Calm Your Mind
A calmer, steadier mind, one small action at a time.
These days we can all feel like we need a bit more room to breathe. Most of us are busier than we've ever been, with more coming at us than ever before and less space to deal with it. Very few of us were ever taught what to do about that.
This is a programme of small, practical things to try, running from September to November, built to change how you meet a worried hour, a hard morning, or the voice that's hard on you.
Twelve small actions, one a week
Turning good evidence into something you can actually do on a Tuesday is the thing we're best at. For this programme we've worked with experts on anxiety, self-kindness and emotions, and used their work as inspiration for twelve actions, each small enough for a busy week and specific enough that you'll feel what it does.
Around those actions sits a live masterclass with each expert, and a group of people doing the same thing in the same week as you.
A minute of the right kind of breathing genuinely winds you down in an intense moment. You will learn a handful, and find the one that is yours.
Not getting rid of them. Learning to see them coming, and to stop the fight with them.
Letters, reflections and small bits of noticing. People are usually surprised by what twenty minutes and a pen turn up.
Settle the mind, be kinder to it, make it stick
Three modules, four weeks each. Each draws on the work of one expert, and has the same shape: actions to practise each week, a masterclass, and a session with your group.
Soothing the anxious mind with Dr Sian Williams
She has lived with anxiety throughout her career and doesn't expect to be rid of it. Her work is about stopping the fight with it, and it's where September's actions come from.
Breathing practices, short written reflections, and one small experiment in doing the thing you've been putting off.
Live online with Williams, with a recording if you can’t make it.
90 minutes with your group, run by us: getting to know your own mind.
Being a good friend to ourselves with Shahroo Izadi
She trained in NHS services and used her own method on herself. Her argument is that lasting change gets built on treating yourself the way you would treat someone you love.
Letter-writing, a bit of honest mapping, and small ways of catching the voice that's hard on you before it takes the day.
Live online with Izadi, with a recording if you can’t make it.
90 minutes with your group, run by us: practising self-kindness together.
Making the shift with Prof Ethan Kross
He studies how people manage their emotions. His starting point is that all our feelings carry information, and that moving between them is a skill you can learn.
Ways of stepping back from a feeling, small changes to where you spend a difficult hour, and being deliberate about who you talk to.
Live online with Kross, with a recording if you can’t make it.
90 minutes with your group, run by us: building your own toolkit.
You won't be doing this on your own
The same group, all the way through. Held by a pair of volunteers, online for 90 minutes once a month.
You hear what people actually tried. What worked, what didn't, and how much of your own experience other people recognise.
You don't have to talk. Plenty of people spend their first session listening.
We're looking for people who'll show up. When you sign up you will choose your group time, so it is worth checking your diary first - it is the same day and time each month.
Calmer minds, happier world
We're doing this because we'd like there to be more calm about, not just in the people on the programme. How you handle a hard morning tends to change the mornings of the people you live and work with, and that's the part that travels on its own.
Your own steadier mind is a small piece of something much bigger we are building: a movement of people taking practical action for a happier, kinder society.
Ready to give your mind more room?
September to November. Twelve small actions, a masterclass each month, and a group of people doing it alongside you.
Places are limited, so we'll be in touch soon afterwards with your group, or to let you know if we couldn't fit you in this time.
You'll hear from us on 1 September, and your first action arrives on Monday the 7th.