The Oxford Mindfulness Podcast

Luke Doherty - From Boxing Gyms to Boardrooms: Making Mindfulness Accessible to All

“How can mindfulness help me if I’m under pressure to stab someone to join a gang?” Mindful Peak Performance (MPP) was founded to answer this stark question and find ways to make mindfulness more accessible to disadvantaged young people.

MPP has pioneered an award-winning approach to combining mindfulness with boxing that has been successfully delivered with a range of communities, including young people at risk gang of involvement, young and adult carers, ethnic minority groups and the LGBTQ+ community.

MPP, alongside the grassroots foundation, has also made mindfulness more accessible in elite sports and business through team away-days, 1:1 coaching and courses that fuse high performance with mental wellbeing.

In this talk, the founder of MPP, Luke Doherty, will share the origins of the organisation, how its approach was co-created with at-risk youth in some of London’s most deprived areas, and adapted for elite athletes and corporate leaders and teams. Luke will share key learnings around the importance of mindfulness, meeting people where they are and presenting mindfulness in ways that are relatable and relevant to their lives, work and socio-economic context while keeping the core essence alive.

Professor Willem Kuyken and 'A Life Well-Lived: Mindfulness for Life in 12 Chapters' - Chapter Two "Pay Attention!"

Join us for Chapter Two, “Pay Attention!”, of our year-long Guest Speaker Event series: "A Life Well-Lived: Mindfulness for Life in 12 Chapters," in collaboration with Professor Willem Kuyken.

In this session, Professor Kuyken shared valuable insights from the second chapter of his new book, "Mindfulness for Life", providing practical strategies for developing and managing attention in everyday life.

Willem emphasised attention as a valuable resource and highlighted how mindfulness practice can enhance our ability to manage and direct our attention.

If you'd like to join the events live, they're taking place monthly between September 2024 and October 2025 and are free to access. Find out more and register

Oxford Mindfulness is a not-for-profit organisation helping people achieve greater well-being and improved mental health through research-based mindfulness. Visit our website

Professor Willem Kuyken and 'A Life Well-Lived: Mindfulness for Life in 12 Chapters' - Chapter One "Wake Up!"

Join us for Chapter One, “Wake-Up!”, of our year-long Guest Speaker Event series: "A Life Well-Lived: Mindfulness for Life in 12 Chapters" in collaboration with Professor Willem Kuyken.

In this foundational session, Professor Kuyken shared valuable insights from the first chapter of his new book, "Mindfulness for Life" focusing on the importance of values, befriending the mind, and cultivating attention and awareness. 

He also introduced practices for pausing and checking in, starting and ending the day mindfully, and staying present in the moment.

If you'd like to join the events live, they're taking place monthly between September 2024 and October 2025 and are free to access. You can find out more and register here

 

The Oxford Mindfulness Foundation is a non-profit organisation internationally recognised for mindfulness teaching and training – find out more

Book Launch: "Mindfulness for Life" with author Professor Willem Kuyken

In this Guest Speaker event ahead of the launch of his new book, "Mindfulness for Life", Professor Willem Kuyken - the Ritblat Professor of Mindfulness and Psychological Science at the University of Oxford - joins us to introduce key themes of his book, shares his journey behind it, the people and ideas that helped to shape it and explores how mindfulness can help us to navigate today's complex world.

Willem's book 'Mindfulness for Life' is now available to buy in the US and will be published in the UK in November 2024.

Purchase the book (US customers) ▶️ https://a.co/d/dVF2rCq 
Pre-order the book (UK customers) ▶️ https://amzn.eu/d/3pLYqIy

 

The Oxford Mindfulness Foundation is a non-profit organisation internationally recognised for mindfulness teaching and training - find out more here

Barney Dunn & Megan Colletta: "Letting the Light In: Using Mindfulness to Reconnect with Positive Emotion and Build Wellbeing"

The predominant focus of mindfulness-based approaches to date has been supporting individuals to manage challenging situations, so that negative emotions do not escalate out of control and skilful life choices can be made.

