Mindful resources

Free Mindfulness
The Free Mindfulness Project provides free access to downloadable meditation
exercises which have been shared by experienced mindfulness teachers.

Frantic World
Free meditations taken from the book ‘Mindfulness: Finding Peace in a Frantic World’ by Mark
Williams and Danny Penman.

UCLA Mindfulness Awareness Research Center
Free guided meditations from the UCLA Mindfulness Awareness Research Center.

Palouse Mindfulness
A free online eight-week stress-reduction programme.

Mindfulness For Students
Whilst this is a student-based mindfulness web site, it does include free audio guides for anyone.

Audio Dharma
A variety of free guided meditations, many with a more ‘Buddhist’ approach than mindfulness-based stress reduction programmes. These would be beneficialy for anyone looking to explore the world of meditation further, than an initial introduction.

Mental Health Foundation
The Mental Health Foundation has created a number of short podcasts on wellbeing themes including an explanation of the concept of mindfulness and a 10-minute introductory mindfulness exercise.

What is mindfulness?

Professor Mark Williams, former director of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre, says that mindfulness means knowing directly what is going on inside and outside ourselves, moment by moment.

“It’s easy to stop noticing the world around us. It’s also easy to lose touch with the way our bodies are feeling and to end up living ‘in our heads’ – caught up in our thoughts without stopping to notice how those thoughts are driving our emotions and behaviour," he says.

“An important part of mindfulness is reconnecting with our bodies and the sensations they experience. This means waking up to the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of the present moment. That might be something as simple as the feel of a banister as we walk upstairs.

“Another important part of mindfulness is an awareness of our thoughts and feelings as they happen moment to moment.

“It’s about allowing ourselves to see the present moment clearly. When we do that, it can positively change the way we see ourselves and our lives."