Mindfulness Now 8‑Week Programme
Content Note: Discussion of stress, anxiety, and overwhelm, References to burnout and emotional difficulty, Exploration of challenging emotions, Mention of physical pain and self‑destructive patterns (non‑graphic), Themes of trauma‑informed practice
Read time: 8 minutes
Are you feeling disconnected, stressed, and as though you are running on empty?
Are you struggling to regulate your emotions?
If so, this could be the course for you! This 8-Week Course, designed by Mindfulness Now, combines MBSR and MBCT, to create a wonderful blend of evidence-based techniques to improve mental and emotional wellbeing.
The modern world requires us to journey through life as such a fast pace, and everything seems to require us to respond even faster than ever. We can easily end up living our life on autopilot, feeling overwhelmed, distressed, and disconnected from life around us. If this resonates with you, then this course might be what you need to help guide you back to your inner self, using evidence-based techniques to find our way back to calm, presence, and emotional resilience. What I love about the Mindfulness Now course is that it combines mindfulness psychology with trauma-informed teaching.
I will be offering this 8-Week course, on a Wednesday evening, via Zoom, from 15th April 2026, and I would love to share with you a little more about the Mindfulness Now programme….
A ceramic gnome in a crossed legged meditation pose, against a grass background. There is a lavender bush in the foreground, with a blurred effect.
The Mindfulness Now programme was created by Nick Cooke, the founder of the UK College of Mindfulness Meditation. The head office being based near to Birmingham, in Cannon Hill Park, and having grown to have centres throughout the UK and teachers across the world.
Nick has skilfully integrated two of the most respected mindfulness models, which are supported by modern science. These are:
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT)
This creates an inclusive, trauma-informed, approach that is suitable for use in education, therapy, coaching, and healthcare, as well as for personal wellbeing. It is suitable for complete beginners and the more experienced meditator, and it is build on decades of research and insights into neuroscience and neuroplasticity. The course is approved by the British Psychological society.
The science behind Mindfulness Now has been shown to support a wide range of emotional, mental, and physical wellbeing outcomes, including; stress reduction, improved mood, emotional resilience, reduced depressive symptoms, breaking unwanted habits and patterns, increasing emotional intelligence, reduction in self-destructive behaviours, a reduction in physical pain, improved sleep patterns, and an overall improvement in health and wellbeing.
The 8-Week Programme
The course can be delivered in groups or as one-to-one in a weekly format, with each session building on skills gained in the previous week. The sessions last between 1-2 hours depending on group size/if private. This will be clear upon booking the course.
Week 1: The theme is ‘Waking Up’
We learn about mindfulness, different types, and the attitudes of mindfulness. We focus on coming our of autopilot and practice a couple of introductory meditation practices… and no sitting crossed legged on the floor is involved (unless you want to).
Week 2: The theme is ‘Awareness of our bodies’
Here we are introduced to the body scan and breathing space meditation, listen to a story based on a mindfulness attitude, and to a thoughts and feelings exercise.
Week 3: The theme is ‘Focus on the body moving’
In week three we introduce mindful movement, great for those who don’t feel comfortable sitting still. We hear more stories based upon the mindfulness attitudes, with time to reflect, and we build on the previous weeks content.
Week 4: The theme is ‘Choosing how you react’
We go deeper within week four, working on the breathing space exercise with different aspects brought in. We discover our automatic thought patterns, and we progress the mindfulness practice of previous week. We also introduce mindfulness walking.
Week 5: The theme is ‘Being with what is difficult’
In this week we explore difficulties and how they land within our bodies. We develop meditation and breathing techniques of previous weeks, which will have given us a strong foundation for the challenges of this week.
Week 6: The theme is ‘Building resilience’
This week has some longer meditations in, with them having been grown over the previous weeks. Don’t worry, they aren’t all seated and you can even move like a dragon flying through the sky if you wish. Where will your meditation take you? The focus of discussion this week is resilience and how mindfulness can help with this.
Week 7: The theme is ‘Looking after myself’
By week 7 you will have forged a strong foundation of mindfulness skills, and you may notice that you are able to maintain a mindful state for longer than when you started. We are introduced to some carefully crafted meditations, stories, and silence within meditation is introduced. We also look at how to identify activities that sustain and drain you.
Week 8: The theme is ‘The power of compassion”
Week 8, you have come so far now. We revisit some of the practice from previous weeks, and how you feel at this stage, what changes that you have noticed. We discuss how to make mindfulness part of your daily life from now on, and todays practices are very much compassion focused.
Who is this course designed for?
People wanting to improve emotional resilience.
Those recovering from burnout.
People in care giving roles.
People struggling with anxiety, stress, and overwhelm.
Those wishing to deepen their self-awareness and personal growth journey.
Although there is a structure to the 8-week course, it is also wonderfully adaptable and can be tailored for a specific group or need, such as ADHD/Autism, menopause, pain management, workplace, and even for those working on their dog’s behavioural challenges.
What you may experience by the end of the 8-weeks:
A compassionate, kinder, relationship with yourself.
Feeling calmer and more grounded.
A deep appreciation for everyday life, the little things.
Improved focus and productivity.
Feeling more able to manage difficult emotions.
Skills to practice throughout life, long after the course.
Although the live sessions cannot be recorded for confidentiality reasons, I can record the group meditations to be listened to later, and am also in the process of creating generic meditations and resources available online, outside of sessions should you wish to use them.
Is there homework? Mindfulness is a practice, a skill that we only master with regular practice, however, it isn’t what I would class as homework and it is always an invitation not a demand. There is no asking who has done their homework, no need to hand anything in, and there is no judgement if you have had a hectic week and not been able to find time.
However, to get the most out of the course, and to master the skill, it is recommended that you practice the skills learnt outside of class… even if that is just the 3-minute meditation whilst sitting on the loo, escaping from a busy household or workplace.
This is more than just a course, it is an invitation to slow down, reconnect, and rediscover yourself. We may not be able to eliminate stress from life, however, this course helps with changing your relationship to it, creating that space between feeling and reacting. It offers a powerful foundation for your long-term wellbeing and a mindful way of journeying through life.
