KATE McIver, mindfulness teacher and psychotherapist at Insighted, will be holding a session entitled Mindfulness for Stress Management and Resilience at Bradford Cathedral in April to help those taking part gain awareness and practical skills to manage stress and increase resilience.

All funds from the session will go to support the Bradford Cathedral Choir and their upcoming choral trip to Germany.

Kate began on her journey to mindfulness by practising meditation as part of a Buddhist group around 30 years ago, before moving into teaching secular mindfulness and meditation.

"It is really skills based and I do it because I've experienced how it's improved my own life. The groups I run have brought huge benefits for people."

Mindfulness is something that's very important in 2019 and a hot topic at the moment.

"I think on a very basic level it's about being present in our lives: knowing and appreciating what we're doing when we're actually doing it. We all have a lot of multi-tasking in our lives and, while chatting to somebody, we might well be doing something on our phones, or our minds might just be elsewhere.

"We've all experienced talking to someone and realising we're not actually listening to them. Or we’re in the shower but in our heads we’re planning or rehearsing something we’ll be doing or saying later – maybe even having both sides of an argument in our head! Evidence tells us this tendency to ruminate is bad for our mental health.

“It’s about actually enjoying the moments in our lives: these are what our lives are made up of. The research shows this has huge benefits for our mental health. So for things like anxiety or depression it’s helpful to come back to what’s actually happening: what we know is true, rather than getting caught up in the past or the future.”

The upcoming session to be held at Bradford Cathedral is suitable for those who are completely new to mindfulness as well as those who already practise it.

The session will take place on Saturday, April 6, from 2.30-4pm at Bradford Cathedral.

Tickets can be booked at bradfordcathedral.eventbrite.com.