The Breathworks Foundation

Mindfulness and compassion for pain, stress and illness - helping people reclaim their lives

The Breathworks Foundation was established in 2009 to ensure that mindfulness and compassion training is available to everyone, regardless of circumstances. It brings to life the vision of Vidyamala Burch, Breathworks Co-Founder, who passionately believes that no person or community should be excluded from Breathworks training programmes and courses simply through financial or personal hardship. This is based on her experience of living with severe pain and disability all her adult life. 

Partnerships

Living with and beyond cancer with mindfulness - A feasibility research study

Is delivering a mindfulness course to people with cancer feasible, acceptable and of any benefit? That was the question asked when preliminary meetings in a collaboration between Breathworks, Maggie’s Cancer Centres, and the Health Psychology Department, University of Manchester, began in December 2016.

Take Back Your Life

The Take Back Your Life project is a modified version of the Mindfulness for Health course for those with low literacy levels or those who aren't fluent in English. Outcomes have been amazing, and there is a promising future for the course ahead.

Breathworks Spreads to Poland

Breathworks Teacher Dawid Talks about how he's spread the Breathworks Approach to Poland by teaching courses in Kraków.

The Breathworks Foundation and St. Michael's Hospice - A Successful Partnership based on Community Values

Born out of a shared objective to serve the community, the partnership between The Breathworks Foundation and St. Michael’s Hospice has flourished since the initial vision in 2015 to create a regional mindfulness centre of excellence in Herefordshire.

Dharmakirti takes Breathworks to the Spanish speaking world

In 2004 Dharmakirti, a yoga and meditation practitioner of eight years, took his skills to a huge prison in Valencia, Spain, to help prisoners find ways to ease their suffering. However, he soon realised meditation on its own wasn’t enough — the prisoners were also seeking ways to deepen their understanding of life and connect more. What else could he offer with a wider perspective?

Online Mindfulness for Health Course - 2nd February 2021

An 8 week online group course for those who cannot attend a local course or want to practice from home.
Online Mindfulness for Health Course - 24th January 2021

An 8 week online group course for those who cannot attend a local course or want to practice from home.
Online Mindfulness for Health Course - 7th January 2021

An 8 week online group course for those who cannot attend a local course or want to practice from home.
Guided Workplace Meditations

Presence at the End - Mindfulness at St. Michael's Hospice

A Personal Account of mindfulness teaching in St. Michael's hospice in Hereford by Palliative Care Staff Nurse and Breathworks Teacher, Gail
Tinnitus and Mindfulness

Suryadaya shares her touching journey with tinnitus, the many unexpected difficulties it has introduced to her life, and how mindfulness has helped her to manage it, and to continue to live with appreciation and joy.
Recipients of Teacher Training Bursaries

Hear from people we have helped with a bursary to attend the Breathworks Teacher Training Programme.
Recipients of Course Bursaries

Hear from people we have helped with a bursary to attend a Breathworks mindfulness course.
Mindfulness After a Spinal Cord Injury

Breathworks' Online Mindfulness for Health course has recently been utilised in a study investigating people's experiences of recovering from recent spinal cord injuries. The findings are great news!
Mindfulness for Chronic Dizziness

Balance is a sense that we take for granted… until it goes wrong. A senior lecturer in audiology details the difficulties of chronic balance disorder, and how mindfulness may be able to assist patients in recovery.

Vidyamala's Micro-Blog: Managing Lockdown with a Disability

Vidyamala wanted to write a blog about lockdown with disability, but has been too preoccupied with managing it recently, so here is her 37-word micro-blog, which says everything she wanted to say.
Mindfulness and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome can be a deeply distressing and disruptive condition. In this heartening blog, Ben shares what learning mindfulness with Breathworks has meant to him and his struggle with CFS.
Mindfulness HEALS during a pandemic

Vidyamala reflects on how she's handled the increasing difficulty of managing pain during lockdown, and explains her approach with an acronym: HEALS.
The Three Pillars Of Excellent Mindfulness Teaching

Breathworks Teacher Suryacitta has been training people to teach for years, and has noticed some common mistakes. In this excellent blog, he gives some pointers to mindfulness teachers and those thinking of becoming teachers.
Confessions of the World's Worst Mindfulness Teacher

Read how Mark came to mindfulness as a sceptical attendee at a drop-in session. He now teaches regularly and has seen the benefits of a mindfulness practice on himself, his mother and his colleagues & patients.
Mindfulness for Health course

Award winning mindfulness and compassion course to give you the tools and skills to live well with chronic pain and illness.
Vidyamala's Micro-Blog - Managing Lockdown with a Disability 2

Last time I used 37 words and I got this comment from Bridget: "37 words - a big relief in the sea of online 'stuff' we're all bombarded with at the moment. Can you make it 36 next time?!" So here's my 36 word micro blog on managing lockdown with a disability.
Three Things You Need to Start Doing to Stay Energised at Work

Turn the long post 3pm slog into a walk in the park with these three simple practices and feel more mindful to boot!
Three Essential Mindfulness Practices for Resilience

We all have good days and bad days, usually determined by what’s happened to us. But what if we flipped the script and started relating to things differently? What if what made a day good or bad wasn’t so much about what happened to us as it was down to how we responded?
Mindfulness on the NHS Frontline

Chris Bu, NHS Psychiatry Trainee Doctor and Breathworks teacher in training, shares what it's like to be working on the frontline and how he is finding his mindfulness practice so helpful: learning how best to look after his own wellbeing so he can look after others effectively too.