An Introduction to Mindfulness and Meditation 4-Week Course — Brisbane

Australia’s number one in-person mindfulness and meditation course.

Reduce anxiety, worry and stress. Improve sleep. Increase self-acceptance.

In-person 4-week Introduction to Mindfulness and Meditation course in Brisbane. Includes four classes with an experienced mindfulness trainer, a 4-week subscription to the full version of the CALM app, downloadable guided mindfulness meditations and a 45-page guidebook.

Mindfulness means “paying attention in a particular way; On purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgementally.” — Jon Kabat Zinn (Professor of Medicine Emeritus UMMS).

“Mindfulness helps you to keep your thoughts in the present moment. As you practice, you tend to get better at calming the mind and keeping things in perspective.” — Dr Grant Blashki GP and Beyond Blue’s (beyondblue.org.au) lead Clinical Advisor

THE BENEFITS OF MINDFULNESS AND MEDITATION

Many people who practice mindfulness regularly, over time find that they:

• Experience less stress, anxiety and worry

• Improve sleeping patterns

• Feel more self-acceptance and self-love

• Reduce reactivity and increase emotional intelligence

• Experience more joy

“I feel calmer. I am able to use techniques when my triggers go off. Using the meditation at night has allowed me to get a better nights sleep” — Sue Mathew

“Since doing this course, I have been sleeping much better, I feel much more in control of my emotions, I have enjoyed ‘noticing’ my own state, but also it has transferred to everything around. This means I am re-enjoying many things that I had been taking for granted.” — Sandy Good

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“Using mindfulness to help me better manage unrelenting anxiety, obsessive worrying & sadness. I have found that using the app is helpful when having a stressful day, & I intend to keep practicing daily. Thank you.” — Cecily Wilson

Why Choose This Mindfulness and Meditation Course?

“I am so glad I did the course and would recommend it to everyone.” — Rosie Smith

“Thank goodness I came across Mindfulness Works. I have learnt so much in a year and am the happiest, authentic and content I have ever been. Learning acceptance without judgement as been an eye opener for me. I’m continuing my journey of self compassion and feel excited and hopeful for my future, but am grateful of the now and who I am today…” — Rebecca Young

FREE 4 week subscription to the full version of the CALM App is included with this course.

Every participant on the Mindfulness Works Introduction to Mindfulness 4-Week Course receives a free 4-week gift subscription to the award-winning Calm mindfulness and meditation app (premium version). This app was the Apple app of the year for 2017.

No Religion. No funny positions. No dogma. This course is practical and non-religious.

This particular course emphasises your own natural wisdom, your own innate OKness, right here and now. The instructions and guidance will be explicitly inviting you to embrace your whole human experience as it happens, moment by moment with a radical acceptance.

Week 1: What is Mindfulness?

• What mindfulness is
• The benefits of mindfulness and meditation
• How to get the most from the course
• Guided body scan mindfulness meditation
• Questions and answers / discussion.

Week 2: Working with the Mind

• Why thinking can be problematical
• Practical ways to work with difficult thoughts
• Self-judgement and how to intervene
• Guided mindfulness meditation – counting the breath
• Questions and answers / discussion.

Week 3: Working with Emotions

• What are emotions?
• Learning to feel emotions
• The RAIN method
• Non-judgement and acceptance
• Guided mindfulness meditation on feelings
• Questions and answers / discussion.

Week 4: Radical Acceptance

• What it means to be present
• How wanting causes stress
• Developing wisdom and insight
• Authentic self-compassion
• Open awareness guided mindfulness meditation
• Questions and answers / discussion
• Next steps.

“Am so glad I did the course and would recommend it to everyone. ” — Rosie Smith

“Huge reduction in anxiety, calmness of mind and body and empowerment over my symptoms.” — Jo Kirwan

“I feel calmer. I am able to use techniques when my triggers go off. Using the meditation at night has allowed me to get a better nights sleep” — Sue Mathew

“Using mindfulness to help me better manage unrelenting anxiety, obsessive worrying & sadness. I have found that using the apps is helpful when having a stressful day, & I intend to keep practicing daily. Thank you.” — Cecily Wilson

“The course was very relaxed and friendly, and full of useful practical advice that recognised the limits to time that everyone faces. Also I liked the mix of people attending, with a range of different reasons for being there.” — Rosie Cree

“Since doing this course, I have been sleeping much better, I feel much more in control of my emotions, I have enjoyed ‘noticing’ my own state, but also it has transferred to everything around. This means I am re-enjoying many things that I had been taking for granted.” — Sandy Good

“The course guidebook was a useful guide and very informative. I also enjoyed the formal practice and the way different strategies were explained.” — Linda Daniell

LEARN FROM THE BEST

Meet your mindfulness and meditation teachers

Deb Lacey

Debbie is an Occupational Therapist with 20 years experience working in mental health and cancer care. She has expertise in the areas of stress and anxiety management with a particular interest in mindfulness and has been trained in mindfulness based cognitive therapy and ACT. Debbie believes strongly in empowering people to get in touch with their own inner strengths.

