Tag: stress reduction

Online Yoga restarts Monday 10th – can’t wait!!!

If every cloud has a silver lining, then for me the silver lining of the whole Covid era has been teaching Yoga online. Given that in March 2020 I had never been on a Zoom call, I can’t believe how much I’m enjoying my regular online classes – and the feedback I’ve been getting from the lovely people who attend has been wonderfully encouraging! I compiled some of the words and experiences that have come back to me from participants over the last year or so:

All for a very affordable price – €30 for 6 sessions!

The emphasis on these classes is on being present to yourself just as you are in this moment – we are cultivating the capacity for ’embodied self awareness’ which is known to have profound benefits for physical, mental and emotional well being. We work gently with movement, breath and sound – finding ways to work with ease and pleasure rather than achieving any particular standard of ‘correctness’ in the yoga postures. Because this approach favours exploration and curiosity over performance we can welcome newcomers at any time. People who have been coming longer will notice ‘progress’ in their capacity to be present and aware of their experience moment to moment; and of-course because we are working mainly with movement they will notice improvements in mobility, strength and physical ease. But someone joining for the very first time is also likely to experience and enhanced sense of ease and well being.

I’d love to see you there! I’d love to hear from you if you have any questions at all either about the content of the classes or the technology involved. I’ll even do a Zoom rehearsal with you if you’re not sure how that works – I’m not exactly a tech wizard myself so I’m patient with learners!
Contact details below … I look forward to hearing from you!

Starting this week…looking after yourself and helping others through the winter!

Quick reminder of two new courses starting this week…..

Image may contain: text that says "Online Yoga Mondays 10am 1.15am starts Mon 9 Nov Wednesdays 7.00 8.15pm 8 re-starts Wed 4 Nov 6 weeks: €30 Nurturing body mind and heart from the comfort of home! Mairead: 086 8120332 Small classes: Smallclasses:BookingEssential Booking Essential"

Well, actually the Wednesday class started last week…but Monday 10-11.15 starts tomorrow.
Suitable for everybody – great start to the week!

And something very dear to my heart…

‘Resources for Resilience’ on 4 Tuesday evenings
Starting this week, Tues 10th, 7 – 8pm
Donation Based: All donations to Peter Mc Verry Trust

As we get deeper into winter, I am delighted to be able to share Yoga and other self-care courses on Zoom.
Despite the fact that we’d really rather meet in a room, it is such a luxury to be able to continue these nourishing events from the warmth, safety and comfort of home – no drafty halls, no frosty roads!
And yet, not everyone has these luxuries of a warm, safe place to practice yoga – never mind just a safe place to sleep, and an address to organise your life around!

I took the plunge last weekend to organise my first Facebook Fundraiser and I was amazed that within hours we had reached our target of €150 for Peter McVerry Trust – Thank you generous people!
But why stop there – there’s still time to join and still time to donate, so we can raise even more for this very worthy cause…

The deal is that I’m offering a short course….’Resources for Resilience’
I’m inviting you to join me in a range of easy and enjoyable body/mind practices for reducing stress and building resilience. Donation based, all funds go directly for Peter McVerry Trust.
If you’d like to join please just email me maireadflynn8@gmail.com, and I’ll send you the Zoom link each Tuesday evening.
If you wish to Donate then you can do that on my Facebook page which I hope I can replicate here… and if you’re not in a position to donate right now, you are welcome to join…no doubt you’ll find other ways to ‘pay it on’

https://www.facebook.com/donate/738260746787398/

To join the course and get the Zoom link each week: maireadflynn8@gmail.com

Love to see you soon!
Warmly,
Mairead

 

Time for Resilience

Welcome! Please read on for details on all of above…

The bad news is that trauma is a fact of life
The good news is that so is resilience.
Simply stated, resilience is the capacity we all possess to rebound from stress and the feelings of fear, helplessness and overwhelm

Peter A Levine
Founder of Somatic Experiencing
www.traumahealing.org

What a time it’s been…
I do hope you’re keeping well in a world that continues to be dominated by Covid 19.
It’s been such a challenging time. We’ve had to adapt to so many changes….in how we live, work, shop, connect with friends and family. Many of the ‘stability zones’ that kept us sane, such as meeting friends, going to the gym, the weekly yoga class or reading group, attending church, family gatherings have been severely curtailed. And of course coming out of lock-down was always going to be more tricky than going in (…now there’s an understatement!)


