Unpleasant though it can be, a spiralling mind is a fascinating thing to watch. Kitty Wheater explains why our minds can spiral, and how to interrupt these thought processes.

We urgently need a vaccine and treatment for COVID-19 and our best scientists will develop them. But we also need a response at the level of the human head and heart. Equanimity in the midst of challenging times is not a surrender of innovation or action —rather, it is a wholehearted responsiveness that values human health and human well-being. It is the steadier ground on which we can stand and meet the challenges in our lives.

A project which explores whether a trauma adapted mindfulness skills training could offer a new approach to improving the well-being of displaced people. The project was funded by the OMC Access Fund.

For the first time since 2004, when MBCT was first recommended by the UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, there is an England-wide training programme for MBCT teachers.  This represents the realisation of a significant part of the 2015 Mindful Nation UK recommendations around health and is something we hope will be continued and scaled up in coming years. 

Dr Chris O’Neill, Psychologist with forty years’ experience of working in schools, and one of the architects of mindfulness training in schools “Dot b” cirriculum, gives some advice on teaching Mindfulness in the classroom

Karen Wyn Griffith, who took one of our MBCT courses recently, describes the impact it has had on her.

An interview with mindfulness expert Jon Kabat-Zinn, by Research Assistant and Project Co-ordinator Alice Tickell