University of Oxford's Research with Zenways uses 3 questionnaires - We use them on each programme with us.
How does it work?
This program is a secular (non-religious) exploration of mindfulness and meditation rooted in ancient Zen practices. While it shares similarities with Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), it forgoes the therapist-client relationship to emphasize self-guided growth. This mindfulness meditation program extends beyond mere stress relief and psychological well-being, inviting participants to embark on a profoundly personal journey of emotional healing.
What to Expect
8 weekly 1-2 hour group sessions, tailored to your requirements, covering various topics each week including stress, physical pain, emotional pain, anxiety, and depression. Participants will learn and practice 4 Zen meditation techniques, initially guided by Dawn and then through individual practice using audio clips throughout the duration. Additionally, there will be mindful movement practices suitable for all abilities. Ongoing support from Dawn will be available throughout the program.
Depending on your specific needs, the duration and focus of the program can be customized. Dawn works across the North West region, and to amplify the impact of the program, Zen yoga and sound healing can be incorporated alongside or after the sessions, enhancing your journey towards neuroplasticity and emotional healing.
Week 1- Orientation
In this session, everyone completes three surveys provided by the University of Oxford, focusing on quality of life, perceived levels of stress, and mindful awareness. We will then return to reassess the same questions in two months' time. You can also see the previous results from other courses that Dawn has delivered.
We delve into what exactly meditation and mindfulness are, exploring the origins of these practices. This mindfulness meditation program is not centered on religion or spirituality; it derives from Bompu Zen practices, which aim purely at enhancing health and understanding the science of neuroplasticity.
We discuss the practicalities of integrating meditation into daily life, emphasizing the importance of committing to this daily practice for forming a healthy habit.
This week and next week focus specifically on the bodyscan meditation, a key component of mindfulness-based stress reduction. We discuss its significance, and then everyone will listen to the audio bodyscan for a week before returning for the following week. During our next session, we will start to explore stress, the biggest killer, and why it doesn't have to be.
Week 2 Stress
The foundation of working with stress lies in listening to your body and becoming aware of your sensations. This awareness is key to emotional healing and forms a critical part of any mindfulness-based stress reduction approach. Understanding the science of stress, along with the evolution of the autonomic nervous system, serves as the ultimate survival mechanism, helping us mitigate the harmful effects of stress through neuroplasticity. Changing our reaction to response is a skill that requires practice, which is why incorporating techniques from a mindfulness meditation program is crucial. The body scan, a core component of zen meditation, helps us become attuned to what's happening in our bodies—this sensitivity enables us to recognize when we are slipping into a stress reaction or becoming activated.
Week 3 Physical pain
We explore how we can work with pain similarly to the two broad types of meditation, emphasizing the importance of paying attention to the mental commentary that accompanies our experiences. This approach to emotional healing is radical and counterintuitive, requiring time and practice. Additionally, we discussed the significance of body alignment and posture for overall health and body function.
Zen meditation, in particular, helps us rewire our relationship with pain by reducing emotional reactivity and allowing the body to settle into a healing state.
Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), popularized by Jon Kabat-Zinn in the 1980s, brought these ancient teachings into the mainstream. These practices are not tied to religion or spirituality but offer powerful and effective solutions for health through a structured mindfulness meditation program.
Kabat-Zinn's MBSR clinics started in the US and eventually reached the UK, although they seem to be less accessible now.
A study from the University of Manchester indicates that meditation reduces the emotional impact of pain, supporting the idea that meditation training can help overcome pain. Furthermore, research published in PubMed highlights the effects of brief mindfulness meditation training on experimentally induced pain, showcasing the potential of neuroplasticity in managing pain.
Week 4 Emotional stress, anxiety & depression
We discuss how posture is crucial for emotional healing – we are working with gravity entering the body, which relaxes the muscles and organs, encourages diaphragmatic breath, and influences how we hold our bodies, directly impacting the mind. This is not just about relaxation but about training that spills over into our everyday lives, transforming our relationship with our thoughts and significantly enhancing the quality of our lives.
The key element here is awareness, acceptance, and allowing. When we are willing to accept and allow our emotional pain, that’s when healing begins, and lives change. This work is not for the faint-hearted; it requires courage, patience, and abundant self-compassion.
One of the biggest barriers to this process is our unwillingness to see things as they truly are. We often desire for things to be different, and this unwillingness creates suffering.
We can approach this challenge by utilizing one of the four foundations of mindfulness. Practicing mindfulness of the body is much easier, which is why we focus on this in our mindfulness meditation program and yoga practice. Through training and practice, cultivating a relationship with the body benefits us in numerous ways. In relation to emotional stress, we are training ourselves to become aware of bodily sensations linked to thoughts – EMOTION = energy in motion; it simply wants to move. However, life often restricts this movement, leading us to suppress these emotions. Neuroscience is now confirming what ancient teachings have emphasized for nearly 2500 years: this suppression and repression of emotions can lead to illness.
Key takeaways: When emotions arise, instead of getting lost in the story, focus on the feeling. Tune into the body. Stop identifying solely with thoughts and emotions. Become the observer and create the gaps; this is the path of our meditation practice, including zen meditation.
