Meeting Ourselves Meeting the World: Tuesday Morning Practice Group

Dates: Tuesdays mornings November 9th – 30th

Suitable for all – whether you are an experienced meditator or new to mindfulness you are very welcome to join Helen over the course of these 4 Tuesday mornings of practice together. 

Each week we will practice gentle mindful movement and either a sitting or lying down practice.  We will have time and space to talk about what we are experiencing and to look at some of the theory behind mindfulness and its relevance in our lives today.   

This ancient practice of mindfulness is more useful than ever as we navigate these troubled times.  What does it mean to be really present for ourselves?  To really know what is going on for us, moment by moment, instead of our more usual habits of minimising, denying, avoiding, judging or railing against our experience?   And in making space to acknowledge and befriend our own experience, how does this impact on our relationships with others and with whatever circumstances we find ourselves in?

Cultivating mindfulness can help us to build inner resilience, keeping  us grounded as we meet whatever comes with compassion for ourselves and each other.

4 Week Online Course 
Meeting Ourselves Meeting The World.

Dates: Tuesdays mornings February 15th - March 8th 

This course includes a Half Day of Mindfulness Practice on Saturday 26th March  2022, from 10am to 2.00pm.

We meet at 6.30-pm each Wednesday  and finish at 9:15pm. This extra 15 minutes allows for a short break

The course is suitable for those with prior meditation experience as well as those who have none.

As the programme will be delivered live on Zoom relatively stable wifi is needed.  

You are asked to make a commitment to daily home practice of around forty-five minutes per day for the duration of the course.

The full price of the course is €350.  A deposit of €100 is paid on booking and the balance is paid to your teacher who will let you know directly the payment options.

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)

 was developed by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in 1979.

In this MBSR course we will explore what we mean by the term ‘stress’ and how it manifests in our lives.  The invitation is to explore the ways in which mindfulness can support us in responding to the events in our lives rather than being caught up in reactivity - how can we pause in the midst of the everything that is demanding our attention and tune into what is actually happening within and around us, and thus afford ourselves the opportunity to respond in more helpful ways. The programme promotes the development of self-awareness and general well-being.  Stress is part of life, we cannot avoid it.   We are encouraged to acknowledge life as it is, with all its joys and sorrows, and thus live in a more fully, with whatever is here.   

We practice different forms of mindfulness practice including sitting meditation, the body scan and gentle mindful movement.  As the emphasis is on bringing mindful awareness into everyday life, a commitment to daily home practice of around forty-five minutes is required.  

Participants will receive a programme handbook in the post to support learning and a weekly email summarising the content and practice instructions for that week plus guided meditation recordings.

When the course finishes there are online meditation groups you can join. This support can make a big difference to keeping up practice so that when we meet stressful times in our lives it is there to support us.

●      Use mindfulness to relate in healthier ways to worry and feelings of anxiety and to better manage stressful situations in both work and home life

●      Become familiar with the workings of the mind, including the ways we avoid or get caught up in difficulties

●      Sustain the practice of mindfulness as a self-care tool that can be integrated into our work and home life

●      Explore ways of releasing ourselves from old habits of mind that increase anxiety levels

●      Get in touch with a different way of knowing ourselves and the world

●      Recognise the harshness of self-judgement and develop self-acceptance

●      Be able to exercise greater choice in life

●      Manage interpersonal relationships and conflict more effectively

●      Experience improved feelings of self-worth and compassion for others

All participants who attend the programme fully will receive a Certificate of Completion in the “Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Programme” from The Mindfulness Centre.

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction 8 Week Course Online with Helen Byrne

You are welcome to join Helen and her current MBSR class in a half day of mindfulness practice online via zoom. This is open to anyone who has completed an 8 week MBSR, MBCT or MSC course.  You will be invited to offer 'dana' (donation) to help Ukrainian refugees. Helen will give the details on Saturday.

We will have a twenty minute break at some stage to have a cup of tea and maybe something small to eat, as well as a shorter comfort break.  And you can take a break whenever you need to yourself.  You will not need to be looking at the camera for most of the time we are together.  Fiona, Joel and myself will be doing the guiding, you can just set yourself up as best you can to have a mini retreat.  We will be doing all of the practices from the MBSR /MBCT course - the body scan, mindful movement, sitting meditation - and one or 2 other practices which you may be familiar with.

We will be in silence, and the invitation is to set things up at home so that you can enter fully into the 4 hours of practice without interruption.  I know that won’t be possible for everyone, especially where there are young children, but even here the invitation is to limit the conversation and engagement with others, as best you can.

Having a room to yourself where the wifi is good enough and where you won’t be interrupted, having whatever equipment you may need to hand:- a mat, a blanket, a pillow, a meditation cushion or bench if you are using them,  wearing suitable loose clothing so you won’t be constricted in the movement or the breathing… you know the drill!  You might like to have some water with you as well.

