The Mindfulness Group in partnership with CNWL South Community Mental Health Hub

The SMART Mindfulness group is a place where you can come and try some mindfulness meditation practices.  These tend to be relatively short, so we usually have time to do more than one practice during the hour, and there is then space to talk about what people have noticed in the practice. 

The content of what we do has elements of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) programmes which have been used and adapted in many contexts to help people manage both physical and mental health conditions.  It contains elements of paying particular attention to experience in the present moment and without judgement.  

People come with a variety of hopes and goals for mindfulness, a key one often being to feel calmer and more able to deal with what life brings. 

Whilst being more relaxed is another goal people often have, this is not a key focus of mindfulness, but is often described as being a 'fortunate side effect' of practising mindfulness.  In any case, we discuss people's intentions for coming to the group before they join and encourage then to devise their own goals, which we monitor with them over time.

The group loosely follows a 6-weekly cycle where different elements of mindfulness are explored and tried out in the practices.  We often find that people enjoy the group so much that they keep coming, completing many cycles of the group, and this is also part of our intention that we develop this community of meditators who then support each other's practice by meeting together for this hour each week.

At the same time, not everyone finds this is an approach they get on with, so we are more than happy for people to try, and if they don't find it helpful there is no expectation on people to have to keep coming. 

The focus is on learning a skill and it is not a group where there is space for people to talk openly about their problems, so it is important you understand this before signing up to the group - most of the time people actually see this as a positive aspect to the group! 

Anyone who has an openness to trying mindfulness is welcome to try it.  However, it is not suitable for people with substance use issues.  If you have recently experienced a very significant bereavement or trauma, this may be another caution in terms of trying this but this can be discussed with your SMART worker and the group facilitator.