Amidst the ongoing confusion of spreading virus and ever-changing regulations, coming up with some kind of Autumn programme has been a challenge – many days of dithering and indecision mixed the odd moment of deep and clear thinking! I’ve been torn between the inclination to just go on lying low or to get out there and offer something that might be help with the challenges we’re all facing … a lot of soul searching has gone on and I have finally come up with a programme ….
But first I’d love you to watch a short video message which explains where I’m coming from in my offerings for the rest of the year…

Do have a listen to hear about three strands of what I’m offering to support you in nurturing your innate capacity to live with ease and vitality – even in the strangest of times!

  • Wed 9th Sept: Booking Essential
Bookings for all of the above directly to me
Tel: 086 8120332 Email: maireadflynn8@gmail.com Web: http://www.ways-to-wellness.org

In the video I mentioned two aspects of resilience:
1. Turning inwards to rediscover and nurture you own inner resources, and
2. Turning outwards to connect in meaningful ways with supportive and like-minded others
I’d like to emphasize that it’s not a case of either / or; we need both!
Resilience is partly, but not entirely an inside job. Human beings are wired for connection, and our first instinct in a crisis is to look for support from other human beings…..
My sincere hope is that this challenging time may be an opportunity for you to come home to what is strong and resilient in you and that you find whoever and whatever you need to support you to live with confidence and ease even in these strangest of times.

If there’s something in the above programme which grabs your interest, do get in touch with me either for more details or to book a place / make an appointment. Particularly if you’re finding the going tough and you feel the stress of these times is affecting your overall sense of well being, I’ll be happy to have a chat with you about how you might support your own resilience during this challenging time- and how I might be of help.

No one can do this work for you, but you can’t do it on your own

Peter A Levine
Founder of Somatic Experiencing
www.traumahealing.org

Compassionate Presence to Body and Emotions

Do you often give yourself a hard time? Have you a very active inner critic?
Can you imagine what it would be like to be your own best friend?

Have you grown to tolerate tiredness and minor aches and pains?
What might it be like to recover a sense of ‘firing on all cylinders’?

Do you sometimes feel overwhelmed by what life throws at you?
Would you like to explore ways back to your own natural resilience and passion for life?

If you can relate to any of the above, you just might be interested in….
A one-day workshop with Mairéad Flynn & Mairéad Heaney

  • Reflecting on aspects of Body and Emotions
  • Understanding & valuing compassionate presence to self
  • Exploring practices which help us integrate mindful compassion in daily life (this will include some gentle movement)

The workshop will be offered at 2 venues:

August 22nd: Wellington Hall, St. Mary’s Rd., Dundalk

August 29th: The Wetlands Centre, Ballybay.

Times:  10am – 5pm

Please bring along a lunch to suit your own taste!

Tea/ Coffee breaks will be catered for.

Cost:     €50

Booking: Closing date is August 15th

If you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to contact one of us…

CONTACT: maireadflynn8@gmail.com /086 8120332

                       maireadh66@gmail.com / 087 6889822

Both Mairéads are experienced Mindfulness Teachers alongside having other professional qualifications:
Mairead Flynn in Yoga and Stress Management; Mairéad Heaney in Psychotherapy.
They offer regular themed workshops as on-going nourishment and support for those who have completed the 8 week MBSR. However they welcome anyone who wishes to explore the possibilities of mindfulness for personal growth and wellbeing.

Like my new flyer?

When I posted last on June 1st I had a kind of secret intention to post something at the beginning of every month. Luck it was ‘secret’ because it didn’t happen! There is something in the pipeline – not quite ready to go…but in the meantime, I though I’d have a go at posting my new flyer.  My IT skills are limited and I’m not sure if I can just copy a Jpeg file here (I don’t really know what a jpeg is), but I’ll have a go…

Layout 1

Now that seemed to work! Pleased about that – hope you like it!

