
Mindfulbeing, founded by Manny Emslie, offers Mindfulness meditation courses and classes. Mindfulbeing is based in Frodsham, Cheshire, which is easily accessed from a wide area of neighbourhood villages including Helsby, Mickle Trafford, Kingsley, Norley, Delamere, Kelsall, Cuddington, Cotebrook, Middlewich, Northwich, Manley, Mouldsworth, Ashton Heyes and Tarvin. Frodsham is also close to Weaverham, Preston Brook, Warrington, Halton, Runcorn, Widnes, Elton, Ellesmere Port and Hooton. The M56 gives easy access to Frodsham with the A56 running through the town. Mindfulbeing is also a very short distance from Frodsham railway station giving easy access from Manchester, Chester and North Wales.
Mindfulness is a body-mind practice that cultivates awareness so that we are fully awake to our experience of ourselves in our lives. It is a creative exploration of gently noticing, listening, sensing and feeling what is arising moment by moment.
I have over twenty years experience of practising and facilitating Mindfulness Practice, Mindful Movement and Somatic Movement. I teach these practices nationally and internationally. I have completed an intensive Specialist Teacher Training Course in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction with The Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice (CMRP) as well as having studied for a further 3 years on the Teacher Training route in Mindfulness Based Approaches at Bangor University, North Wales.
I have a vast wealth of experience in delivering workshops and courses within fields of the wider community, business, performing arts and other arts practices and for registered charities that include WHAG and Making Space. I have also been invited to talk at events and at organisations about the benefits of Mindfulness Practice. I teach Mindfulness Practice and Somatic Movement for Undergraduate and Postgraduate Students as a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Chester.
I regularly facilitate group Mindfulness Based Courses and Classes as well as one to one sessions for individuals. All classes and courses are held in a private and spacious meditation studio. To date I have facilitated one to one classes for teachers, barristers, doctors, retail assistants, managing directors, students, construction workers, visual artists, musicians and for those who have retired from a life of working. All courses and classes are non religious. I adhere to the UK Mindfulness Teachers and Good Practice Guidelines.
Oneness. Photograph taken by Manny
“Within you there is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself.” Hermann Hesse
This morning it was raining and a wispy mist hovered over Frodsham hill. This afternoon the sun is shining and the hill is clear and visible. All things are in flux. All things change!
A Day of Self Care and Self Appreciation was a wonderful event of nourishing ourselves and of gently inviting loving kindness into our mindfulness practice and of sharing our mindfulness experiences. I’m reminded of Kristen Neff’s words, “Unlike self-criticism, which asks if you’re good enough, self-compassion asks what’s good for you?” The inner critic or inner judge can often get in the way of or brutally quash the caring voice that’s nudging us towards taking time to rest and just be, so it was delightful for us all to have intentionally retreated from the busyness of daily life; doing so enabled us to commit to taking care of and to ask ourselves at intervals of the day, ‘what’s good for me, right now?’ The weather permitted us to enjoy sitting and walking meditations out of doors and we all lunched in the garden while chatting or choosing to be silent in far away corners. Later in the week, I chatted with a friend, who shared that she has a phrase that she says to herself in times of difficulty or when challenges arise. It is simply, "What would love do now?" I have since woven this phrase into many events!
I am now looking forward to the next 8 week MBSR course that begins on Tuesday 2nd October at 6.15pm.
Thursday evening meditation classes have continued throughout the summer. We have been exploring what I call, ‘fluid shifts of attention’ that is a paradoxical contemplation of being with while letting go! The meditation group has welcomed 4 new people to our weekly class and the newcomers have become regular attendees…lovely!
In July I was at a 5 day Silent Self-Compassion Retreat and it was greatly needed. Moving into silence allowed me to deepen into the heart and into practice. Having left the retreat I have noticed deeper connections with others and all life with whom I co-exist. Being in the presence of and learning from Jack Kornfield proved to be inspiring and moving beyond words.
Highlights of July and August include, 4 beautiful waterlilies flowering in our new pond (another lesson of what stories the mind can convince us to believe – we were sure the waterlily plant was poorly and would not produce flowers!); huge iridescent dragonflies hovering about the garden; being inches away from a fledgling bird of prey in Wales; witnessing hundreds of baby frogs hopping along a path at Delamere Forest; dappled sunlight during late evenings of walking the sandstone trail; a male blackbird feeding two of his offspring; magnificent and breath taking sunsets that have set the sky alight. Oh to be mindful of the precious and beautiful moments of daily events.
Go slowly. Go softly. Go mindfully.