Sleep Solutions - Sleep classes work and this is how I do it.
Oct 02, 2024
I thought I would share with you an edited version of my evaluation of a recent community project that I ran in Streatham. Funded by Streatham Action.
Offering up to 3 classes a week from April to the end of July 2024
The classes were held weekly day time session at Gracefield Gardens GP practice and weekly On-Line in the evening.
Plus a 6 weeks course from Immanuel and St Andrew Church hall during the day time.
I have also been able to offer taster sessions in local groups and mindful walk and talk sessions in the rookery gardens.
All the classes were regularly attended by the same people with a few people dropping in.
The classes offer an opportunity for people to come together and talk about their issues with sleep. As a community we support each other and learn from shared experience.
There is a mix of mindfulness, breath work and relaxation practices to help people manage to sleep better.
Participants have expressed surprise from feeling supported within the community. The friendliness of the class and my ability to provide what they felt to be a safe place to share their concerns.
General feed back is as follows.
- I found the sleep course really relaxing. It’s so lovely to have an opportunity to rest and relax. Fingers crossed it helps the sleep! Please put my name down for next Monday.
- I thought it was a valuable session. Something I took from the session was being mindful. That it’s okay to observe and notice noises around us such as the clock ticking, people arguing etc but to let it pass and not emotionally engage with it. This was useful to me. Looking forward to next week’s session.
- So many positive emotions, I use mindfulness techniques every day, especially when I go to the park, I sit on a bench and listen to 20-minute sessions on YouTube, then I close my eyes, listen and follow what the therapist says. I'm very glad that I could experience it today in a larger group and not alone, which was amazing for me.
- A safe space was created to achieve deep relaxation. Curiosity, excitement, and peace was felt. I particularly enjoyed the visualisation aspect of it and the detailed body scan.
- Thank you for the invite to the session today. It really was informative and I have felt a sense of calm and relaxation since leaving today. Unfortunately I am still working until 9pm and struggling to stay awake 😄but at least it proves what I learned today was effective .
There was a participant who was very skeptical about the whole thing. They didn’t believe that this could work and although they were curious about the sense of community to begin with they were unconvinced that peer to peer support would make any difference. They also challenged the concepts of mindfulness.
People who had attended the classes in the past suggested being patient and keep coming along, give it time.
Each week they practiced one of the ideas from the class, each time returning to say that it worked, but still remained unconvinced despite the positive impact the classes were making on their improved relationship with sleep.
Coming from a trusted and genuine sense of support the group sessions evolved into something very strong and profound
Through this experience the participants were able to get to a place of understanding their deeper issues with the help of the mindfulness practices they were able to come to a place of greater understanding, compassion and acceptance towards themselves.
This particular participant had started the classes exhausted, in their words almost unable to be awake enough to attend the classes. Over the 3 month they were able to accept that they don't need to know why something works or doesn’t work. Simply to accept that at times they worry and thats normal and they are ok with that.
And of course sleeping better which enables better health.
There was concern about the classes ending and together as group we worked with this in the closing sessions. Accepting that we cannot control things, endings are a natural concept of time and that they now have the tools to manage better.
On going support is always available.
Need a good nights sleep? See my class time table with offers on how to work with me.
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