Half Day of Mindfulness Practice

De La Salle Pastoral Centre, Castletown, County Laois

 The retreat is open to anyone with previous experience of similar types of silent retreat of 5 days or longer, but preference will be given to mindfulness teachers and teachers in training.  

Personal meditation practice is an essential foundation for anyone who works with mindfulness-based interventions and participation in silent teacher-led mindfulness meditation retreats is part of all Good Practice Guidelines.  

This retreat will explore the foundations of Mindfulness, as taught in the Satipaṭṭhāna discourse given by the Buddha. This is a profound teaching that encourages us to place the path of freedom and compassion in the classroom of our lives, nurturing a heart that is receptive and unshakeable. Developing the capacity to encounter our own inner and outer experience with equanimity and curiosity creates a foundation for meeting the experiences of our students and clients, in offering mindfulness-based interventions.

Each day will offer a sustained schedule of formal meditation practice (both Insight and Metta), meetings with the teachers, talks and instructions, all within an underlying environment of silence.  

This retreat satisfies the MTAI criteria for a Mindfulness Teachers' annual retreat.

 We welcome people with disabilities to our retreat.  The venue is fully accessible.  Please contact us with your specific needs relating to disability, long-term illness or health condition.

 for The Mindfulness Centre's August Retreat 2022 with Marc Akincano Weber and John Peacock. We hope these rates reflect out intention that anyone who would like to attend can through collective generosity. Prices include accommodation, food, teaching and administration.

Pay for yourself and help support one person to join on a Bursary -

For those in financial hardship who cannot afford our full priced rate (see below for more) -

A limited number of places are reserved for those unable to afford the concessionary Rate -

Cancellations up to 1st June 2022 will incur a €50 administration fee.

Cancellations after 1st June 2022 will incur the loss of the deposit.

The organisers may waive cancellation fees in exceptional circumstances, at their discretion.

We are keeping up-to-date with government guidelines to provide a safe retreat environment. As the conditions and guidelines keep changing, we are remaining flexible and will be reviewing what is needed at the time of each retreat.

We want to reassure you that we have conducted thorough risk assessments and we’re planning to make your retreat at De La Salle Castletown Retreats as supportive as possible.

Prior to your retreat, we will send some more information about what to expect whilst at Castletown. We hope you find the following information useful

The Heart of Mindfulness,’ 7 Day Silent Meditation Retreat with Akincano and John Peacock

This course includes a Day of Mindfulness Practice on Sunday 30th October 2022, from 10am to 4.00pm.

We meet at 6pm each Wednesday  and finish at 8:30pm. 

The course is suitable for those with prior meditation experience as well as those who have none.  

The full price of the course is €350.  A deposit of €100 is paid on booking and the balance is paid to your teacher who will let you know directly the payment options.  There are a number of concession places for those on low incomes. 

 was developed by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in 1979.  Twenty years later, Dr Mark Williams of Bangor and Oxford Universities, Dr John Teasdale of Bristol University and Dr Zindel Segal of the University of Toronto developed 

to support people experiencing recurrent depression.  

This course incorporates some aspects of MBCT into the MBSR programme, aspects which we have found helpful in allowing us to meet the anxiety, worry and low mood of being human in these challenging times in supportive ways.

In this MBSR/MBCT course we will explore what we mean by the term ‘stress’ and how it manifests in our lives.  The invitation is to explore the ways in which mindfulness can support us in responding to the events in our lives rather than being caught up in reactivity - how can we pause in the midst of the everything that is demanding our attention and tune into what is actually happening within and around us, and thus afford ourselves the opportunity to respond in more helpful ways. The programme promotes the development of self-awareness and general well-being.  Stress is part of life, we cannot avoid it.   We are encouraged to acknowledge life as it is, with all its joys and sorrows, and thus live in a more fully, with whatever is here.   

Participants will receive a programme handbook to support learning and a weekly email summarising the content and practice instructions for that week plus guided meditation recordings.

When the course finishes there are online and in-person meditation groups you can join. This support can make a big difference to keeping up practice so that when we meet stressful times in our lives it is there to support us.

All participants who attend the programme fully will receive a Certificate of Completion in the “Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction / Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy Programme” from The Mindfulness Centre on request.

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction / Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy  8 Week 
In-Person Course with Helen Byrne

You are welcome to join us for a day of mindfulness practice led by Helen Byrne, Josephine Lynch and Erica Balfour and it will take place in the Marino Institute of Education in Dublin 9.

This is a retreat day for anyone who is currently in the midst of or has completed one of our 8 Week Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR), Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) and Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) Courses or anyone who has a regular practice and attended a full day retreat previously.

