M A Y - J U L Y 2 0 2 2
The Wellbeing Ateliers
M A Y - J U L Y 2 0 2 2
As the current season of ateliers has come to a close I am writing to let you know about the wellbeing offerings for spring and summer. Curated to support building resilience and elevate the everyday.
The Weekly Meditation Atelier begins it’s third series on Friday mornings from the 6th May for 12 weeks (£100 for 12, £12 drop in). Offering an invitation pause, recentre and build internal resources to manage the difficulties that life presents us with. Become more present in your day to day life more often with kindness towards what life throws you. Accessed via a member's page on the website, the link to the live group, recording and the resources are made easily available. If you’d like to have a look at what to expect you can find a taster session HERE.
Individual Wellbeing Atelier, as well as my more traditional occupational therapy focused sessions I have decided to open up sessions for clients who are looking to make changes in relation to addictive behaviours, with a view to beginning work on mindfulness based relapse prevention. If you, or anyone you know would be interested in exploring this work please get in touch.
Nourishing Day Retreat Clermont l’Herault 30th May 2022 10-4pm. A day of yoga, meditation, and a tea practice followed by a nourishing lunch and an opportunity to lounge, read by the pool or go for walks around the beautiful Villneuvette.
The Bookclub starts again 26th May we’ll be exploring Volume one of Proust in Search of Lost Time, you have 7 weeks if you’re tempted. June sees poems and prose in The Apricot Memoirs by Tess Guinnery and July’s read is My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh.
Self Study Six Week Mindfulness Atelier ideal as an introduction or refresher to Mindfulness Based Approaches. This is a self directed mindful meditation atelier as a practical and evidence based approach to building resilience. It also acts as an opportunity to building self-discipline, cultivating taking a break within your day and a super way to boost those neural pathways. £30 for all six video recorded atelier, handouts, journal prompts and home practice.
Wellbeing Inspirations
A curation of bits and bobs intended to fire up that grey matter, to nourish and soothe.
Making changes. I often discuss neuroplasticity within ateliers, this refers to the lifelong capacity of the brain to change and rewire itself in response to the stimulation of learning and experience. Newly formed neural pathways are delicate and need repetition to reinforce them and only with practice can they become default ways of thinking. The more pleasurable an activity short term, the more dopamine the body releases into our systems and the quicker the foundations for the pathway get laid down, hence why picking up a habit of checking in on social media in spare moments is an easy habit to pick up and putting it away and reading a book is a harder one. So a small change you can make to make the long term changes that you know have a positive impact on your mental health and wellbeing is to make the new habit as pleasurable as possible, for example say you want to read more, choosing a book you really want to read, setting up an inviting reading space, putting on some music, essentially adding your own pleasurable rituals to the routine. If you repeat a new pattern often enough, neuroplasticity can help make the old one fade away, however, it may never entirely disappear but you can make changes to your life that prevent it from being so easily reactivated.
Gratitude is the most powerful correlate of happiness. When we’re feeling grateful, our body calms, and we feel at peace in all realms of our lives. It’s impossible to feel grateful and stressed at the same time. This is a basic principle in psychology called "Reciprocal Inhibition"; we can't feel two contradicting states at once. And the best part about gratitude is that it's easy to access in little time. This Gratitude Practice is a meditation to cultivate gratitude and can be done sitting or lying down.
Move. I’m inspired by Katy Bowman and what she calls nutritious movement, she talks about bringing more natural movement into our lives by not making everything in our homes so convenient for example the pots she uses the most she puts on the bottom shelves so she squats more often. I enjoyed this blog 53 Ways to Take A Seat, you might too. She’s also written a book called Move Your DNA which I may add to the booklist in the autumn.
James Joyce’s Ulysees is being read as part of a podcast curated by the Shakespeare and Company bookshop, it is to coincide with the centenary of their publication of the book. There are a host of wonderful artists reading out 15 minute passages each day and the longer podcast has helped me to understand as I navigate the book for the first time.
Proust, want to know more, here’s a 10 minute video from The School of Life. I can also thoroughly recommend Alain de Botton’s ‘How Proust Can Change Your Life’ which we read last month in the book group. You can find an audio reading here, it’s just under 3 hours perfect to listen to whilst having a spring clear out.
Thyme will be my tea for the next few months it is nearly the season to forage for it here in the garrigue as it begins to flower. This unique habitat is characterised by lack of water, an abundance of sunshine and high temperatures, all difficult conditions to be found in this Mediterranean scrubland. These elements make the plants that grow there have high levels of polyphenols to protect themselves from these attacks. However, polyphenols give plants powerful antioxidant and antibacterial properties that can be used for our health. 1 tablespoon dried thyme leaves alone meet 54% of vitamin K in one day, 2% of vitamin C, 2% of vitamin A, 17% of iron, 5% of calcium and 10% of manganese.
I’ll leave you with a reading from June’s book, The Apricot Memoirs by Tess Guinery
‘Walk in the rhythm you have been graced with; rebel against the waves that demand you - breathe slow.’
Warmly,
Josephine
If you’ve enjoyed this letter and would like to support my work you can treat me to a coffee here.