What Is Meditation?

Meditation helps you quieten your mind, to reach beyond the everyday, mundane aspects of life and reconnect with a deeper sense of “who you really are”.

It is a journey that will take you from a place of stress, drama and discontent to happiness, inner peace, contentment and connectedness.

Along that path, we all encounter things that need to be released, in order to set ourselves free from the habits, thought patterns and limiting beliefs that have kept us stuck and separate for so long.

Meditation is not…

Clare Josa, Meditation Teacher

I had been practising meditation for about 20 years, when I decided to formally train as a meditation teacher, so I could help others.

That’s when I realised that I had never really “meditated”.

It was a bit of a shock! Sure, I had done classes, retreats and had a stack of “meditation” CDs at home, but few of them took me anywhere near that point of stillness, that point of peace, deep inside, that I had been searching for.

Why?

Because the “teacher” never shut up and there was always tinkly music in the background!

After 2 decades of studying, I had never been taught how to be “ok” with silence; with stillness. All the techniques I had learned were still about “doing” – following instructions that popped up almost constantly.

Even though there are many meditation techniques that can be performed while you are active – even in a noisy environment – I had never experienced the beautiful feeling of allowing my mind to come to rest and just “be”.

Everything I had tried before had, in fact, been based on deep relaxation or guided visualisation. And I experienced a huge difference in the effect of those, compared to deep meditation, which has been profound and life-changing for me.

Meditation is NOT about twisting your legs into a pretzel, hiding in a cave and chanting ancient Sanskrit all day (though it can be!).

It is a practice that helps you change your life. It brings you peace, calm, stillness and a vibrant sense of being totally “alive”.

What Are The Benefits Of Meditation?

Some of the benefits of regular meditation practice include:

• Reducing your stress levels
• Getting your life back into balance
• Developing a “longer fuse” – being able to remain calm, even in emotional situations
• Improved physical, mental and emotional health
• Feeling happier – even moments of spontaneous joy
• Clearer thinking – you have been training your mind to chatter less!
• Improved concentration
• A sense of inner peace and stillness
• Feeling the strength (and desire) to finally deal with the “stuff” that’s no longer working in your life

Dispelling Meditation Myths

Myth: You have to train under a “guru” and change who you are
Fact: Finding a good teacher helps, but even just 10 minutes a day of mindfulness can have a big impact. Check out the latest research from Sara Lazar, showing that meditation can even make your brain grow!

Myth: Meditation drop-in classes work
Fact: You need commitment and dedication, to make progress.

Just as with any form of skill, to see results, a meditation student needs to commit to regular practice. A weekly, local meditation or mindfulness class is the ideal environment for this, because:

• you can ask the meditation teacher questions – they have been trained how to teach this stuff!
• you can benefit from the fact the teacher has probably faced similar challenges to you, on their meditation journey, and will have discovered some short cuts
• you can get feedback on your posture (meditating doesn’t need to hurt!)
• you can learn how to prepare for meditation, to get maximumm impact from your practice
• you can learn techniques to get back into that ‘meditative calm’ state, even when time is short
• you can share the experience with other students and even make new friends
• this moral support can help you find ways to fit yoga into your life, to help you feel happier, healthier and less stressed.

Over the years, we have repeatedly found that people attending drop-in classes make much slower progress than those who make the personal commitment to attending a term’s course.

Myth: You have to change your religious beliefs, to meditate
Fact: Meditation is accessible to everyone, regardless of their personal beliefs

Although the practice of meditation is rooted in ancient philosophy, to enjoy and benefit from meditation doesn’t require you to adopt any particular belief systems and it certainly doesn’t ask its students to have any particular religious background.

If you can daydream, then you can meditate.

Most cultures have practices that are akin to meditation. There’s nothing scary or cult-based about it.

What Makes Beyond Alchemy’s Meditation & Mindfulness Classes Different?

Rather than expecting you to turn up, rushed and stressed, twist your legs into a pretzel shape and suddenly empty your mind and feel inner peace, our meditation & mindfulness classes focus on good preparation first.

In order to be able to meditate successfully, you need to be relaxed and able to concentrate.

Is it time to tame your 'grasshopper mind'?

Few of us can do that spontaneously, as part of our busy lives. Most of us are more like grasshoppers, flitting from one thought or action to the next.

