A four-week meditation course
An Introduction to Mindfulness and Insight Meditation
If your life runs on doing, doing, doing, and part of you wonders whether there's more, this is your invitation to pause. Over four Saturday afternoons you'll learn simple, grounded mindfulness and Insight meditation practices to settle the mind, befriend your feelings and reconnect with the joy of simply being. No experience needed. Come as you are.
You are a human being, not a human doing.
Four weeks to slow down, reconnect with your heart, and rediscover the joy of simply being.
Who it's for
For busy, driven, often tired people who want calm, and meaning too. Maybe you've tried an app that didn't stick. You don't need to be spiritual, flexible or calm to begin.
Please join all four weeks: each one builds on the last.
Come as you are.
Come and sit with us, for the whole course or dropping in. Let the heart practices, forgiveness and living the practice in daily life deepen what you already know.
Let's practise together. Allow me to nourish you.
The lineage
The practices in this course come from Insight meditation (vipassana), part of the Theravada tradition of Buddhism, one of the oldest living lineages of meditation. They're offered in plain, everyday language, for people of any belief or none.
Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach, two of the most respected teachers of Insight meditation in the West, lead the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program (MMTCP), the two-year training I've been part of.
Your teacher
My working life has been shaped by many years of structured professional training and rigorous thinking. I bring that same care into my meditation practice and teaching: clear foundations, honest inquiry, and depth you can trust.
I grew up with another kind of medicine too: embodied practices of caring for our health, our family and our community, tending our qi, and using Chinese medicine to bring body and spirit into balance.
In 2020, at the start of the pandemic, I turned to meditation to recover from burnout. I stayed because of the joy and wisdom of the practice. It has completely changed how I live my life, and I've come to see that how we live, and everything we do, must be rooted in the heart. I hope to share that with you.
I've trained as a meditation teacher with Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach through the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program (MMTCP), and I'm completing my certification with this course. I completed my 200-hour yoga teacher training at Trika Kula Ashram, which generously hosts us, with Nataraj Chaitanya and Vishnudev, whose teachings are rooted in the Siddha Yoga lineage of Bhagawan Nityananda and in the meditation teachings of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
I know what it is to run on doing. I'd be honoured to sit with you as we find our way back to being.
Bringing it home
Retreats can be wonderful. Some are deep and silent; others are exuberant and fun, with long dinners together, beautiful places and plenty of free time. You come home glowing. Then Monday arrives, with emails, traffic and the same old patterns, and the glow begins to fade.
This course isn't about recreating the retreat high. It's about the quieter, more important work of bringing the practice home: into your mornings, your relationships, your work and the hard moments in between.
It's practical. Each week you'll take home simple practices that fit into an ordinary day, so meditation becomes a way of living, not just a place you visit.
Never been on retreat? You're starting in exactly the right place.
The journey
We begin by settling into breath and body, open gently toward the heart, and finish by carrying the practice into everyday life. Each week builds on the last.
Arrivingsettling in
Feelingmeeting emotions with kindness
Tendinglistening to the heart
Living ittaking it home
Not every session will feel calm, and that's part of the practice. Whatever arises is welcome.
At the heart of the practice
It opens in moments of love and wonder, and it tightens around grief, fear and loss. Neither is wrong. This is simply how a living heart moves.
Here we practise staying present through both. Instead of bracing against pain or pushing difficult emotions away, we meet them with kindness. We breathe with them, and we let them be felt.
Each time we stay with what is hard, the heart learns it can hold a little more. Over time it grows spacious enough to hold deeper sorrow, and deeper joy, gratitude and abundance too.
So come as you are, and let yourself feel all of it. No feeling is unwelcome here.
Beyond the cushion
In ways you haven't before: a kinder inner voice, with body, mind and heart coming back together.
Being here for your life as it happens: ordinary moments feel richer, with a little space before you react.
Hard emotions come and go without taking over the day.
Rest as recovery, and fuel for your body and soul. Permission to simply be.
When your own cup is full, you have more to give the people you love.
More focus and effectiveness, and more creative ways through problems.
Everyone's experience is different. Four weeks is a beginning, and these changes grow with a steady daily practice, even ten minutes a day.
A Saturday session
For health and caring professionals
If you're a clinician, carer or professional who holds space for others, this course can count towards your continuing professional development.
At the end of the course you'll receive:
Health care professionals are welcome to get in touch for more details about the program objectives, learning outcomes and core curriculum. Email me at mindful.bel@proton.me.
This course isn't accredited by a CPD provider. You may be able to record it as self-directed CPD, depending on the requirements of your CPD home or professional body.
Your contribution
Money, time and effort are all welcome. Give what you can: no one is turned away. Places are limited to 8, so there's space for everyone to settle in, share and ask questions.
$55
suggested for the full four-week course. Any amount you can give is welcome.
If you'd like to give more, it helps keep places open for everyone
$15
suggested per session, for experienced meditators dropping in.
In kind
Offer your time or your gifts instead of money: 4–6 hours of help at the ashram across the course, or something you've made or grown. Two to four places, and gifts in kind go directly to the ashram. Get in touch to arrange.
Families, or if cost is a barrier, please get in touch on Instagram at @mindful_bel. Your contribution supports my teaching and the ashram that generously hosts us.
Questions
Yes. The course is designed for complete beginners.
That's normal, and welcome. You can sit, lie down or move. Learning to be with a busy mind is part of the practice.
No. Insight meditation comes from Buddhism, and it's taught here in plain, everyday language. Come as you are, whatever your beliefs.
Not this time. This course is in person only, so our small group can settle into the room together. I'd love to offer an online course in the future. Follow @mindful_bel on Instagram to hear when it's on.
Mostly no. Our sessions include personal sharing, and we keep the space private. As part of my meditation teacher certification, I'll record about 30 minutes of one session: my teaching and a guided meditation, with the camera on me. Group sharing is never recorded, the recording is only for my teacher trainers, and I'll ask for your consent beforehand. You're welcome to sit out of view.
If you're new, please join all four: each week builds on the last. Experienced meditators are welcome to drop in, with a suggested $15 per session.
The course is offered by contribution: $55 suggested for all four weeks, or $15 per session for experienced meditators dropping in. Any amount you can give is welcome, and no one is turned away. You can also contribute in kind, with 4–6 hours of help at the ashram or something you've made or grown. Families, please get in touch.
Possibly. The course isn't accredited, but many professionals can record it as self-directed CPD. You'll receive a certificate of attendance, learning outcomes and a reflection record. Please check with your CPD home or professional body.
Yes, refunds are available up to 7 days before the course begins.
They may, and that's welcome. We meet them gently and at your own pace. You can always pause, open your eyes or step out, and there's time after each session to talk.
Four weeks is a beginning. The practice keeps unfolding long after the course ends.
Book your place