now, have a job that I can make a difference to other people's live's which I love. It gives you a great satisfaction knowing that you make a difference, it's like a constant warmth in your stomach.
Val
"Living Mindfully has provided great opportunities for individuals who have suffered mental illness to learn a valuable skill in how to cope with their internal mental distress in a different way. I have referred many individuals to this organisation, who have as a result, improved their mental wellbeing to such an extent that they have been well enough to be discharged. I would highly recommend this organisation to other professionals who are thinking of referring to Living Mindfully."
Laura Eltringham
Psychological Therapist
Case Studies
How Living Mindfully has helped me develop my business
I was chuffed to bits when I found out I had a place on a Living Mindfully course. I'd dabbled in the meditation game before and had some glorious experiences, but I'd lost all that stuff somewhere along the way. As a friend of mine put it, I'd had about twenty years of change within only a couple of years. What with the ending of a long-term relationship, the ending of an intense career, the ending of my father's life: I'd had more endings then I knew what to do with.
And then there were the beginnings. Sometimes they can be just as awesome. The beginning of a marriage, the beginning of several new homes in several new countries and, most importantly, the beginning of my new role as a mother. Oh yes. Change had dug its claws in deep.
I missed the calm. I missed the stillness and tranquility that my past experience of Mindfulness had brought me. I wanted to learn how to ride the wave of change without losing my grip on reality. But how on earth could I do that when I was busy cleaning dirty bums and tempering outrageous tantrums? Surely that took precedence now?
But something had to give. So I got myself on that Mindfulness course, knowing full well that I ran the risk of friends and family raising an eyebrow or two and seeing me as some sort of dippy hippy, draped in medicinal herbs and stinking of patchouli. I didn't give a flying flip. This was my time.
And that time was wonderful. For just a couple of hours a week I was in a fantastically neutral space with other people who needed or wanted exactly the same thing. We learned how to slow things down, how to listen to what our bodies were telling us and how to be completely in the moment. Not for one moment did I get a whiff of patchouli and absolutely nobody was draped in medicinal herbs. Honest.
And it was all very well practicing this stuff in a safe little room packaged away from real life, but what about stepping into the real world with it? What about holding hands with mindfulness all day, even when your kids are screaming, bills need paying and your sanity's gone AWOL? That was the real challenge.
And that's when I realised the Living Mindfully tutors deserved some kind of Nobel Patience Prize because they showed us all, individually, how to feed mindfulness into everyday life without compromising our responsibilities. Breathe. Pause. Feel. In all that you do. Breathe. Pause. Feel. And, believe it or not, everything becomes easier, more pleasant, more meaningful. I kid you not.
In the small spaces between my mindfulness sessions and caring for my tots, I was beavering away on my new business idea. I've never been one for working for someone else and I had a new idea, inspired by my children no less, that I was sure was going to be a winner. But this time round, my business had to fit in with my family. No mean feat as any working parent will tell you.
A few months earlier, when I'd had my second baby, I'd made my oldest son a little scrapbook, stuffed full of photos, to remind him of all the rules I wanted him to follow. Brush your teeth every day. Be kind to your friends. Remember how much you are loved. The rules were designed to make him feel special and, hopefully, give me fewer tantrums to deal with. It worked a treat. It became known as 'The Cool Rule Book' and was a constant, reassuring presence in our house.
Other parents wanted a piece of the Cool Rule action so I'd already started a trial. A very successful trial actually. Parents loved having a book to share with their toddler which encouraged positive parenting techniques. And all of the time I knew that my new mode of living mindfully, was helping me shape and define a fantastic product. My mindful living was bringing love, humour and compassion to parents and toddlers at a time in their lives when it was much, much needed.
So there you have it. As well as helping me devise a working balance that keeps my much-loved family in the foreground, Living Mindfully has helped me develop an innovative, exciting product that I hope will benefit families everywhere. Who'd have thought that business and all that dippy hippy stuff could nestle so closely together? Thank goodness it does and let's raise a glass (or an eyebrow, if you wish) to where it could go in the future.
Find out more about The Cool Rule Book at thecoolrulecompany.co.uk
Abi Yardimci
How Mindfullness woke me up to life
Mindfulness has opened up a whole new world to me of possibilities. It woke me up to life.
I came from a very poor and tragic place. I was in a women's refuge, isolated and very alone, with poor self-esteem. I found it difficult just to leave the refuge, felt very ashamed and saw no future in my life. I just felt doomed to failure, and expected life to be bleak and full of disasters.
Mindfulness connected me back with my emotions and my thoughts, showed me why I feel the way I do and why I think the way I do. I stopped rejecting myself, started listening to myself, my needs and emotions, and started the walk back to being myself again. It helped to ground me, realising what was important in life, and helped with anxieties, so I could face people and the world again and stop being afraid of what 'might' be 'out there'. I learned to change my perceptions of life. Where once I would have left my home on a windy rain swept day thinking 'oh 'eck what a miserable day' I even started to appreciate the rainy days, and would see these as beautiful in their own way and quite essential. This is a metaphor also for how I started seeing my emotions and thoughts, we all often do not like having what we perceive as negative thoughts and emotions and as such fight them or ignore them, but this is what causes our conflicts and can block us from what we truly are and need and can be in life, through this we truly block our potential by not listening to ourselves. Mindfulness is about being quiet and paying attention to this voice within.
I have recently undergone training in counselling and psychotherapy techniques, and have also started work with a local mental health charity helping support other people on their road to recovery. I am also training in art at university, perhaps combining art and counselling as a therapy.
Sarah
London