So our meditation classes typically take students through the following stages:

• Physical movement, to help you release the body’s tension and start to relax
• Deep relaxation – sitting or lying down – to help you let go and unwind
• Concentration techniques, to help you train your mind to focus on just one thing, rather than being a mutli-tasking grasshopper
• Training on how correct posture during meditation can impact the effectiveness of your meditating
• Discovering meditation and mindfulness techniques that work for real people, with busy lives

Our students tell us that they really value the level of preparation they get during the classes and see it as a ‘gold standard’ of meditation experience. This helps them relax and de-stress more easily during their day-to-day lives, and means they are more quickly able to get into a relaxed state of body and mind, to meditate at home.

How will I feel afterwards?
Students leave their classes feeling more balanced, less stressed, energised, refreshed and revitalised.

The goal of our meditation and mindfulness classes is to help you find a point of stillness, deep within you, that you can connect with, no matter how busy and stressful life becomes.

Why Bother With A Meditation Class?

Why on earth bother going to a meditation class?

Why not just listen to a CD or read a book?

Clare Josa, our meditation teacher, shares her personal story on this one in the video on the right.

Our research shows that a regular meditation or mindfulness class can have a major impact on the results you achieve.

Books and CDs are a great start, if you don’t have a good meditation class locally. But they have their limitations, too:

• Most ‘meditation’ CDs are in fact guided visualisations or deep relaxations. Whislt they help you relax, they are unlikely to take you to a real experience of meditating.
• Books can teach you techniques, but the experience of being guided through that technique by a real, live teacher is very different.
• You can’t ask a book or CD questions!
• Meditating with other people creates an wonderful space that allows you to go even deeper.
• A good teacher can tailor your meditation class to the needs of the individuals in the group. A book or CD has to be created to work for the ‘average’ student.
• Attending a weekly class gives you the moral support (and kick up the butt!) that most of us need to actually commit to regular meditation practice. It’s by far the quickest and most effective way to make progress and experience deep-acting results.

Weekly Classes

Our spring 2012 term of meditation and mindfulness classes will be starting soon.

They will be held near Forest Row in East Sussex.

We’ll be publishing times and dates, as soon as they are finalised.

Find Out More / Reserve Your Place

To find out more and reserve your place, please call Peter or Clare on 07919 11 4440. Or you can fill in the contact form below and one of the team will get back to you as soon as possible.

Can’t Make It To A Weekly Class?

We run regular yoga and meditation weekend workshops in the East Sussex area (Forest Row / East Grinstead / Ashdown Forest). If you’d like to find out when the next course is running, please get in touch!

Who do most of us think is responsible for creating World Peace? Who is responsible for the ‘un-peace’ that surrounds us? When is it ever going to change?

The answers to these questions might just hold the magic key to changing the world. Want to find out more?

Whose Job Is It, Anyway?

If you stopped 20 people in the street and asked them, “Who is responsible for creating World Peace?”, the majority would answer along similar lines:

• The government
• The United Nations
• Various charities

If you were to ask those same people, “Who is responsible for the ‘un-peace’, the war, that surrounds us?”, most would give the same answers.

• The government
• The United Nations
• Various charities
• Not me!

Those who have given it some thought might throw in the objection:

What difference can I make? I’m just one person!

The problem is that war – like peace – is contagious.

Our governments might decide who our allies and enemies are, on a global scale, but they can’t actually force any one of their citizens to agree with them – or propagate hate and fear in our hearts. Only we can let them do that. No matter how hard it might seem, we always have a choice.

We might not be able to change world events, but we can influence our own experience of life – and set an example to those around us. In fact, that’s the only thing we can change.

Peace, like war, is contagious.

If you spend time with someone who is feeling cross and aggressive, then it’s all to easy to leave that person feeling the same way, ourselves.

Does apple blossom bother about feeling anger and resentment?

Likewise, if we spend time with someone who is genuinely at peace, it touches a place of stillness, deep within us, where we can also feel that peace.

“We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.” ~ HH Dalai Lama

While we walk around, holding anger in our hearts, that’s one less being who is at peace.

Fact:

Inner peace is contagious.

Inner war is contagious.

But, while most of us have been trained to be good at reacting and seeking ‘justice’, few of us have ever been taught how to stay with that still point inside, however turbulent the waves. It’s as though we’re taught, “Drama is good. Calm is bad.”

Gandhi teaches that changing the world is an inside job:

“Be the change you wish to see.” ~ Gandhi

There’s no point complaining and expecting organisations you can’t control (like the government) to change the world. It starts with us. Unless we take personal responsibility for our thoughts, words and deeds, we’ll still be in the same position (or worse!) in decades to come.

If we want World Peace, we need to cultivate Inner Peace.

