Body-Mind-World: a 6 week meditation course to support the development of awareness, wellbeing and connection

Run by Dr Sāgaradevī Barratt, a senior lecturer in the School of Health and Social Care, this six-week course for University of Essex staff provides an introduction to meditation and explores how the development of awareness can help you overcome distraction and disconnection to support your wellbeing and find meaning and connection in the world.

You will be introduced to three different meditation practices, drawing on personal experiences of meditation, secular mindfulness approaches and cognitive science research to inform the teaching.

Register via Zoom You will be registered for all 6 sessions, you do not have to attend all of them.

Each session will be for 50 minutes with approximately 15 minutes of teaching followed by a 35-minute meditation practice. It is recommended that you are in a place where you are unlikely to be disturbed and can sit in an upright position (a desk chair is fine). 

Your learning will be supported with resources available on Moodle including audio recordings to enable you to practice at home (including shorter versions that you may find more accessible). There will also be optional, self-guided homework tasks that will deepen your exploration.

Who is the course suitable for?

No previous experience of meditation is needed. You will get more from the course if you are able to attend all the sessions but this is not essential.

Sāgaradevī is a Buddhist and that inevitably informs their teaching, but this is a secular course. All are welcome to attend, of all religious beliefs and none. If you have any questions regarding the suitability of the course in the context of your religious or spiritual beliefs, please get in touch.

Please note - the course may not be appropriate for you if you are currently experiencing acute mental health difficulties or stress, particularly if you have not tried meditation before. In certain situations, meditation may worsen mental health conditions. If this is a concern for you, please get in touch to discuss this before the start of the course.