RUNZEN's mindfulness for runners: six week course
Why mindfulness for runners?
Running is one of the most popular forms of exercise in the UK with proven physical and mental health benefits, including helping prevent obesity, heart disease and high blood pressure, and boosting sleep quality and mood.
In recent years, there has also been a growing interest in mindfulness, with research linking a regular and sustained mindfulness practice with a decrease in the incidence of depression, anxiety and stress. It can also improve the ability to regulate our emotions, build resilience and help increase focus and attention.
Mindfulness for runners combines the benefits of both running and mindfulness into an integrated whole for more enjoyable runs and greater all round well-being whether on the cushion, on the trail or in everyday life.
Our six-week programme provides you with the opportunity to learn and benefit from all of the above with the support of the course structure, the group and two RUNZEN teachers.
The six week programme
The core elements of the course will include:
- Posture and drills for good running form and injury prevention
- A range of mindfulness meditation practices
- Mindful running practices
- Integration of the benefits gained into everyday life
- Home practice audio guidance and session notes.
Is this course for me?
The course is suitable for beginning runners who able to run up to 25 minutes at a slow pace, without the need for frequent stops, those who are totally new to meditation as well as people who have experience in one or both.
Themes
Session one: anchoring our attention – running form and focus
Monday 20th May 7.00pm to 9.30pm
- Practising the basic skills to help us place our attention where we choose, through cultivating good running form and posture that also helps with running efficiency and injury prevention.
- Key concept - From autopilot to being present.
Session two: integrating body and mind – full embodied running
Monday 27th May – 7.00pm to 9.30pm
- Developing our embodied presence as our focus when walking and running as we learn how to more fully integrate mindful awareness in stillness and in movement.
- Key concept - doing and being modes of mind.
Session three: opening our awareness – full spectrum running
Monday 3rd June – 7.00pm to 9.30pm
- Broadening our awareness while running to embrace and connect with the environment through our unmediated sense perceptions, as well as being present with our body and mind's habits.
- Key concept - awareness and its content.
Session four: meeting difficulties - working with aversion in running
Monday 10th June – 7.00pm to 9.30pm
- Learning to meet aches and pains plus negative thinking and emotions with wisdom and kindness for more resilience and endurance.
- Key concept - allowing and letting be with curiosity.
Session five: day retreat - silence and gratitude
Saturday 15th June - 10.00am - 4.00pm
- Including a half-day of silence to explore and deepen our experience of the practices we have explored so far on the course as well as learning how to cultivate more gratitude and joyfulness in our running.
- Key concept - gratitude attitude.
Session six: mindfulness in everyday life and looking forward
Monday 24th June – 7.00pm to 9.30pm
- Reviewing the skills learnt during the course and exploring how they can translate more fully into our daily lives. Looking forward to see how we can maintain and deepen our practice post-course.
- Key concept - everyday mindfulness.
Can’t attend all six sessions? As long as you can make a minimum of five or four including the day retreat, we will offer a telephone call and/or a one-to-one running session to cover the detail from the session/s you miss where possible.
Please note that this course includes a daily commitment to mindfulness or mindful running home practices in-between sessions. The home practice elements are a core feature of these courses, enabling participants to become familiar with them and explore their cumulative benefits. Simply attending the taught components of these courses, although useful, won't allow for the complete experience and benefits the course is designed to provide.
Prior to the start of the course there will be a questionnaire (to assess prior experience and any physical and/or mental health needs) for all prospective participants to complete and return.
Past participant feedback
"Great experience and well designed content,
delivered in a thoughtful and sensitive way.”
“Restored a sense of joy to my running. Feel now i can just run for the joy of it and not be constantly beating myself up for not performing or doing as well as I think I should be.”
“I am very interested in connecting mind with body and this course provided an ideal opportunity to explore that interest. The experience of running with a different mindset and attitude was revealing.”
“RUNZEN is more than just about running. It guides to experience the joy of movement and stop being judgemental towards yourself. Very liberating sensation. The course is well structured and the instructors clearly are passionate about what they do. I would recommend it to anyone who likes running, irrelevant of the level they are at.”
“I will be reflecting more on my habitual ways of thinking and how this affects my experience. I am going to continue to try to apply the skills we learnt to running and life in general.”
Your RUNZEN instructors
Stuart McLeod and Cesare Saguato have many years combined experience in running, mindfulness meditation and professional training, in running fitness coaching, mindfulness and psychotherapy at The Centre for Mindfulness Practice and Research at Bangor University and Oxford Mindfulness Centre at Oxford University, The Western Chan Fellowship, Bodhicharya and Kent and Medway NHS. Through all this, they have learnt that the integration of mind-body awareness can improve mental health and running simultaneously for greater all-round well-being and are passionate about sharing this with you.
Personal investment OF £175 (flexible payment plans available, so please do get in touch).
To book your place now, please follow the PayPal link below:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=2PBDGWMDMAXEE
or
You can make a bank transfer (preferred). Please email runzen.contact@gmail.com for bank details, thank you.
If you have any questions at all regarding the course or payment, then please do get in touch by messaging us here or via email below.
Hoping to see you in the Spring to share RUNZEN's mindfulness for runners with you.
All good wishes,
Cesare and Stuart
runzen.contact@gmail.com
Cancellation policy: If you notify us of your cancellation within four weeks of the event date, will we refund your payment minus a £10 administration fee. Unfortunately we cannot offer refunds for cancellations less than one month before the event.