Everyone is encouraged to continue with counting the breath meditation and to practice daily by simply being present with each emotion, feeling it in the body, and allowing it to pass.
Week 5 Role Stress & Time Pressure
In this life, we will take on several roles that we are required to play. Often, we develop rigid views and expectations of what’s appropriate in these roles, which can clash with our true selves. When this happens, these roles can feel like a prison. We’ve discussed that it’s not the role itself that causes us stress but rather our relationship to it. And no, we’re not suggesting you run off to the hills to live in a cave; that’s neither realistic nor necessary for achieving a fulfilling life.
That’s why the skills we learn here, particularly through our mindfulness meditation program, are so important. They serve as tools and training that integrate ancient wisdom for modern emotional healing.
We delve into topics like time pressure and the importance of finding flow, emphasizing the need to incorporate more activities that help us access this state. Typically, individuals who engage in mindfulness-based stress reduction techniques, such as meditation and mindfulness practices, are better equipped to enter and maintain flow states.
During our break, we enjoyed some raspberry, blackcurrant, and apple kefir before transitioning into a new zen meditation practice centered on following the breath.
Your homework this week is to practice the following the breath meditation daily with the audio. Additionally, take some time each day to perform a task in mindfulness; this practice is often underrated but immensely beneficial, especially in understanding neuroplasticity and how our brains can adapt and grow through these practices!
Week 6 - Taking Care of yourself
Key points of this session are:
1- "Your life is a creation of your mind" - Engaging in meditation and mindfulness helps you develop awareness and resilience to life's challenges, allowing you to see clearly which activities nourish you and which deplete you. This is a crucial element of a mindfulness meditation program aimed at emotional healing.
2- A consistent meditation practice is essential for your self-care regimen, contributing to mindfulness-based stress reduction.
3- It is vital to expand your mindfulness practice into other areas of your life for holistic growth.
4- Meditation serves as a powerful tool to improve your relationships, fostering deeper connections.
5- Always do what makes you come alive.
As with every week, we first start with a check-in on how the week's meditation practice has gone. This week has focused on following the breath. We are not suppressing thoughts and feelings; instead, we are simply not investing in them, continually returning our attention to the breath. Through this practice, we train our attention and, over time, our minds become less flighty and reactive in everyday life, showcasing the principles of neuroplasticity.
We conclude with a group breath meditation, followed by the class continuing their daily practice through a guided zen meditation with Dawn, accessible via an audio clip. Additionally, the class has been encouraged to write down something they are grateful for each day on Post-it notes and display them where they can see them. This method has been proven to foster a sense of happiness in everyday life. Modern physics now supports the idea that what we think, we become, and what we feel, we attract.
Week 7 Elevated function
We start the session off by recapping the gratitude practice, which is a fundamental aspect of emotional healing. This practice of gratitude is incredibly powerful; by writing it down, we create a mind-body coherence that, when embodied, releases feel-good chemicals and hormones, positively impacting mood and the immune system. Energetically, we receive back what we put out—think in terms of frequency, energy, and vibration.
In our discussions, we covered some amazing research about the benefits of mindfulness-based stress reduction practices. These benefits include improved focus and concentration, enhanced psychological well-being, increased empathy, and greater creativity in problem-solving. For those looking to delay the aging process, studies show that individuals practicing meditation for five years were physiologically twelve years younger than their non-meditating counterparts!
Throughout this course, we've explored how mindfulness meditation programs can significantly enhance our health on multiple levels. But how can we elevate our body-mind functions further? In Japan, there's a long tradition of going to zen temples to learn and practice zen meditation, equipping people from various fields—politics, the arts, business, and sports—for success in their lives. We ponder how we in sunny Blackburn can do the same!
We discussed how participants often begin this course feeling a bit off and seeking solutions for emotional healing. Around week seven, many notice a shift in their mood, and by the end of the course, some feel so “fixed” that they consider stopping their practice. We emphasized the importance of incorporating mindfulness into daily life to maintain wellness and go beyond mere recovery.
Next, we looked at areas of life where we would like to excel. Choose one area and focus on it with awareness and intention. Now, with only one more week left, we will also move on to the practice of presence meditation, which ties into the principles of neuroplasticity, helping us reshape our thoughts and experiences.
Week 8 Changing your life
At the start of this mindfulness meditation program, we discuss how habits are formed, drawing on research from University College London and Dr. Philippa Lally. According to this research, it takes on average 66 days to form a habit. What’s a habit? It’s something that feels weirder not to do. For mindfulness and meditation to be effective, and for the benefits of emotional healing to manifest, these practices must become a formed habit.
How long does it take to form a habit? | UCL News - UCL – University College London
If practiced daily, the meditations and mindful practices of this course typically span 56 days. We had a discussion about how each person can maintain their mindfulness based stress reduction practices to reach this goal and continue beyond 100 days, utilizing the support of the group.
In collaboration with the University of Oxford, Zenways undertook a research project several years ago to gather results data for this 8-week course. As teachers, we continue to use these tools to assess results. At the beginning and end of the course, each participant completes three surveys regarding quality of life, stress levels, and mindful awareness, allowing us to observe changes in neuroplasticity.
You can see the progress and results I am achieving above.
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