Debbie has been practising meditation for almost 20 years with a focus on mindfulness for the last five years. She is passionate about mindfulness as she has seen how it has changed the lives of people she works with as well as her own. In particular, Debbie has witnessed how people experience more joy in their lives and develop a more resilient approach to difficulties. She attends regular mindful retreats and has her own mindfulness teacher.

Debbie lives in Brisbane with her adult daughter (in-training!) and extremely spoiled and delightful cat, Truffles. What Debbie enjoys most about life is walking by the beach, expressive dance and yoga.

Jonathan Wood

Kate Hubert

Kate Hubert

Kate has been practising meditation for more than 25 years and teaching for 12. Over this time, Kate has attended many meditation workshops and classes in a variety of meditation traditions and styles.

Being passionate about the benefits that mindfulness brings to body, mind and life in general, Kate loves teaching people how to slow down, smell the roses and apply mindfulness practices to everything that they think, say and do.

Kate’s qualifications include International Yoga Teachers Association (IYTA) Diploma, Skillful MIND Meditation Leader Certification and The Power of Awareness training with Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield, Reiki Level 1 & 2. She is currently studying Qigong teacher training with Holden Qigong.

Lyndi Smith

Lyndi is a Brisbane-based mindfulness trainer with Mindfulness Works Australia and international charity Mind With Heart and is a qualified mindfulness meditation teacher (BSY). She has trained in both secular and traditional mindfulness.

She started practising near burnout ten years ago and has racked up over 3,000 hours of mindfulness practice since then. Lyndi now enjoys a happier, more balanced quality of life.

She has led over thirty mindfulness-and-compassion-based programmes in the last five years.

Lyndi has designed and implemented mindfulness-and-compassion-based wellbeing programmes for the Queensland Dept. of Education and Training, Excite Media and Teachers Health Fund.

She loves nature, especially the ocean… the sound of waves crashing… the salty breeze… relaxing onto warm sand… She also enjoys a good laugh and notes that a sense of humour can sometimes offer a new perspective when she gets stuck.

Learning mindfulness is an opportunity for us to find moments of calm and insight – even at the desk! Visit Lyndi’s website.

Sophie Jayamaha

Sophie is a dedicated Mindfulness practitioner and a facilitator. With her firsthand experience in applying mindfulness to her own life situations, her passion is to empower people to live fulfilled lives.

She is also a medical doctor and combines her medical knowledge and mindfulness skills in her teaching of how to apply mindfulness to improve people’s physical and mental wellbeing and quality of life.

In her experience seeing thousands of patients, Sophie has observed that lack of resilience in coping with life’s stresses leads to anxiety and depression as well as diseases in the body. Unmanaged stress also forces people to adopt unhealthy lifestyles causing weight gain and other chronic diseases. Inadequate recovery from stress causes biochemical and physiological changes in the body collectively known as stress response.

As an anaesthesiologist, Sophie is familiar with the body’s response to stress, and she explains the scientific basis of the body becoming diseased when the mind is stressed. We do not pay attention to early warning signals that appear as discomforts in the mind and the body or even weight gain until a life-threatening disease such as cancer, diabetes, heart attack or stroke cripples us. Early warning signals are often suppressed by drugs and alcohol, as well as by the many distractions of busy lifestyles. She teaches mindfulness practices to enhance mind and body awareness and to reduce stress response in the body before a person becomes a victim of chronic illness.

Her mission is to empower people with mindfulness skills to self-manage their own health to recover and reverse chronic diseases and live a better quality of life with fulfilment. 

Mindfulness Works is one of the largest mindfulness training organisations in Australasia. Over 25,000 people have attended the Introduction to Mindfulness and Meditation 4-week course throughout Australia and New Zealand

Mindfulness Works is committed to:

• Providing accessible and affordable mindfulness courses
• Offering a diverse range of experienced and skilled mindfulness trainers
• Providing courses in a practical format with exceptional supporting resources
• Improving the mental health of all of us and fostering self-love in all
• Supporting our facilitators with options for further professional development

Refund and Transfer Policy

• Full refunds are available up to one week before a course starts.
• Free transfers to other courses are available up to one week before a course starts.
• Once a course has started, full refunds are only available if you attend every class of the course and feel you have not got value. In this case you are entitled to and will be given a full refund.
• Refunds are not given if you do not attend every class of the course and if you simply ‘do not like’ the course or decide ‘it is not for you’.
• For more details about our refund and transfer policy, please read our FAQ.

How long is each weekly class and what happens?

Each class is one hour long. There will be a guided meditation for a period. This will include meditation instruction. After the meditation and instruction, there will be a talk or discussion. This includes a question and answer time.

Who is it suitable for?

This course is suitable for any of the following:

• 18-year-olds and over
• Beginners
• People who have never meditated or practised mindfulness before
• People who have just started meditating or practising mindfulness.