Mindfulness involves us being as fully present and aware of our current experience as possible. With our attention focussed upon each emerging moment of our experience there is less room for the mind to wander, worry, catastrophise or procrastinate. Since the development of Mindfulness as a distinct field in 1979, research has found that there are foundational “in-the-moment” and meditative techniques that grow in us the ability to be mindful in any situation. These include being aware of now, mindful breathing, the Body Scan and techniques that allow us to declutter the mind, navigate unwanted thoughts and even clear the mind.
Each person’s journey with mindfulness is unique and it is a holistic approach in which you can focus upon health, wellbeing, performance, personal development and/or spiritual dimensions. With a dual focus upon helping to navigate difficult experiences and engaging more in positive ones, mindfulness offers an evidence-based approach aimed at bringing greater balance to our everyday lives.
CLL is a leading provider of mindfulness courses and workshops. All of these are based upon the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programme model but are tailored to different purposes. The Mindfulness for Everyday Living short course provides an introduction to the theory, evidence, techniques and contemporary issues in mindfulness. This is currently offered online on a termly basis. Cultivating Mindfulnessis a termly experiential-based course for those with previous experience in mindfulness. (This is currently taught online).
Dr Dean Howes is currently running live narrated meditations on his YouTube channel at noon. The recordings for each meditation will be saved on his YouTube channel if you are unable to tune in for the live stream. Have a look at his previous recordings and find out more here: https://www.youtube.com/user/howesie2006
About the Blogger
Dr Dean Howes is a Teaching Fellow at the University of Warwick Centre for Lifelong Learning.
Lifelong Learning at Warwick 
I would like to take this opportunity to express my thanks to Dean Howes for all his hard work and time he has invested into researching and promoting the benefits of mainstream mindfulness.
I very much appreciated the project live mindfulness sessions in real time via a YouTube channel and making these available for everyone.
I wondered if there are any future plans to develop the CLL based mindfulness courses into an academic programme leading to foundational degree(s).
LikeLike
Hi Peter,
We are pleased to hear that you are really enjoying the live mindfulness sessions! We will pass on your comments to Dean as well.
Have you seen the mindfulness courses we currently offer on the website? They are short courses at the moment, so they don’t lead to a progression route onto a degree unfortunately. There may be scope for this in the future.
We do however, offer mindfulness modules on our part-time degrees in social studies and health and social policy. You can also take the mindfulness module with Dean on the 2+2 degree pathway in your third year (which would be your first year at Warwick).
You can find all of the information regarding the degree routes here: https://warwick.ac.uk/study/cll/courses/undergraduate/
If you have any questions, do let us know!
LikeLike
thank you for your reaction. I am unable to always follow the live sessions but welcome the opportunity to access them later on youtube. I have passed the link to a few friends who have enjoyed Dean’s guided sessions. I have already attended all of the short courses Dean has been running within CLLL including a few Cultivating Mindfulness terms.
I believe you are very fortunate to have Dr Howes, a teaching fellow, to be promoting Mindfulness within and beyond the academic ground. I think it would be a shame not to explore the possibilities of opening a degree programme.
Unfortunately, I am not in a position to consider any of the current study programmes but would like to know if there are any opportunities to take the mindfulness modules in question without joining a degree programme.
LikeLike
Thank you for your lovely comments about Dean!
At the moment, the modules on offer are purely for students on our various degree routes. If this ever changes in the future, it will be communicated on our website, so keep an eye on there.
Dean is keen to develop new mindfulness courses for the public. He has created a mindfulness one day workshop which was very successful last year. There was another scheduled in May but unfortunately this has had to be cancelled. We hope to run this again when things return to normal.
LikeLike