The impact can be dramatic.

• Until we can be accepting – non-judgemental – of the choices that others make, we will never move towards World Peace.
• Until we can find it within our hearts to respond from love, not fear, to the events around us, we will never move towards World Peace.
• Until we can learn to forgive, rather than condemn, (ourselves, as well as others!), we will never move towards World Peace.

War and conflict start with petty grievances, resentments and bitterness. Like a snowball rolling down a winter slope, these hurts grow and gather momentum, until all sense of perspective is lost.

World Peace is an inside job.

And we can start today.

How about playing with this one?

1. Think about a resentment you have been holding about something someone has said or done to you.
2. Whilst no one is asking you to condone that action, is holding on to that resentment really helping you?
3. Could you find it within your heart to let it go, even just for one minute?
4. And then for one more minute? And then one more?
5. Taking 3 deep breaths, focus on the space around your heart and allow it to soften a little, releasing any tension. Allow a warm, golden glow to spread throughout your body. And know that you have taken a step towards inner peace – and changing the world.

Thank you!

With love, Clare x

What Is Yoga?

Yoga is an ancient system of postures, movements and breathing techniques, designed to create the “union of body and mind”.

In more modern terms, it’s an excellent practice to allow you to:

• De-stress
• Relax
• Get life back into balance
• Improve your health
• Be able to stay calmer, even in emotionally-charged situations
• Improve your fitness
• Feel happier

Even modern scientists and medical professionals are now agreeing with the ancient wisdom that mind, body and emotions are connected. So gentle, focused movements that rebalance the body have the potential to also impact other areas of your life.
In fact, the latest scientific research has shown that even just a 6 week course of Dru Yoga can significantly impact your stress levels and inner calm!

Dispelling Yoga Myths

Myth: Yoga drop-in classes work
Fact: Yoga isn’t a quick fix

Just as with any form of skill, to see results, a yoga student needs to commit to regular practice. A weekly, local yoga class is the ideal environment for this, because:

• you can ask the yoga teacher questions;
• you can get feedback on your posture (so you don’t hurt yourself and you’ll get maximum benefit from the pose);
• you can learn how to prepare for postures, so you will be able to do them safely at home;
• you can share the experience with other students and even make new friends;
• this moral support can help you find ways to fit yoga into your life, to help you feel happier, healthier and less stressed.

Myth: You have to change your religious beliefs, to do yoga
Fact: Yoga is accessible to everyone, regardless of their personal beliefs

Although the practice of yoga is rooted in ancient philosophy, to enjoy and benefit from yoga doesn’t require you to adopt any particular belief systems and it certainly doesn’t ask its students to have any particular religious background. Yoga techniques can have a profound impact on your life and are accessible to everyone.

Myth: Yoga should feel like a work-out
Fact: Yoga should never cause pain – either during the class or the next day

Over the years, we have experienced a number of yoga teachers who either pushed their students to go too far in postures or didn’t have techniques to help their classes warm up and prepare for yoga postures, so you would wake up the next day with aching muscles – and worse.

Dru yoga should never hurt. The postures are never done “cold” – yoga classes always include “activations” (to get the body moving) and “Energy Block Release” sequences, to help shift any stiffness. Postures that challenge the body are only ever done after suitable preparatory postures have been completed, so your body and mind are ready and can gain maximum benefit from the poses.

What Makes Dru Yoga Different?

Dru Yoga is a graceful and potent form of yoga, based on flowing movements, directed breathing and visualisation. With its foundations set firmly in ancient yogic tradition, Dru works on body, mind and spirit—improving strength and flexibility, creating core stability, building a heightened feeling of positivity, and deeply relaxing and rejuvenating your whole being.

It is designed to be practised by people of all abilities, all fitness levels and all age groups.

For example, if you can’t go as far as you would like into a particular posture, a Dru yoga teacher can help you use visualisation techniques, to relax the body and gently ease yourself further into the posture, over time.

Dru yoga is truly accessible.

One of our friends attended her first Dru yoga class in a wheelchair, having had repeated operations on her spine. She is now fit, active and is a wonderful Dru yoga teacher. How did she benefit from the early classes? By being taught how to visualise her body doing the techniques and being incredibly gentle.

Local Dru Yoga Classes

Peter Briant, an experienced, formally-qualified Dru Yoga teacher, runs weekly classes Forest Row and East Grinstead, in Sussex (UK).

He specialises in making yoga accessible to all, helping you to gain maximum benefit from your classes, whilst also having fun.

