Here is some useful stuff for you to explore
Try mindfulness meditation
Mindfulness can enable you to be fully present and respond more helpfully to whatever life brings. Practicing mindfulness regularly develops and embeds skills and approaches that you can draw on, whenever you need to in daily life. Guided audio meditations can support you in developing a regular practice, as they offer you gentle verbal instructions to help you focus your attention where you want it to be. Here are some useful mindfulness practices for you to explore - we hope you enjoy them and please contact us if you have any questions.
3 Step Breathing Space – this practice, adapted from 'Finding Peace in a Frantic World' by Professor Mark Williams, helps you to become grounded in present-moment awareness. When you practice it regularly, you can shorten the 3 Steps to just a few seconds - namely "notice what's here in the mind and body ... just breathe ... move on, grounded". It then becomes an 'on the go' practice, to help you to respond helpfully to whatever daily life brings:
Sounds and Thoughts - this practice, also adapted from 'Finding Peace in a Frantic World' by Professor Mark Williams, helps you to discover how you can relate to unsettling thoughts in the same way that you relate to sounds. Thoughts can be like a radio left on in the background. You can listen and observe, but there is no need to elaborate on what you are hearing. You have the choice to let the thoughts come and go, without getting caught up in them, just like sounds coming and going.
Affectionate Breathing – this Mindful Self-Compassion practice will help you to focus your attention gently on your body and breath ... and bring a warm, friendly awareness to what is here:
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
Self-Compassion for Dummies - Steve Hickman
The Mindful Path to Self Compassion – Christopher Germer
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 Bathing
If you want to find out more about forest bathing, then do take a look at our webpage. We completed our professional training with the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy (ANFT) - the "leading global voice for forest bathing and forest therapy” - and we are the only 2 ANFT- Certified Nature and Forest Therapy Guides in Kent. The ANFT website contains links to extensive scientific evidence which validates the benefits of being in nature.
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.