1. Breath Awareness. We start by investigating our breathing habits, so we can learn to use the natural breath as an aid to managing our pain, illness or stress. We encourage people to develop habits of breathing into their experience, learning how to use the breath to soften resistance to pain or illness and to let go of tension.
2. The Body Scan. This helps us to develop habits of greater ease and awareness of the body. Adopting a comfortable posture (lying down or sitting) we ‘scan’ through the whole body with our awareness, using the breath to help us let go of areas of pain and/or tension. We give course participants a CD to use at home.
3. Mindful Movement. We discuss the importance of keeping our bodies in as good physical condition as possible, in order to stop a cycle of disuse, loss of function and more pain or fatigue. We include some gentle movements (based on yoga and pilates) in the programme. These have been specially devised for Breathworks by a very experienced yoga teacher and are suitable for all, being easily adapted as necessary so they are appropriate for people suffering from a wide range of physical conditions.
4. Mindfulness of Daily Life (Pacing). By bringing awareness to the activities of daily life we learn to overcome the very common tendency of overdoing it on good days or collapsing on bad days, with accompanying emotions of unrealistic hope followed by frustration and despair. We do some detective work about our daily activities, using diaries and symptom scoring, to try to become more aware of what activities cause aggravation. We learn how to make choices throughout the day, based on our developing awareness, enabling us to have a more balanced approach to life. We then move on to look at values and goal setting, so we can build on our discoveries.
5. Three Minute Breathing Space. This is a very effective way of coming back to an awareness of yourself in the midst of daily life. We will teach you how to take three minute breaks in the midst of whatever activity you are engaged with, when you can simply rest your awareness quietly with the breath. This can be a remarkably effective way of bringing a sense of calm, peace, and presence into your experience. Then, feeling refreshed and focused, you can go back to what you were doing.
6. Mindfulness of Breathing. This meditation practice focuses on the breath in more depth than we have done previously. By doing this we learn to be still and to listen to ourselves – we can watch our thoughts, feelings, and sensations come and go, without judging them to be good or bad, without identifying with them or pushing them away, but just letting them be as they are. Changes that we’d like to make sometimes happen when we simply attend to our experience without actively trying to change it. The fact that we are aware of something can be enough to change it, without us having to do anything. We give you a CD to use at home.
7. Kindly Awareness. This meditation practice in many respects forms the heart of the Breathworks programme. We firstly spend time becoming aware of the unpleasant and the pleasant aspects of our own experience in the present moment, without ‘tipping’ into either pushing away the pain on the one hand or grasping after the pleasure on the other. This gives rise to a sense of gentle stability and strength. We then broaden our field of awareness to include other people and we reflect on all that we share: the simple breath, pleasure, pain and many other basic common human experiences. In this way we come to feel a deep sense of connection with others where our own experience of pain or suffering becomes a moment of empathy, rather than a prison. We give you a CD to use at home.
8. The Human Condition. We also encourage people to use their circumstances as an opportunity to see more deeply into the human condition. All bodies are subject to the sickness and degeneration that comes with age. We need to learn to tread a fine line between doing all that we can to help ourselves on the one hand, whilst accepting the inevitable difficulties of life on the other. By seeing more deeply into humanity it is possible to come to terms with our own difficulties, whilst also developing empathy with others who suffer.

Making progress
All these methods of mindfulness can be practised on our own at home, enabling us to feel in charge of our own health and pain management. Gradually, over time, progress can be made and confidence improved.

Key principles
Two key principles underlie all these aspects of mindfulness and run through the whole course:

1. Learning to live in the present moment and breathe into our experience
2. Learning to respond rather than react to our life’s circumstances