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MEETINGOF MINDS
With more health and fitness clubs starting to offer mindfulness classes, we ask yoga teacher John Earls how this can be sustained in the long term.
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MEETINGOF MINDS
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For more information contact John Earls directly at [email protected] or visit his website – www.satis.org.uk
Next steps
ohn, who’s studying a Masters degree in the
Psychology of Mindfulness, has developed a new approach to mindfulness that has been implemented across a number of health club chains in Warwickshire. These classes involve traditional mindfulness meditation – remaining still and concentrating on breathing – that aims to develop concentration.
However, they also involve exercises such as Yoga, Pilates and group activities involving touch and trust. “This combination of features makes the classes varied, with the aim being to appeal to the various personalities that would not ordinarily be drawn to mindfulness practice; like those people who prefer to move rather than to be still,” John explains.
Mindfulness is an ancient practice that involves many features, including, but not exclusive to, meditation. The
Jclass where there is limited or no movement. This will not appeal to the majority of class members who go to the gym to move their body. The lack of movement is where the current popularity for mindfulness classes may fail once the novel idea of mindfulness has faded.
Gym members can go to a Yoga or Pilates class to connect their mind and body with movement, so why come to a mindfulness class that just does one element?
This is the gap John’s Mindfulness Movement Practice seeks to address. In this class the focus is the “therapeutic psychological aspects of mindfulness” interspersed with physical exercises aimed at “illuminating other aspects of a person’s awareness,” John explains.
“My classes work with the body as much as the mind as they are a holistic approach to mindfulness that tap into the wisdom that compassion comes from helping a person connect with their physical experience.”
“Mindfulness traditionally has been seen as a meditation class.”
overall aim of mindfulness is, as John puts it, “to help a person let go of the social conditioning that inhibits their ability to see the beauty of reality.”
This process involves many layers but at its core is the element of compassion, which involves turning towards feelings within the body so they can be released. “I want my participants to learn to love themselves, as well as others, without judgement,” John says.
The issue that faces class timetables is keeping members coming back to the classes. Mindfulness traditionally has been seen as a meditation
