When: 7 Mar 2025 - 9 Mar 2025 Following her much appreciated keynote address at the International Conference on Mindfulness (ICM: 2024), hosted by Bangor University and the Mindfulness Network, Catherine will guide us in a weekend retreat of practice and reflection. For many, practicing mindfulness can lead to profoundly meaningful experiences that are hard to put into words and challenging to measure. These experiences remain largely unexplored scientifically and yet can remain so important to a human being that they are never forgotten and can act as beacons, inspiring us to delve further into contemplative practices. Catherine will invite us, through mindful attention to the body, heart and mind, to approach and consider some of the territory that may lie beyond our current frameworks for practice. Reflecting upon our intuitions and desires to go beyond what we know, we will explore how mindfulness might serve to open and expand our senses of beauty and sacredness, and how this might empower our deepest values and meaningful participation in a changing world. To listen (or re-listen) to Catherine's keynote session from the Conference you are welcome to come along to our Donation event on 13th February 2025, click here (https://booking.mindfulness-network.org/course-information/?id=1083) for more information. Who is the Retreat for?: This retreat is suitable for experienced practitioners who have a solid working familiarity with the core teachings of the eight-week mindfulness programmes. You do not need to have been at the conference, nor consider yourself to have had profoundly meaningful experiences in your life or through your practice. Come with an open mind! This weekend could form part of the retreat requirement as part of the BAMBA Good Practice Guidelines for Mindfulness Teachers. Pre-requisites: Attendance at an 8-week MBSR/MBCT (or similar). In addition, attendance of at least one day of guided silent mindfulness practice is recommended but not required. Please ensure you are able to attend the entire event. If this is not possible, please contact us to discuss before submitting an application. Preparation for the event and what you will need: To participate in the retreat you will need: About the Retreat Leader: We are delighted and honoured to welcome Catherine McGee to lead us on this retreat. Catherine has been teaching Insight Meditation retreats internationally since 1999, click on her name at the top of this page to find out more. Online information: The retreat will take place via Zoom - a weblink and joining instructions will be sent to you before the event takes place. Please add mindfulness-network.org to your safe senders list and check your spam/junk folder for communication from us. Timings: Friday 7th March 6.30pm - 8.30pm; Saturday 8th March 9.30am - 12.30pm, 2-5pm and 7-8.30pm; Sunday 9th March 9.30am-12.30pm and 2-4pm. The weekend will include periods of silence and participants are encouraged to maintain silence or minimal verbal contact during the breaks and in the evenings in order to support a deepening of practice. All times given are UK, GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). If you are attending from a different time zone, please check equivalent timings in your time zone. Our Rates: This retreat will operate on a different financial basis from other retreats offered by the Mindfulness Network. Dana: Catherine earns her livelihood entirely dependent upon the voluntary and freely given financial offerings from others. This is part of the tradition known as ‘Dana’ meaning generosity. There will be an opportunity for you to offer a donation to Catherine at the end of this retreat to support her livelihood and this way of offering teachings. Catherine will speak further about this on the retreat, please rest assured that you don't have to know about this tradition before coming and there is no right way to do it or compulsion around it. To support this practice, we have considerably lowered the standard cost for this retreat which will not include any payment to Catherine and goes solely to the Mindfulness Network to support our overheads and charitable aims. Standard rate (excluding payment for teaching) - £105 Bursary-assisted places are available on this event until 6 weeks before the event starts, we encourage early applications. If you would like to apply for a bursary-assisted place less than 6 weeks before the start date of the event please get in touch to discuss if an application is possible. When applying for a bursary-assisted place, please first register on the event and select the fee ‘I’m applying for a bursary-assisted place’. Once you have registered for the event you will also need to complete and return a bursary application form. To find out more about our bursary schemes, criteria for bursary applications and to complete the bursary application form please visit: https://home.mindfulness-network.org/bursaries/ Employer’s rate: Recognising the large administrative overhead of dealing with employers, we will be adding a £50 non-refundable surcharge if the employer is paying directly; where possible we would advise applicants to pay themselves and reclaim on expenses to avoid the charge. The application and payment process: Our application and payment process involve the following steps: Payment and cancellation policy: Please read our Terms and Conditions for information regarding payments and cancellations. Other information: Please see the British Association of Mindfulness-Based Approaches (BAMBA) for good practice guidelines and other information for mindfulness-based teachers. Contact us: Please feel free to email us at retreats@mindfulness-network.org to discuss any questions you may have about the course or whether it is appropriate for you at this time. We will ensure that your query reaches the correct person.
Where: Online Event
Tutor: Catherine McGee
Click here to sign up to this event.
