Here is some useful stuff for you to explore – just dip into whatever is useful for you and let go of the rest!

Try mindfulness meditation

Mindfulness helps you to be fully aware of whatever is here for you – and regular meditation increases this present-moment awareness.

Guided meditations allow you to follow gentle verbal instructions – so you can come off ‘thinking’ mode and focus all of your attention on the practice.   We have recorded 2 short but very useful mindfulness meditations for you to explore:

Seated Breathing Practice – this practice will help to train your ‘attention muscle’ as you focus on the body and breath, notice when your mind wanders away then kindly and gently bring it back again … time after time.

• Practice it regularly to enhance focus, calm and clarity and offset the negative impact of our busy, stressful 21st Century lives.

3 Step Breathing Space – this short (3 minute) practice brings you to a place of focus, calm and clarity to help you deal more effectively with whatever life brings.

• Practice it regularly and use it when you’re ‘on the go’ in your everyday life.  You can shorten it to just a few seconds to ground you, so you can respond effectively to whatever life throws at you.

Free mindfulness resources for you to explore:

• Chocolate Meditation (yes, really!)
• A whole library of gentle, compassionate meditations by Tara Brach
• Sign up for a free 10 day trial of the Headspace app.

If you would like to go a bit deeper, we highly recommend these books:

Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World – Mark Williams and Danny Penman

The Mindful Path to Self Compassion – Christopher Germer

Self Compassion – Kristen Neff

Yoga

We can highly recommend this book, Intelligent Yoga: Listening to the Body’s Innate Wisdom by Pete Blackaby – which includes a really helpful practice section for you to enjoy!

Forest Therapy

The Association of Nature and Forest Therapy (ANFT) is the “leading global voice for forest bathing and forest therapy”.  Their website contains a wealth of useful information, including links to extensive scientific evidence which validates the benefits of being in nature.   Jayne has trained with the ANFT  and completed an additional 6 months of study to become a Certified Nature and Forest Therapy Guide.

We can also recommend some books if you are interested in finding out more:

• A lovely introduction to Forest Therapy and the scientific evidence which supports why being in nature is so good for us is: – it’s called “Shinrin Yoku: The Art and Science of Forest Bathing” by Dr Qing Li.
• There’s also a wonderful book about trees and how they communicate and support one another – fascinating stuff.  It’s called “The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate” by Peter Wohlleben – available both as a paperback and also as an illustrated edition containing some stunning photographs.