What Is A Dru Yoga Class Like?

A typical class structure would include:

1. Activations: These are warm-up exercises, to wake you up and warm up each muscle group in turn, in preparation for the yoga postures.
2. Energy Block Release Sequence: This would be a carefully-constructed sequence of postures and movements, specifically designed to help you release blocks in the body, mind and emotions.
3. Posture Work: Traditional yoga postures, performed in a more flowing way than you may have come across before. These postures help various areas of our body, mind and emotions. For example:
   • Twisting postures can aid digestion
   • There are postures which ground you, helping you increase your energy and reduce your stress levels
   • There are postures which promote clear thinking
   • Some postures and movements will help you sleep or relax
   • There are postures specifically intended to produce balance

How will I feel afterwards?
Students leave their classes feeling more balanced, less stressed, energised, refreshed and revitalised.

The goal of a course in Dru yoga is to help you access a point of stillness within you, no matter how chaotic life becomes.

Weekly Classes

Peter runs weekly yoga classes on Wednesday evenings in Forest Row & East Grinstead.

This is a 2 hour combined yoga and meditation class, which is a real treat – meditating after preparing with yoga and deep relaxation can have a huge impact on your body and mind.

When: Spring term dates & times tbc
Where: Forest Row & East Grinstead
Cost: Suggested donation of £10 per class.

If the suggested donation is too much for you, please contact Peter to find out how to apply for help from our scholarship programme.

Note: this is a yoga course, not a drop-in class and we ask students (where able) to pre-pay each half term, in order to guarantee their place.

Find Out More / Reserve Your Place

To find out more and reserve your place, please call Peter or Clare on 0759 5590 147. Or you can fill in the contact form below and one of the team will get back to you as soon as possible.

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Can’t Make It To A Weekly Class?

Peter runs regular yoga and meditation weekend workshops, with his wife Clare Josa, a formally-trained meditation teacher. If you’d like to find out when the next course is running, please get in touch!

Bowen Technique with Peter Briant

Bowen Technique is an excellent way of helping the body to heal itself.

It is a gentle manipulation technique, involving a series of movements over specific points on the body.

It is typically used to treat:

• Back problems
• Neck problems
• Headaches & migraines
• Knee / ankle / joint problems
• Asthma
• Stress
• Hayfever
• RSI
• Pregnancy-related hip and joint pain

What Is Bowen Technique

Bowen Technique was founded by Tom Bowen in Australia, about 60 years ago.
He developed the technique over the following 3 decades.
The more he helped people with their ailments and injuries, the more he became convinced that the human body is designed to heal itself.
He saw himself not as a healer, but as a facilitator, helping the body to access its memory of its blueprint for health.

His series of specific movements help trigger the body to access these memories.

Bowen Technique has since helped hundreds of thousands of people, worldwide.

What Does A Session Involve?

Your session starts with a case history discussion, to allow your therapist to tailor the session to your specific needs.

You will receive your treatment either lying on a therapy couch or in a chair.

Clients should wear lightweight clothing, as most movements can be performed through thin fabric. However, some moves are best performed directly on the skin. Your Bowen Technique therapist would advise when this is the case.

Bowen Therapy is not about the therapist “treating” the client. The movements unlock the body’s own ability to treat itself.

The focus of Bowen Therapy is to trigger the body’s instinctive, hard-wired healing response.

This is why, after each movement, the therapist leaves the client for about 2 minutes, to allow you to relax and integrate the effects of the manipulation. This may seem a little strange if your previous experiences of therapy have been a therapist constantly “working on you”! But in Bowen Technique, this pause is when the healing actually occurs.

The philosophy behind a Bowen Treatment is not to overload the body with more than it is ready to heal. A treatment consists of the minimum number of moves to address the underlying concern that is presenting on that day.

A Bowen session typically lasts 45 minutes, though your first session may be a little longer, to allow the taking of your case history.

After each session, it is important to follow your Bowen therapist’s advice on drinking water and going for a walk. This helps your body to absorb the Bowen session at a deeper level.

How Many Sessions Do I Need?

This depends entirely on the reason for your visit. However, people usually notice a difference within 3 sessions.

Although clients may originally have requested Bowen Technique to address, say, knee pain, they often notice improvement in other symptoms, after their sessions.

For example, one common benefit is that people find they are sleeping better or that other problem symptoms have reduced.

Who Is Your Bowen Therapist?

Peter Briant has been a fully-certified Bowen Technique Therapist for the last 10 years.

