Starting Monday 07 November at 1pm with Angela Thompson

We will be hosting a series of four workshops introducing different relaxation techniques to incorporate into daily life. Each week there will be a different focus on techniques which will include breathwork, Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) (also known as tapping), meditation practice and gentle movement. Each session will be 30 minutes long.

Research has shown that the different techniques featured in the workshops can have a significant effect in reducing stress, anxiety, and help promote feelings of wellbeing and peacefulness.

Angela teaches our mat yoga classes and will be leading the workshop sessions. Angel is a yoga therapist, meditation and breathwork teacher and EFT practitioner. The course will include handouts and recordings of each session.

You can attend all four of the workshops or simply drop into the sessions that you are most interested in.

Please find below the session overviews for each.

Week 1 – Monday 07 November at 1pm

Focus on the breath – how we breathe can have a profound effect on our wellbeing. Breathwork continues to grow in popularity with many positives coming from its regular practice. These include improving mental wellbeing through reducing acute and chronic stress and anxiety, and a range of physical benefits which include lower blood pressure, improved sleep and better respiratory function.

In the session, Angela will take us through some gentle breathing exercises that are effective in bringing a sense of calm and peacefulness to our minds and bodies. This technique is easy to perform anytime as a way of controlling emotions and stressors in the moment or as a regular daily practice for longer-term benefits.

Week 2 – Monday 14 November at 1pm

Introducing the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) – this is a powerful yet simple tool to release feelings of stress and anxiety that you can do anytime, anywhere. This technique offers a self-management tool to reduce and relieve physical and emotional pain.

The technique focuses on using tapping into the common acupuncture areas and along the meridian lines of the body popular in Chinese medicine. This technique is understood to restore the body’s balance and energy flows.

In the session, Angela will take you through a series of specific tapping techniques on different points on the face, head, arms and chest, that are easy to follow and remember.

Week 3 – Monday 21 November at 1pm

Meditation – the research behind regular meditation practice continues to grow and the benefits that have been found for individuals include lower levels of anxiety, depression, increased focus plus physical changes within the brain that include increased grey matter and neuron connections between the different areas of the brain.

The session will discuss how to establish a regular meditation practice that over time can help ‘rewire’ our brains to feel more peaceful and less reactive to daily stresses. Angela will take us through a short meditation practice and explain how to use meditation regularly as a means of controlling negative feelings and reducing the stressors of day-to-day life.

Week 4 – Monday 28 November at 1pm

Gentle movement – The final session will look at how gentle movement can release stuck energy and feelings of stress and anxiety in the body. Using yoga-style practice, the session draws on slow, flowing movements that help bring a better connection to mind and body. The benefits of keeping active are well-known, but exercise doesn’t have to be exhausting and sweaty to be beneficial to health.

The routine in the session will include easy-to-remember exercises that help to improve balance, posture and flexibility. As the exercises do not require an ‘all out’ approach, it will demonstrate how this approach brings many positives and how easy it is to include in regular weekly practices.

If you can’t make the session live, don’t worry as we will be recording the presentation and will make it available to watch again for all those registering in advance.

We have a suggested of £5 for each of the weekly sessions.

If you would like to know more about this session or would like help registering, please email register@ms-uk.org.