Mindfulness meditation at Lifeflow

Along with all of the different streams of meditation, mindfulness has been at the core of the Centre’s teaching since its inception. There are four streams in the meditation tradition, which means there are four quite different ways that you can use meditation, and you are introduced to them all in our Learn to Meditate course. If you wish to explore these streams further, see our text Life in Balance.

Relaxation and calm

Firstly there is the stream for developing Relaxation, Calm and Concentration, all the things which people look for when they learn to meditate. This stream has specific meditations which are designed to bring you quickly to a relaxed and calm state and also take you through the deepening stages of meditation. This is the stream which “brings you to your senses”.

Mindfulness meditation

Then there is the stream of Mindfulness and Insight. In this stream you learn to use meditation to bring your mind fully to whatever you are doing. This is the stream which shows you how to keep you mind with your body so that you are right there with what is happening and what you are doing. You are totally “in the present”. In the Learn to Meditate course you learn a range of quick mindfulness meditations we call Spot Meditations which enable to you do this quickly and easily.

In this stream you learn to be mindful of your body and what you are doing, mindful of the sensations you are experiencing, mindful of your emotions and mindful of your thoughts. This gives you a strong basis for becoming mindful of the situations you face every day of your life and dealing with them skilfully. These can range from the painful situations we get caught in simply out of habit, right through to the caring and loving relationships of our lives where we really want to be open-hearted and truly responsive.

The mindfulness technique which the centre pioneered and which is a specialty of the centre, is the Three C Technique™. This technique is easy to remember, easy to do, and can be applied in any situation whatsoever. Our Level 2 course has a complete module dedicated to mindfulness, and Levels 3 and 4 develop the practice and understanding of mindfulness extensively.

All mindfulness based therapies, including MBSR (Mindfulness based stress reduction) and MBCT (Mindfulness based cognitive therapy) are derived from the Buddhist tradition of mindfulness. The Lifeflow Centre has thoroughly incorporated and adapted the best aspects of this tradition into all its courses and retreats. They give a complete and thorough experience and training in the mindfulness stream of the meditation tradition, all of the meditations which apply to it, and how they are used.

Not only have the thousands of people from all walks of life found the meditation and mindfulness training the Centre provides valuable in their lives, but also health professionals, including doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers and nurses have used it for their own wellbeing and incorporated the techniques in their work with their own clients. A number of the leading mindfulness teachers in Adelaide have also trained at the Lifeflow Centre.

The area of mindfulness training within Psychology is currently of great interest in academic and clinical circles. Having attended several courses of this nature in Adelaide, I believe that Lifeflow are providing one of the best sources of training in this area.

Hilary Stein, B.A. Hons, M.Psych (Clin) M.A.P.S.
Clinical Psychologist

Integration

This stream brings together the meditation and mindfulness streams and integrates them directly with your own physical experience and the situations of your life. It provides a whole range of unique techniques, all derived from the Tibetan tradition, which are extraordinarily useful and easily incorporated into daily life. They are aimed at bringing your mind, emotions and body into a unified whole so that you can sustain a happy and healthy state of mind and enable all of your relationships to be rich and fulfilling.

Ethics

This stream is not what we usually think of as ethics. Its aim is to bring the skills of calm and mindfulness into all of our actions and relationships so that we can act mindfully no matter what situation we find ourselves in. It begins by using meditation to become much kinder to yourself and more accepting and understanding of yourself. By doing this you will find that you can develop the ability to see others and the situations around yourself much more clearly and so be open and responsive to both your own needs and the needs of all those with whom you share your life.

FREE
Come and Try
23–26 July

Life in Balance

A practical Australian handbook for understanding and getting what you want from your meditation practice. Find out more

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