This Way Up harnesses the value of life coaching and mindfulness practices.
These different but complementary approaches can make a real change in your awareness of and ability to achieve your aims.
What is mindfulness?
Mindfulness is the art of skilful awareness. When you train in mindfulness, you learn to become more aware of what’s actually going on in and around you. By developing this ‘mental muscle’ – through regular practice of simple awareness techniques – you build new neural pathways to parts of the brain associated with calm, wellbeing and emotional positivity. It also counteracts unhelpful ‘autopilot’ thinking – when attention gets stuck in difficult thoughts and emotions.
Our mindfulness course sessions are highly experiential – with an emphasis on practice, including guided meditations, mindful movement, and other exercises. We also spend time in discussion, both in small break out groups, and in the whole group. We back all this up with some basic theoretical presentation of the key concepts. You will have access to course materials online, which include a summary of the theoretical concepts for each session, plus audio and video guided meditations for you to practice in between the sessions. You will be strongly encouraged to do home practice every week.
“People opened up and after the third session, I started to open up. I’ve helped others and they’ve helped me.”
This Way Up PArticipant
The ABC of mindfulness – This Way Up’s approach
You’ll start by developing “awareness” of what is happening in your experience, with kindness and patience. You do this through meditation and learning to be mindful throughout the day.
Next, you’ll learn to “be” with your experience. You’ll do this by watching your thoughts more carefully. You learn to cultivate an attitude of acceptance towards difficult experiences, instead of pushing them away.
Finally, you can “choose” wise responses to your experience. Giving your mind and body more time and space, allowing the most helpful decisions and choices to emerge. The key is responding wisely instead of reacting automatically.
What is life coaching?
Life coaching involves talking confidentially to someone who is trained to help you work out what you want in life and how you can achieve it. A life coach listens carefully, and asks questions to find out more. Through the sessions you discuss where you are now, and how you can get to where you want to be.
Life coaching is not counselling or therapy, which helps people to resolve deep-seated issues from the past. Nor is it advice, which provides a prescription for what you should do. Instead, you take the driving seat, set the agenda, and make a start on what comes next in your life.