Mindfulness at Mana

Mindfulness Meditation @ Mana

Weekly on Fridays 1-2pm

Two midwives with a passion for mindfulness

You might be forgiven for thinking mindfulness meditation is the new black... web search ‘mindfulness’ and literally millions of links appear. Mindfulness is a word now in common use and it seems plenty of us have dipped our toes in.

Sue Power, (midwife, counsellor and mindfulness practitioner) has noticed this evolving trend in her hypno-birthing classes… “when I started teaching 14 years ago, perhaps 2 or 3 people in the room had experience in meditation.. now most people have experience with some sort”.

What is relatively new, in Australia at least, is it’s application as a skill for birth preparation. Pioneer Nancy Bardacke (U.S based midwife and mindfulness teacher) adapted globally renowned program Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) to create Mindfulness Based Childbirth Preparation (MBCP) and has been teaching it to couples since 1980.

Our vision is to create the space for a community of people interested to practice mindfulness throughout the pregnancy and parenting years. We plan to run MBCP at Mana in the future, expressions of interest for upcoming courses welcome.

Jon Kabat Zinn, mindfulness teacher and creator of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) defines mindfulness as “paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.”

Some of the benefits of mindfulness when applied to pregnancy and birth:

Increases confidence and decreases fear of childbirth

Taps into deep inner resources for working with pain

Improves couple communication, connection, and cooperation

Provides stress-reducing skills for greater joy and wellbeing

Yes…you could download an app, practice for 10 minutes a day at home. But nothing compares to sitting in person with others to experience the shared atmosphere of a practice group. Starting a simple daily practice increases the benefits enormously, meeting regularly as a group is a wonderful way to get started or deepen your current practice.

The group is suitable for you if you are planning on a pregnancy, pregnant or have children, whether you have meditation experience or not, there is no religious content, mindfulness is a secular practice. You are welcome to come with a partner, friend or support person such as a doula.

You will learn simple practices relevant and applicable to pregnancy and parenting, we invite you to come and experience mindfulness and experience the beneficial effects these practices create in your life.