More news of summer workshops soon – watch this space….

Mindfulness and more – lots of holistic summer nourishment!

Here’s an email I send out to all on my mailing list: economy of effort, I’m hoping it will double as a post! Here goes…

Summer greetings to all!

And yes it is summer – according to Wet Eireann (Oliver Callan’s joke, not mine!) this is officially the first day of summer….
Despite the wind and rain, I hope you are enjoying a pleasant bank holiday…doing something relaxing and nourishing to recharge the batteries for the week ahead.

And speaking of relaxing, nourishing and recharging batteries, I’m happy to flag some very nourishing events coming up in June – some regular nourishment and something exciting and new – read on!

1. Some regular nourishment:

ONE DAY MINDFULNESS RETREAT
in The Wetlands Centre, Ballybay on Saturday 13 June, 10am to 4pm
As the current MBSR group finish their 8-week course, all of you who have done MBSR are welcome to join us. I’m aware that last time there were so many takers, I had to turn some of you away! I am so sorry about that…and while I’m not expecting the same demand this time, it’s not a bad idea to let me know in good time if you want to join.
Booking: You can reply to this email, or contact me on 086 8120332.
Cost: if you have done MBSR and never got to do the one-day retreat, then you are entitled to this and there’s no fee.
If you’re coming back to join us for a refresher day, you are most welcome – I suggest that you contribute €10
What to bring: As many of you know from before, I ask everyone to bring something simple for lunch and also a Yoga mat and blanket – whatever you need to be comfortable for some very gentle mindful movement and Body Scan.
These days are a great opportunity to link in again with the nourishment of mindfulness practice and with like-minded friends – hope to see lots of you there!

2. Some new and very exciting nourishment:

SUMMER SOLSTICE HOLISTIC RETREAT
also in The Wetlands Centre, Ballybay on the summer solstice weekend – Sat 20 and Sun 21 June
I’m delighted to co-host this very special event with Margaret Palmer (Herbalist) and Claire Clerkin (Nutritional Therapist). The three of us got together to see if we can pool our varied expertise and design some truly holistic events to nourish body, mind and spirit – and this is our first offering….

There’ll be herbal walks, cookery demonstrations, mindful walking; we’ll get to eat the deliciously healthy lunches prepared under Claire’s guidance; you’ll take away a nourishing herbal body lotion that Margaret helps us create; there’ll be talks on how to use food and herbs to maintain health and energy; and each day will start with some gentle Yoga and end with a short Mindfulness practice.   .
The theme on Saturday will be ‘relax and detox’ and on Sunday ‘recharge and energize’.
Interested?
You’ll find all the details on our website:  http://summersolsticeevent.weebly.com/
and Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/solsticeholisticweekend
Booking is essential: You can book through the website (there’s a link to Eventbrite), or simply give one of us a call.

3. Further into the summer:

If you can’t make either of the above, don’t worry there will be some further workshops later in July and August…

An Introduction to Somatic Experiencing
– a body/mind approach to reduce the symptoms of trauma and accumulated stress
Yoga and Mindfulness
– learning to inhabit the body whether moving or still is for many the best way towards mindful presence
Mindful Self-compassion
– learning how important it is to gently take care of yourself as you do your best to negotiate what challenges life presents


 I’ll be sending more details of these soon…

4. And finally – some on-going nourishment:

As you can see from the above, I love working with groups and most of what I do can be very effectively taught in groups – in fact group interaction and support often adds to our experience and learning. It can be amazingly consoling and encouraging to meet others who are negotiating life experiences  which are similar to our own…
However, there are times for all of us, when we could do with more focused and individual support.
Based on the training I have been doing in Somatic Experiencing (to finish in October) I see many of the issues we struggle with (problems with sleep, digestion, chronic pain, anxiety, fatigue, low mood) as reflections of a nervous system out of sync, due to trauma and accumulated stress. ‘Nervous system dysregulation’ is the buzz phrase of the leaders in trauma healing; and the symptoms of accumulated stress are often very similar to those of trauma.