A day of practice offers us an opportunity to set aside our usual tasks and responsibilities and take time to practice being present to the fullness of our experience.

Aside from the guidance, we will be practicing mostly in silence so that we can create the space to allow us to go a little deeper than perhaps our usual mindfulness practice.  We may see a little more clearly our reactivity, our patterns and practice bringing kindness and understanding to what we are discovering rather than our tendency to distract ourselves, criticise or attack ourselves. We invite awareness, presence and kindness to all of our experience, as best we can. 

Please wear comfy clothing and bring your yoga mat, blanket, cushion (if you need one), meditation stool (if you have one). 

Bring packed lunch and a flask of tea/coffee and a drink.  There is a canteen on site but it can be noisy and might bring you out of your retreat headspace.

The day is offered on a DANA or donation basis for those who are not currently taking their course.  There will be a little box in the hall for those who would like to make a donation to the teachers.  Alternatively we can give you the REVOLUT details. 

Day of Mindfulnes Practice

Deepen your practice and learn to lead mindfulness based stress reduction courses.

Registration is open for our teacher training programme.  Come along to our open evening to find our why our training is so special. 

 The Mindfulness Centre offers an 18 month training programme in teaching mindfulness-based interventions. 

-We support our trainees in furthering their personal understanding and practice of mindfulness 

-We nurture a community of emerging teachers during the training and beyond. 

-We are the only training body that offers an apprenticeship model. 

-Assessment is carried out by senior teachers who have been trained in using the Mindfulness-Based Interventions: Teacher Asessment Criteria (MBI:TAC), recognised in Europe and North America as the gold standard in teacher assessment.  

-Our programme is delivered in collaboration with senior mindfulness trainers who are leaders in their field from Ireland, the UK and beyond.  

-Our course is recognised by the Mindfulness Teachers Association of Ireland (

Get in touch - we would love to hear from you. 

OPEN EVENING
LEARN ABOUT OUR 
18-month professional training programme to teach mindfulness

This course includes a Day of Mindfulness Practice on Sunday 26th 2023, from 10am to 4.00pm.

Graduation cermony

Saturday and Sunday, 11th – 12th March 2023

Open to all, whether you are beginning to mediate or already have experience

CHRISTINA FELDMAN is a co-founder of Gaia House. She has been leading Insight Meditation retreats worldwide since 1976. She is a Guiding Teacher of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts and a founder member of The Bodhi College.

She is the author of a number of books including Woman Awake,

Way of Meditation, and co-author of Soul Food. Recent books include Silence and The Buddhist Path to Simplicity and, co-authored with Willem Kuyken, Mindfulness: Ancient Wisdom meets Modern Psychology.

This weekend will be dedicated to contemplating the vulnerability of being human and the possibility of being held in mindfulness and the family of mindfulness. Our weekend will take the form of longer times of teaching plus periods of sitting and there will be opportunities to ask questions and reflect.

Saturday and Sunday from 10.00 am to 4.00 pm

Please commit to attending both days in full.  There will be comfort breaks throughout the day with a lunch break from 12.30 – 1.30 pm.

€50 - This covers the cost of the teacher and admin. (If you are struggling financially the option is to pay concession rate)

If you have any questions regarding the retreat, you can send an email 

Vulnerability and MindfulnessOnline retreat with Christina Feldman

You are welcome to join us for a day of mindfulness practice led by Helen Byrne it will take place in the Marino Institute of Education in Dublin 9.

Day of Mindfulness Practice

Personal meditation practice is an essential foundation for anyone who works with mindfulness-based interventions and participation in silent teacher-led mindfulness meditation retreats is part of all Good Practice Guidelines.  This retreat satisfies the MTAI criteria for a mindfulness teacher's annual retreat.

This retreat will explore aspects of the foundations of Mindfulness, as taught in the Satipaṭṭhāna discourse given by the Buddha. These are profound teachings that encourage us to place the path of freedom and compassion in the classroom of our lives, nurturing a heart that is receptive and unshakeable. Developing the capacity to encounter our own inner and outer experience with equanimity and curiosity creates a foundation for meeting the experiences of our students and clients, in offering mindfulness-based interventions.

Each day will offer a sustained schedule of formal meditation practice (both Insight and Metta), group meetings with the teachers, talks and instructions, all within an underlying environment of silence.  

 for The Mindfulness Centre's August Retreat 2023 with John Peacock and Bernat Font. We hope these rates reflect our intention that anyone who would like to attend can through collective generosity. Prices include accommodation, food, teaching and administration.

Cancellations up to 1st June 2023 will incur a €50 administration fee.

Cancellations after 1st June 2023 will incur the loss of the deposit.

We are keeping up-to-date with government guidelines to provide a safe retreat environment. As the conditions and guidelines change, we are remaining flexible and will be reviewing what is needed at the time of each retreat.