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This course is for MSD postgraduate researchers and consists of six one-hour workshops that blend wellbeing ideas and practices with opportunities for self-reflection.

You are expected to attend four sessions:

14 June @ 16:00 - 17:00

16 June @ 16:00 - 17:00

21 June @ 16:00 - 17:00

23 June @ 16:00 - 17:00

28 June @ 16:00 - 17:00

30 June @ 16:00 - 17:00

COURSE AIM

We all want deep-rooted wellbeing: it is essential as we forge a career, pursue relationships and make choices. Wellbeing feeds our confidence and energy, opening the way to development and growth.

Yet wellbeing fades as we struggle with stress, an over-active mind, disruptive emotions and when life goes out of balance.

What are the keys to wellbeing? How do we bring wellbeing to life?

The Being for Beginners series was developed with Oxford researchers to provide an opportunity to reflect and apply wellbeing principles. The series improves wellbeing, enabling greater clarity and deeper understanding.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

The aims to improve wellbeing and bring wellbeing to life.

The series explores:

  • Human needs and nature
  • How we relate to our thoughts, feelings and body
  • How we relate to others, nature and the present
  • How we change habits – including patterns of thought and reaction
  • Practices for developing greater awareness, understanding and wellbeing

The series is non-prescriptive and does not advocate any particular tradition – instead it explores and connects various disciplines and cultural perspectives.

Being for Beginners demystifies and provides an opportunity to experiment with practices of questioning, focus and self-awareness. Opportunities for guided self-reflection are provided regularly – and this is much appreciated by participants.

COURSE FORMAT

Being for Beginners is a series of six non-prescriptive workshops, each of one hour. It blends wellbeing ideas and practices with opportunities for self-reflection. 

Focus upon the breath and awareness of the body are used throughout the series to support awareness and reflection, but no previous familiarity or interest in these focal practices is presumed. 

Privacy is 100% guaranteed. It is for anyone – ­­no matter how familiar – or sceptical – you are about wellbeing practices.

The workshops systematically develop ideas of awareness, reflection and change. There is a video and audio catchup available for all who register.  If you have to miss a session, just ‘catchup’, ideally before the next workshop.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED

You will need a good internet connection and some uninterrupted time. Participants are encouraged to be, if at all possible, private and fully focused on the sessions.  A pen and notebook are useful for reflection exercises.

PARTICIPANT NUMBERS

50

 

THE PRESENTER

Roddy Bray is a highly rated presenter/facilitator who blends storytelling with experiential learning, private reflection and insights from a range of disciplines and traditions.

Roddy has pursued a lifelong interest in human nature and needs. He trained as an anthropologist at the University of Durham in the UK and at the University of Cape Town as a postgraduate. 

Roddy developed Being for Beginners in close consultation with research staff at Oxford and the series has proved very popular across the University, with over 2000 participants taking part in workshops at Oxford and other universities.

Roddy publishes a popular monthly reflection, Antidote Notes and, writes a wellbeing series published within organisations.

Testimonials

A great introduction to understanding yourself

and your interactions with the outside world.”

Brilliantly-led… incredibly insightful and helpful.

Most of all it respects privacy - no judgment.”

Thank you! I honestly thought it was going to be bullshit and I had planned to multitask during it. But you got me interested very early and I ended up not multitasking, and really enjoying it.

Very few things have helped me to the extent this series has”

‘Take a step back from the mad and crazy life we all lead and give space for yourself’