What next?
If you have enjoyed and benefitted from a mindful activity, please consider continuing to practice it both for the particular benefits that it brings, and to develop your capability for mindfulness. Perhaps also experiment with other mindful activities, adding them to your portfolio.
If you would like to explore mindfulness further, you may wish to try meditation practice. There are often groups meeting locally, there are online options too, and both in-person and online training courses.
Some mindfulness training courses have a specific therapeutic purpose, notably Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) for general stress, and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) for anxiety or depression. There are also courses with a therapeutic purpose tailored for particular groups of people, such as the Mindfulness-Based Childbirth and Parenting (MBCP) programme for expectant and new parents (based on MBSR). Teachers of the programmes referenced above are expected to undergo rigorous training before being authorised to teach them.
Other mindfulness training courses promote general well-being, and are often based more directly on Buddhist teaching and practices. There is also training in mindfulness in the context of the Christian contemplative tradition (and you may also be able to find mindfulness courses relating to other faiths). These courses are perhaps best evaluated based on their content and by assessing the teacher’s experience and any professional affiliations and/or links to notable mindfulness meditation centres for example.
