Learn mindfulness Mindfulness for health courses About the course Mindfulness for Health course "This is so much more than 'just an 8-week course' which you will forget in about 3 months time, you are learning tools to enhance your quality of life, for as long as they are required!" - Mindfulness for Health Participant, 2019 All the skills you need to manage a chronic health condition and regain a high quality of life Living with pain or a health condition is challenging. However, much of the suffering caused by ill-health can be overcome. This programme contains the best mindfulness and compassion techniques from 30 years of managing severe chronic pain, and its effectiveness has been demonstrated in a number of scientific trials. This simple 8-week mindfulness and compassion course gives you the tools and skills to live well with your chronic pain or health condition. Wake up knowing that you have the tools to manage whatever your body throws at you. Whether your health condition is big or small, short-term or long-term, diagnosed or undiagnosed, this course is for you. Clinical trials have shown that mindfulness meditation can be as effective as prescription painkillers, and can enhance the body’s natural healing systems. Mindfulness can also reduce the anxiety, depression, irritability, exhaustion, and insomnia that arises from chronic pain and illness. Mindfulness for Health is the unique meditation programme developed by Vidyamala Burch to help her cope with severe pain and health complications following two major spinal injuries. She is now living a rich and fulfilling life, with more well-being than ever. The course has been backed with huge amounts of research, and changed the lives of thousands of people. "[I was] hoping to learn some techniques to help me cope with my chronic pain. What I came away with was life changing, and importantly not just sustainable, but growing, - the sign if true educationalists at work. I can’t thank Breathworks enough - the holistic view of pain, body, mind and environment and their interaction has given me so much more than “the set of techniques” I hoped to learn at the beginning. I am now living, rather than coping due to the skills, attitudes, and knowledge Breathworks gave me. My pain no longer controls my life in the same way, and even during flare ups my quality of life is way beyond what it was before... The Breathworks staffs’ care, compassion, knowledge, experience and skills meant the experience was an amazing blossoming that has changed my life, and that of my family and friends, Thank you." - Mindfulness for Health Attendee, 2019 Techniques that Work These techniques: a mix of mindfulness, meditation, a supportive mindful movement practice, and modern pain management strategies, were created and refined by mindfulness experts who made it their life’s mission to share them, having suffered themselves from chronic pain and health problems. When we can't change our circumstances, we have to change ourselves. You can train your brain to stop sabotaging your quality of life. This course will help you do that. "Breathworks methods could radically change your life for the better." - Prof. Lance McCracken, Professor of Behavioural Medicine, King's College, London Research and Testimonials Here are some of the outcomes from our Mindfulness for Health course evaluations: Rumination: e.g. “I can’t stop thinking about how much it hurts.” Magnification: e.g. “I’m afraid that something serious might happen.” Helplessness: e.g. “There is nothing I can do to reduce the intensity of my pain.” Participants’ experienced many other improvements; their overall quality of life increased by almost 50%. Testimonials "I literally can't recommend this course enough! I will be eternally grateful for the addition of this method in my wellness toolkit and for being so caringly guided on numerous sessions and practices through the layers of release which eventually brought me home to my inner-self, my inner being." - Mindfulness for Health Participant, 2019 The Course The course itself requires 20 minutes of meditation per day, in addition to a little reading every week, and a weekly or fortnightly session with your group and teacher. The sessions will consist of 20 hours of class time over the 8 weeks, including guided meditation, in-depth teaching on the practices and techniques, discussion, opportunities for questions, and help with your home practice. What will I learn? What will I get with the course? The skill of meditation Mindfulness and self-compassion skills in your daily life To live in the present moment and breathe into your experience, rather than tensing against it. How mindfulness can help you to manage and live well with pain and chronic health conditions Supportive mindful movement practices Greater concentration and focus The art of taking joy in simple pleasures Transformative body and breath awareness for relaxation, tranquillity, and to let go of tension Pacing and learning how to break the 'boom and bust' cycle. 8-weeks of lessons - 20 hours of class time A balance of teaching, questions and discussion, and guided meditation Daily home meditation practice of 20 mins a day Guided meditations CD / MP3 downloads Teaching and practices to help you develop mindfulness and self-compassion, and to relieve pain and anxiety. A highly experienced mindfulness teacher to answer your questions and guide you through difficulties every week A supportive peer group of those on the course with you The course is such a powerful tool, and many of your symptoms may continue to be difficult to manage without them. You can learn to live a rich and full life, restore your well-being, and truly say that your pain or health condition is well-managed. Make sure you get a place on the next course and book now! What Now? Book Your Place on a Course Choose how you would like to do the course: Online Courses Manchester Courses London Courses Residential Courses Find a Breathworks Teacher Try a Taster Session Or, if you would like to try a mindfulness taster session before diving in on a full 8-week course, you can book your place on an hour-long taster session in Manchester or London for just £5! Online Taster Sessions Manchester Taster Sessions London Taster Sessions If you want to get a better feel for the course, you can also read a blog about the course from a Breathworks teacher and pain specialist, and try some Breathworks guided meditations. Awards and Research British Medical Association Award The best-selling book Mindfulness for Health,, an abbreviated summary of this course by Breathworks Founder Vidyamala Burch and Danny Penman, won First Prize in Popular Medicine in the British Medical Association Medical Book Awards in 2014. Reading Well: Books on Prescription The book has also been recommended by the Reading Well: Books on Prescription Scheme, endorsed by public libraries and selected by expert health professionals as the most helpful and most evidenced self-help books available to support members of the public suffering from conditions and mental health issues. Research and Evaluations Breathworks Courses have been the subject of some psychological research, as well as our own internal evaluations. If you would like to find out more about the results of these studies, you can take a look at our research page Mindfulness for Health Overview