There is now increasing interest in using mindfulness techniques to also help individuals make the most of life opportunities, so that positive emotions and broader wellbeing (pleasure, meaning and social connection) can be enhanced.
 
This talk introduces ways mindfulness-based treatments are being adapted to also build positive emotions and wellbeing, including how they are translating findings from basic science and other treatment approaches.

The talk was delivered by Barney Dunn and Megan Colletta from the Mood Disorders Centre, University of Exeter (which runs a clinic and range of research trials of mindfulness and other approaches that aim to build wellbeing in clinical populations).

It was free to access live to everyone with a general interest in this topic. 

Norman Farb and Zindel Segal - Better in Every Sense

In collaboration with ACCESSMBCT, we are delighted to bring you this guest talk from Norman Farb and Zindel Segal, introducing their new book, "Better in Every Sense".

MBCT for OCD: A Manualized Treatment Program with Dr. Fabrizio Didonna

Dr Fabrizio Didonna is a clinical psychologist, senior mindfulness teacher, trainer, supervisor and author. He is also a Founder Director of the International MBCT for OCD Center, in Vicenza, Italy, and the developer of the therapeutic model.

His manual "Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder" (Guilford Press, 2020 - translated into Chinese, Spanish, Italian, French and Russian), is the first manualized and validated mindfulness-based treatment model for OCD.

In this free Guest Speaker Event, Dr. Didonna shares the key features of MBCT for OCD including effectiveness, rationale, agenda, and contents of the model.

If you work with people with OCD, or have an interest in this area, this will be an informative and insightful episode.

 

Trish Bartley - Holding Groups: Exploring the ‘Inside Out Approach’ to Working with Groups

In this special guest talk, we're pleased to welcome back Trish Bartley, an OMF guest trainer, mindfulness teacher trainer and author of a number of books including ‘Mindfulness: A Kindly Approach to Being with Cancer’, ‘Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Cancer’ and ‘Teaching Mindfulness-Based Groups’ which Trish co-authored with Dr. Gemma Griffith.

In this event, Trish will begin to draw out the Inside Out Group (IOG) model for mindfulness-based programmes which offers a simple yet profound approach to teaching mindfulness-based groups.

If you’re a group leader, mindfulness teacher or someone working with groups and are curious to learn what this approach could offer your work, this will be an insightful and informative episode.

Mark Williams - Deeper Mindfulness: The New Way to Rediscover Calm in a Chaotic World

In this special guest speaker event, we’re delighted to welcome back Professor Mark Williams who will introduce the topic ‘Deeper Mindfulness’ – the subject and title of his new book with co-author Dr Danny Penman.
“Proven effective at treating anxiety, stress and depression, the practices in ‘Deeper Mindfulness’ offer a new and more fruitful direction for both novice and experienced meditators. It also allows the rest of us to approach life with renewed strength, vigour and equanimity.”
Join us for this informative session as Mark explains the latest thinking in this area and leads us through some of the practices outlined in the book.

Susan Bogels - Living Mindfulnessy With Autism or ADHD

Autism and ADHD are neurodevelopmental conditions that continue to profoundly influence the way we are in the world also in adulthood. In our current urban world, characterized by high speed, deadlines, full agendas, multitasking, (social) performance pressure, and a bombardment of stimuli, all of us but people with autism and ADHD even more so may experience sensory overload, attention problems, and too much stress. Those who live with people with autism or ADHD, whether they are partners, parents, or children, may also experience high levels of stress, because they feel or take over their stress. Mindfulness can help here to regulate sensory overload, attention, and intrapersonal and interpersonal stress. Whether you’re a mindfulness practitioner, therapist, educator, or living with (a person with) autism or ADHD, this talk will provide deeper understanding and practical tools to regulate the stress that comes with autism and ADHD.