If your nervous system is feeling somewhat frazzled (and if it is, you’ll know what I mean!) you might consider that a few individual sessions could help  restore balance and stability in your system.
Currently I see people for one-to-one Yoga, Mindfulness, Reflexology  and Stress Reduction – These are all very effective ways to restore nervous system regulation. While they can each be learned in a class situation (all except Reflexology) it can sometimes be more effective to learn exactly what you need to learn and to have individual support/guidance as you make your own journey back towards balance and resilience.
If you think you might benefit from some one-to-one sessions, do give me a ring and we can explore together what might work best for you.
Tel: 086 8120332

I think that’s it for now – the sun is shining at the moment, but I’m not entirely convinced that summer has set in – let’s see what Wet Eireann has to say later! But whatever the outside weather I do hope that your internal weather is pleasant, and that whatever life is presenting you are handling it with grace and resilience… and that your mindfulness skills are coming to your aid!

If you have queries about any of the above, I’d love to hear from you…
With warm wishes,
Mairead

From Stress to Resilience – and why cavemen didn’t get ulcers!

Have you ever had a moment – perhaps on a particularly bad day – that you’ve thought ‘This can’t be right! A human being was never meant to live like this!’ There’s a lot of truth in your bewildered observation; it may or may not be some consolation to know that the world’s leaders in trauma therapy are coming to the same conclusion!

Because trauma is rampant in our world today an enormous amount of work has been done, and helped along with new insights in brain science, a lot more is understood about the brain-body mechanisms that lead to PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and it’s many debilitating symptoms.

Naturally someone who had been through a horrific event – like a serious road traffic accident, a violent assault, or a natural disaster – will experience after effects. The worrying thing is that many who have been through fairly minor events are being diagnosed with PTSD. An example might be someone who seemed to be functioning perfectly well is tail-ended on the way to work one morning, and their lives fall apart! Someone who would be no means be perceived as a ‘wimp’ may suffer years of sleep disturbance, chronic pain and inability to hold down a job – the result of a 5mile an hour collision!

So what has gone wrong when someone (as in the example above) appears to have so little resilience – how can a minor event have such devastating consequences? Leaders in the field of trauma therapy would say that the underlying problem is accumulated stress: stress responses that are meant to fire up, help us through crisis, then disappear, have actually stacked up in the system. These accumulated stress responses mean that a person who appears to be functioning perfectly well might actually be living very close to their tipping point; due to the backlog of stress in their system, they are working really hard to ‘function perfectly well’. Sadly, it’s not going to take much to push them beyond their tipping point.

The other possible reason for this apparent lack of resilience is developmental trauma – conditions in the person’s early life were not sufficient to lay down the basis of resilience and somehow they have not sufficient inner resources to roll with the punches.

If you want to learn more about the fascinating new developments in trauma therapy, why not investigate ‘From Stress to Resilience’ a new 6 week course starting in Monaghan Wellness Centre. While the bad news is that trauma and accumulated stress are so rampant in our society, the good news is that an amazing amount of work is being done to understand and to discover ways to heal this modern plague. Hence the course will not only present some fascinating information about how trauma messes us up, but also lots of ways in which we can reduce our own backlog of accumulated stress, thus restoring resilience and aliveness.

But coming back to your thought at the beginning ‘This ain’t right. Surely this isn’t how a human being is meant to live!’ One of the most fascinating lines of enquiry that the experts in trauma are following – is that indeed this isn’t right. While life has changed enormously since our human ancestors came down from the trees and started to live a two-legged live on the ground, our nervous systems have not actually changed very much. Our nervous systems are designed for a life of the hunter-gatherer – a life lived in tribes of about 50 to 150 people, where we knew everybody, everybody looked out for everybody else; we hardly ever met a stranger and crises – such as a visit from a man-eating tiger, or aggression from a neighbouring tribe – were intense but short lived. The important thing is that crises were spaced out – there was time for life (and our nervous systems) to get back to normal, to a state of relative ease, before the next crisis.

