Yoga and mindfulness classes. Contact Mark on 07974 919732
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  • About Me
I offer two courses in mindfulness
  • Mindfulness for Health & Wellbeing
  • Mindfulness for Grounding and Insight

Mindfulness for Health & Wellbeing

This course is aimed specifically at promoting your overall health and wellbeing. We will cover some simple but surprisingly effective techniques drawn from the Zen tradition to help you manage your everyday life, deal with stress and pain, improve your concentration and focussing skills, and boost your general health and wellbeing. This course is suitable if you're looking for an introduction to mindfulness and meditation, and/or if you're looking for a way of dealing with stress-related problems, depression, chronic-fatigue, or pain.

For more information, see my course FAQs.


Next course dates:
  • Dates TBA
    Time: 19:00-21:00
    Location: ZenYoga, Camberwell
    with an optional (but highly recommended) 1-day retreat / practice day on Sat 24th February 11:00-16:00

    Cost: £230 (includes all the course materials and recorded guided meditations for you to practice at home)
    1-day retreat cost is £40. Or take advantage of my special offer of 8-week course + day retreat for £250.

Over the course we will explore a variety of topics including:
  • Stress and time pressures
  • Physical pain
  • Difficult emotions
  • Taking care of yourself and nurturing our wellbeing
  • Living at an elevated level of function

The meditation techniques that we cover include:
  • Body Scan
  • Counting the breath
  • Following the breath
  • Mindful movement including walking meditation
  • Mindful living
  • The practice of presence
Payment
You will need to pay a £40 deposit at the time of booking, and full payment should be made before the start of the course. Payments can be made by cash, cheque, or online bank transfer. Contact me for more information.
Contact me
 

Mindfulness for Grounding and Insight

This 8-week course is aimed at looking a little deeper into mindfulness and meditation. I will introduce you to some Zen meditation techniques and practices designed to explore what it means to develop a sense of grounding, and to have an understanding of yourself and the nature of reality. You don't need to have any previous meditation experience - only a keen desire or intention to know more about who you really are!

  • Dates TBA

Over the 8 weeks we will explore a variety of topics including:
  • Stress and time pressures
  • Pain and the physical effects of meditation
  • The mental effects of meditation
  • Introduction to grounding and energy-work
  • Living at an elevated level of function
  • Stages of insight into self-understanding - knowing who you really are

The meditation techniques that we cover include:
  • Mindfulness of the breath
  • Fusho - your unborn mind
  • Meditating with a koan (a paradoxical statement or question used to point at the true nature of reality)
  • Healing with soft ointment
  • Cultivating and energising your hara (belly) and legs
  • Energy transformation

What people are saying:

"The course was excellent. Inspiring, reassuring, reaffirming. Made me realise this is exactly what I need, and that it's fundamental principles are in line with my own core values an beliefs. Mark is a great teacher, very calm, humorous, patient, and enthusiastic"
- Michelle (Oct 13)

"The tuition was good, direct, practical, and informal."
- Lorenzo (Mar 14)

"We were given a lot of information and handouts and there was good discussion. I am both excited and a little nervous about continuing the practice alone, but I'm going to be mindful about this and take it one day at a time."
- Maggie (Mar 14)

"It was a great mix of theory and practice. A light touch with the more spiritual aspects. Not formal, not intimidating – calm and fun!"
- Stephen (May 14)

"Before the course I was lacking confidence, with a very weak immune system; highly stressed and unhappy in a lot of aspects of my life. Since doing Mark's course I have grown in my confidence, my memory, my understanding of myself - leading to an inner calm. I have become more patient and able to take a step back and not be anxious at work. I am enjoying being me."
- Claire (Dec 14)

"Great! Intelligent, thorough, but very human."
- Caroline (Mar 15)

"I liked the fact that the emphasis was on scientific theory underpinning it all... I definitely think I will return to mindfulness in the future."
- Lucy (Mar 15)

"Mark is a really good teacher, I never felt as through I didn't understand a concept. I really liked the use of scientific studies and thought the combination of Mark's scientific background and Zen Buddhist was really useful and interesting"
- Fiona (Mar 15)

A moment of still mindfulness in the park
A moment of stillness in the park, with the sun dappling through the tree
Payment
You will need to pay a £40 deposit at the time of booking, and full payment should be made before the start of the course. Payments can be made by cash, cheque, or online bank transfer. Contact me for more information.
Mindfulness Course FAQ's

These mindfulness courses were put together by Zen Master Daizan Skinner, and as such draw on the centuries of experience and understanding passed down in the Zen school. As I have emphasised above, the courses that I teach are not Buddhist or religious, nor require you to be anything but inquisitive and interested in your own development. It is true that there is less medical evidence regarding their effectiveness than, for example, the well-known Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) courses developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn and his colleagues, but the proof is in the Zen-flavoured pudding. The techniques taught have been devised and refined by centuries of Zen masters.

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