He offers Bowen Technique sessions in Forest Row and East Grinstead, in East Sussex, UK.

What Does It Cost?

Bowen Technique sessions with Peter cost £45 each. There is no extra charge for the time taken for your case history during your first session.

How Do I Book?

To book a session with Peter, you can either call the Beyond Alchemy office on 01725 518434 or use our online booking system:

Want to find out how it can set you free?

Click on the image below to download a Vibrant Energy Therapy Leaflet. Enjoy!

Vibrant Energy Therapy - Read All About It

If you’ve got a change you really want to make in your life, then personal mentoring can really speed things up. It can show you the shortcuts and help you make the changes permanent.

It’s Not Like Counselling.

You don’t have to trawl through all the painful memories, retelling the stories, experiencing the emotions. Instead you go straight for the underlying cause and release any beliefs, behaviours or thought patterns that have been holding you back from being who you really are.

By dealing with the underlying causes, mentoring can have a dramatic impact. Fast.

You can turn things around in as little as 3 sessions.

What Is Mentoring?

Mentoring is a way of taking a shortcut to making the changes you want in your life.

By working with your mentor, you can:

• identify the changes you want to make
• get clear about why you want to make them
• stay motivated, even if hurdles come up
• break through barriers that may have blocked you in the past
• actually enjoy the experience of changing, moving towards the future you really want

A good mentor doesn’t tell you what to do. Instead they use a wide variety of techniques to help you uncover the solutions that will work best for you.

After your initial, free consultation, it is usual to pre-book 3-5 sessions, depending on what you want to achieve. This is long enough to make concrete progress and it helps you prove to yourself that you are serious about making the changes you want to see.
Sessions can either be face to face or by telephone – or a combination. They are always on a one-to-one basis.

You will normally have a session every 2-4 weeks and will also receive email support in between your sessions. If something comes up and you need to book an extra telephone or face-to-face appointment between your usual mentoring sessions, then we will always do our best to be flexible.

How can mentoring help?

What Kinds Of Things Can Mentoring Help With?
The mentoring through Beyond Alchemy works at very deep levels. We use NLP (neurolinguistic programming) and a range of even deeper acting tools that can help you fix things,once and for all.

We call this Breakthrough Mentoring, because it can really help you make deep-acting, permanent shifts.

It works by helping you deal with the thoughts, feelings and behaviours that are running the show. Unlike many other techniques, it deals with the route cause of your behaviour or performance, rather than with the symptoms. This means it can have a transformational effect on all areas of your life.

For example:

You might use NLP to deal with a communication problem at work.
This will have a knock-on effect on all relationships where that type of issue arises.

The great thing about the tools we work with is that they work directly with the thought processes and beliefs that you’re not normally conscious of.
So what?
This means you don’t have to remember “10 steps to success” or “5 critical elements to top performance” – you’ll do it automatically.

Mentoring can help with:

• Achieving an important goal
• Improving your communication skills
• Motivating yourself
• Giving up a habit you hate
• Working out what you want – and getting it
• Improving your health and fitness
• Or (one of our favourite reasons) to move towards finding inner peace and living a happier life.

Are you ready to finally set yourself free from the excuses that have held you back???

Who Is My Mentoring With?

Clare Josa

Clare Josa is a certified trainer of NLP and an experienced coach and mentor. She specialises in helping people figure out what they really want and break through the blocks that have been holding them back.

She can tailor a wide variety of techniques to help you break free from limiting thought patterns, behaviours and (dare we say it???) excuses that may have blocked you in the past. Above all, she will make sure you are comfortable with all the tools you work on together, so you can take them away to use at any point in the future; not just during your sessions together.

You can read Clare Josa’s full bio here.

How Do I Get Started? Book Online Now.

It’s really easy to book an appointment with Clare using our online booking system.

If you’re ready to make a start, you can either:

• Book an introductory telephone session with Clare, to find out whether mentoring with Clare Josa is for you (no charge and no obligation)

or

• Dive straight in and book your first breakthrough session
  This can be face-to-face or over the telephone.
  Clare is based in East Sussex, UK

Note: these details are for privately funded sessions only. If your employer is funding your mentoring, here’s where they can find out more and design your mentoring package.

It doesn’t matter if you’re not quite clear about what you want to achieve yet. Clare Josa can quickly help you focus and get results.

Still Got Questions?
If you’d like to get in touch, you can call Clare Josa and our office on 07919 114440 or use the contact form, below, and a  member of our team will get back to you within 48 hours.

We look forward to hearing from you.

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