The Oxford Mindfulness Podcast

The Fruits of Practice - Dr Sara Lazar

In this talk, Dr Sara Lazar will discuss her work evaluating the effects of regular mindfulness practice on a metric of adult development related to how we view and interact with the world.

Bringing Mindfulness to teams in organisations

In this podcast Silke Rupprecht, Head of Research and Development at Awaris speaks to us about bringing mindfulness to teams in organisations. She offers her thoughts on the reasons behind the growing interest in mindful teams and how team mindfulness training may need to be different from individual mindfulness training. Silke also shares insights and gives practical examples of how mindfulness trainers can adapt their delivery to help teams build the mindful qualities and collaborative habits needed to foster wellbeing and performance in traditional and hybrid settings.

Mindfulness and Cancer: Gently Turning Towards with Trish Bartley

Way back in 2000, Mark Williams opened doors for her to start bringing mindfulness to the patients of a Welsh oncology department where Trish herself had just finished treatment. Over the 20 years that followed, she continued to teach enabling the programme to slowly adapt from the original MBCT, with John Teasdale guiding Trish as they teased out what was needed for this particular group. From this, a workbook for teachers was published (Bartley, 2012) followed by a book for people with cancer themselves (Bartley, 2017). Trish has continued to work with people with cancer, including training many teachers in the programme in the UK and further afield, and offering online one to one connections to a few people at the end of their lives.

What is the role of mindful leadership in addressing the climate crisis?

In the latest episode of our workplace podcast series, Liane Stephan, co-founder of Awaris and the Inner Green Deal, speaks to the OMC about sustainability and the climate crisis. She shares her experiences of working with leaders who clearly have the capacity to affect organisational change. Liane offers some thoughts on how as mindfulness trainers we are uniquely placed to support individuals and organisations to engage with this topic in a very real and meaningful way.

Agency and connection with Jamie Bristow

In this session we will review a three-fold model for understanding how mindfulness supports human agency, our ability to act intentionally, that was proposed in Jamie’s 2020 discussion paper Mindfulness: Developing Agency in Urgent Times, and explore his latest research and publication due for launch in March 2022 titled Reconnection: Meeting the Climate Crisis Inside Out. There are important slides that form part of this presentation, and as such, it is best viewed on our YouTube channel. Watch the full presentation here.

Understanding the challenging dynamics of mindfulness practice with Norman Farb

Drawing from emerging behavioural and neuroimaging research, this presentation with Norman Farb outlines the difficulty of understanding what it means to bring acceptance to our most challenging moments, explore what aspects of breath awareness are actually important for wellbeing, and illustrate how the brain can become quiet without becoming disengaged - a more subtle quality of attention. There are important slides that form part of this presentation, and as such, it is best viewed on our YouTube channel. Watch the full presentation here.

Looking ahead to a new year with Mindfulness with Jake Dartington

Listen again to our first keynote session of 2022. Jake Dartington joined us to look ahead to a new year with Mindfulness. 

Mindfulness for people with learning disabilities with Gemma Griffith

Hosted by Andy Phee and led by Gemma Griffith, this keynote will inform mindfulness teachers how they could adapt their courses making them more suitable for people with learning disabilities.  It may also be of interest to others working in the field of learning disabilities who have an interest in mindfulness.

The impact of art on the neurobiology of stress with Dr Sará King

In this keynote presentation, listeners will receive an overview of the neurobiology of mindfulness, and how this relates to a brief history of the use of art-therapy for healing in clinical and non-clinical settings. Listeners will also be introduced to the neurobiology of viewing abstract art, as it relates to stress reduction in clinical and non-clinical settings.  Sará shares information on her work - the development of the first awareness-based educational program and study "Art and Awareness As A Catalyst For Collective Healing" being launched at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in February of 2022.  A short art-based mindfulness practice is also offered.

Responding to climate change - the role of mindfulness

We were delighted to be joined by Jeroen Janss for our October keynote. The session explores how mindfulness is helping us to respond to the unfolding Climate Crisis with compassion & a sense of purpose.