“There isn’t one person on the planet that wouldn’t benefit from meditation,” says the instructor of a free mindfulness class in Johnstone.
Organised by Renfrewshire charity Active Communities, the free-to-attend mindfulness classes take place in Johnstone town centre every Monday morning at 10am.
The sessions are led by Hillary Valentine, a health and wellbeing practitioner with over 20 years of experience in life coaching and stress management.
Hillary believes that mindfulness - a form of meditation practice which aims to improve awareness by training the mind to be less busy - is a great antidote to many of the problems of 21st-century living.
“Mindfulness is not new by any means, it’s been around for centuries,” she said. “But as modern life and technology have progressed, we’ve really lost our way.
“Watching the news these days, not a lot of it is good. Understandably, it’s very easy for people to become overwhelmed with fears, negativity, and anxiety.
“People’s mental health really needs to be taken care of at the moment. We clearly have a mental health epidemic in this country, and probably in most of the Western world.
“And that’s why it’s so important for people to be able to access things like mindfulness and meditation - things that help us deal with the complexities, and sometimes the negativity, of modern life.”
Hillary says that despite a number of misconceptions, meditation is something that everyone can participate in and benefit from.
“Mindfulness is not based on religion," she said. "It’s very secular. Some people are concerned that they’re not Buddhist so they can’t do it, but mindfulness is open to everybody. You don’t need to have any particular beliefs.
“People come along and are pleasantly surprised to learn that meditation can be for them. There isn’t one person on the planet that isn’t going to benefit from some form of mindfulness.”
She also emphasised that people don’t need to worry about ‘failing,’ or not being good at the practice.
“It’s not about sitting there with a completely empty mind,” she said, “because that is not possible.
“We talk about techniques to quiet the mind or slow the mind, but I always stress to people that there’s no such thing as failure - if your mind was busy during a session, no problem. That’s absolutely not a failure.”
Hillary, who herself received mindfulness training from Active Communities almost a decade ago, encourages anyone to come and try out the free Monday morning sessions.
“The lovely thing with all Active Communities' classes is that they’re so welcoming,” she said. “The building is lovely, it’s a nice environment to be in, and we’re very blessed that everyone who attends is warm and welcoming. So you’ll always receive a really warm welcome.
“It’s been really affirming for myself personally, and for Active Communities, that so many people have chosen to give this a go.
“The world can be quite a scary place. But it’s our decision whether or not we choose to live in fear, or we choose to focus on the small, positive, affirming actions that we can take on a daily or even hourly basis.”
Mindfulness classes take place Monday morning from 10am to 11am at Station Seven, 7 Quarry Street, Johnstone. Supported by the National Lottery Community Fund, the classes are free to attend.
Full details can be found at: https://www.activecommunities.co.uk/
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