Is this course right for me?
Target Audience: Students
Many of us find we are constantly distracted from the task in hand. When we are doing pleasant things like walking to the station on a dry evening we might be thinking about what to make for our meal. When we are making our meal we think about work we have still to do and then when eating we watch some TV! When we get to the desk we think about how much there will be to do tomorrow and how we could have done more yesterday!
‘Self monitoring’ thoughts and judgements include things like ‘I should be enjoying this more’,’ I am not taking this in properly ’, ‘I will never remember all this’, ‘I should not have said that’ etc
If this sounds like you then consider trying this course. Through 6 x1 hour sessions we will observe our experiences and learn to control the spotlight of attention without judging constantly. We will practice reducing our multi-tasking and pay attention to each moment. This helps us learn to concentrate and reduce needless unhelpful thoughts. We become less distracted, more able to enjoy good moments and more effective in our activities.
This is a training for the attention and it is the active participation in the exercises which develops the awareness and skill of focussing. Initially you are encouraged to work with awareness of physical and sensory experiences as a way of coming away from endless repetitive thinking or imagining. As concentration develops we turn towards internal experiences and specifically the impact of too many quick assumptions and judgements. You are expected to practice the skills through the week between classes.
- Week 1: Seeing and surroundings
- Week 2: Sounds and listening
- Week 3: Movement
- Week 4: Assumptions
- Week 5: Judgements
- Week 6: Food and eating
Delivered By: Susan McKenna