The 9 session (called by Oxford ’8 week’ – since the 9 sessions with them are spread over 8 weeks – ours is over 6 weeks) Mindfulness Practice course at the excellent Oxford Mindfulness Centre has just increased its fee from £250 to £350.

Just as well, then, that hei! members are getting a course adapted for the lifestyles of people in the arts and entertainment, but with exactly the same goals, free.

A 9 session Mindfulness Practice course is a pre-requisite for working in mindfulness research and for considering including or majoring in mindfulness in a Supporting Career.

Not to mention that, along with learning proper self-hypnosis from a reliable teacher, mindfulness is possibly the best skill anyone in the arts and entertainment can learn to help manage the hours and the stress and the demands.

£350  FREE!

Every little helps.

The trustees of The ELK-Foundation announced today that due to re-organisation of the grant system, the funds currently not taken up to improve and sustain emotional wellbeing in the dance community would have to be re-allocated by 26th July – most likely to musicians’ projects.

A donation to research reducing anxiety amongst people working on productions involving music and / or dance was made in April.  The music industry has been quick to engage with the hei! process; less so the dance community.

Organisations representing people who work in productions that include dance, as well as dance companies themselves are eligible to apply up to midnight BST on the 26th.

Trustees are concerned that dance is less represented than other disciplines currently.

hei! members are asked to look out for an email inviting you to attend an 8 week Mindfulness Practice Course completely free-of-charge.

If you haven’t received one of these emails (they were sent out on Monday 8th July), and you’d like to go, please contact us.

Most weeks, the Course begins at 1.15pm and lasts 2¼ hours – so we finish at 3.30pm – but teachers will be available for questions and advice afterwards. There are three exceptions: Two combined sessions and one Saturday. Details are below.

The Course is specifically designed to let participants miss a session and catch up via distance learning (a video and a phone call or Skype / FaceTime call) but if you want to use this Course as part of a pathway to become a Mindfulness Teacher (please see the blog coming up soon) you must attend 6 of the total 9 sessions that form this Mindfulness Practice Course.

Days on which these sessions will take place are:

Session 1: Awareness and automatic pilot W17/7/13   13.15 – 15.30

Session 2: Living in our heads   W24/7/13   13.15 – 15.30

Session 3: Gathering the scattered mind  W31/7/13   13.15-15.30

Session 4: Recognising aversion and Session 5: Allowing / Letting be  W7/8/13  13.15 – 16.40  Please note that if participants cannot stay the extra time for this double-session, they can leave in the break and study at home. But see our note about counting this course towards  becoming a Mindfulness Teacher

Session 6: Thoughts are not facts  W14/8/13   13.15 – 15.30

Session 7: A day of Mindful Practice   Saturday 17/8/13   10.00 – 16.15 An alternative ‘All-Day’ session of practice can be chosen, although it is often thought advantageous to do this day with your student-peers

Session 8: ”How can I best take care of myself?”  and Session 9:  Maintaining and extending new learning  W21/8/13   13.15 – 16.30

A blog about what to expect will be going up soon.

It is important to emphasise these two things:

Overwhelmingly, the most important thing about any course about mindfulness is what you do between the sessions.  Mindfulness can be practiced in bed, in a queue, when you feel the need to calm yourself, but it also needs you to acknowledge that sometimes you need to go off and find somewhere quiet, just to be.

Secondly, although mindfulness is at least 2,500 years old, and based on many Buddhist ideas, this course is entirely secular.  Whether you have religion in your life or not, this mindfulness course is designed for everyone.

We are sure you will enjoy this extraordinary and, for many, life-changing experience.

Tadhg Ó Séaghdha updates the blog Why do we just accept what powerful people think is important? 

It advocated that Happiness should be reflected in how the powerful measure profit and worthiness – as well as Money – because for many people dosh isn’t everything in life

In the Blog Section we wrote the hei! team’s thoughts on Oxfam Scotland’s call for a new prosperity measurement that focuses on equality rather than just economic growth.

Lots of views from hei! members, though most by email directly to me, rather than the blog, and mostly sending me interesting information like that about the campaign “Action for Happiness“.

Do download the excellent Happiness Pack from the site. It’s all rather nourishing stuff for those who don’t make money their first priority. It was for this campaign that John Kabat-Zinn, the founder of Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction, did a talk at the Friends’ House in Euston, London just after the International Mindfulness Conference in Chester in March and to introduce…

…the second edition of Richard Layard’s warming book Happiness: Lessons from a New Science.

And a great link to the news that The ELK-Foundation’s first 8 week Mindfulness Practice course is free to hei! members. Most institutions price this course at about £250 (about €290 or US$370).