 So from this perspective, it seems that modern life itself is a ‘trauma’ for a species meant for a much quieter, slower existence. Unless you’re living as a hermit, you may well have the sense that there’s always something else – you’ve just sorted one crisis and there’s another half dozen waiting! This is a recipe for accumulated stress, a recipe for living dangerously close to your tipping point – the edge of your resilience. But, please don’t despair – there’s a lot that you can do –  just to understand how your nervous system and stress responses work is a great first step; and then practising yoga and mindfulness are great ways to restore order and resilience within your system, no matter how overworked and chaotic it has been.(Yoga in particular is recommended by leaders in the field of trauma and it is taught as an integral part of the recovery programmes in many of the world’s leading trauma treatment centres.)

If you’d like to hear more, do please come along to a free information session in Monaghan Wellness Centre on Wed 17 September at 7pm.

Details: Mairead Flynn 086 8120332

Watch this Space!

It’s been so long since any activity here!

But at last there’s lots of new stuff on the horizon…
I’ll be posting fuller details over the next few days/weeks, but can’t wait to flag up what’s coming down the line – strange that I haven’t put anything up since January, and now I can’t wait! I have to admit I am a little bit excited about what’s on the way, so here it is……

First of all, I always love starting new MBSR courses – every group is so different and even thought more or less the same material is covered, it always seems new, thanks to the uniqueness of each participant…

MINDFULNESS BASED STRESS REDUCTION (MBSR)
new 8-week courses starting 
Monaghan Wellness Centre on Mon 22 Sept
Free Information Session ∼ Mon 15 Sept at 7pm
and
Cavan Crystal Hotel on Thurs 25 September
Free Information Session ∼ Thurs 18 Sept at 7pm

for full details and Registration Details, download Mindfulness Information – Sept 2014

Next…I am so happy to be doing a number of one-day workshops this term with my friend and fellow mindfulness teacher, Mairead Heaney – some of you might have met Mairead before. Very conscious of the value of follow up and on-going support for people who have already done MBSR, we are offering a number of themed workshops in venues which might suit folks who have done MBSR either in Monaghan, Cavan or Dundalk. For starters…

Mindfulness and the Body

The Magnet, Dundalk on Saturday 20 September
Ballybay Wetlands Centre on Saturday 27 September
Both will run from 10am to 4pm
Much more detail will be posted very soon

Mindfulness and the Emotions

Dundalk on Sat 18 October (venue to be confirmed)
Ballybay Wetlands Centre on Sat 25 October
Both will run from 10am to 4pm
Much more detail soon, but you might want to pencil in….

And yet further excitement –

From Stress to Resilience, reducing stress, restoring balance, rediscovering pleasure!

A new course I’m working on based the latest research findings regarding the human nervous system and how it’s wired to handle stress. Some of you may know I have been studying Somatic Experiencing over the last 2 years. Somatic Experiencing is a body-based approach to healing trauma and accumulated stress. Over the last 30+ years, I have worked with many approaches to manage and reduce stress but somehow Somatic Experiencing is bringing all this experience and learning together. It is very exciting for me to put this material together (with the help of a mentor on the Somatic Experiencing faculty)…here’s a bit of blurb about what the course will entail…more to follow

A 6 week body-mind journey to combine the practice of Yoga and Mindfulness with the latest research findings on the human stress responses.

You will learn:
How accumulated stress responses get locked into the body
How many physical, mental and emotional problems are caused by nervous system dysregulation
How to use yoga, mindfulness and a range of easy, enjoyable awareness exercises to work directly with the body and restore nervous system regulation
How presence and pleasure and key to restoring inner balance

A blend of fascinating input and nourishing practice, the course aims to be informative, entertaining and deeply encouraging – a genuine step towards living with greater ease and resilience in our pretty crazy world!

Free Information Session: Wednesday 17 September
Course Begins: Wednesday 24 September ~ 6 Wednesdays, 7 to 9pm
Venue: Monaghan Wellness Centre

More to come on all of these – so do watch this space!