Joe teaches mindfulness and meditation courses and sessions to individuals, families, groups and organisations of all sizes. He also offers a four-part video course on meditation and mindfulness.

Meditation courses are tailored to the needs of the workplace or group and Joe teaches techniques that have been scientifically proven to reduce stress, improve concentration and develop understanding.

What is meditation?

Meditation involves maintaining attention on immediate experience and away from distractions such as self-referential thinking and mind wandering. With consistent practice, meditation helps us create a better relationship with our thoughts.

Benefits

Meditation is proven to bring about a range of positive mental and physical qualities which are valuable in the workplace and everyday life.

  • Improved focus

  • Lowered stress

  • Improved emotional regulation

  • Improved ability to refocus on a task after distractions

  • Enhanced compassion and understanding of others

  • Enhanced creativity.

Changes in a person's mental state occur during meditation and last for a short time afterwards.

Practising consistently over a sustained period has been shown to bring about trait-like changes in personality and improve task performance, including those requiring focused attention and some types of memory.

Meditation also improves emotional regulation meaning people can settle into a relaxed state and refocus more quickly after challenging experiences.

The science of meditation

Scientific studies show meditation can benefit those who practise it regularly. Large companies like Google and Apple have included meditation in staff schedules for some time, and benefits occur after a relatively short amount of practice.

Reducing stress

A 2014 study in Psychoneuroendocrinology showed that just small amounts of mindfulness training could help calm the mind in stressful situations. Mindfulness is a mental practice that focuses on the present moment rather than the usual 'chatter' happening in our heads. It also helps people learn not to get caught up in their thoughts but acknowledge and observe without letting them take over.

Improved concentration and focus

A study at Yale University found that mindfulness meditation decreases activity in the default mode network (DMN); this brain network is responsible for mind-wandering and self-referential thoughts – a.k.a., "monkey mind." The DMN is active when our minds wander, and we're not thinking of something specific. Mind-wandering is associated with worrying about the past or future; the goal for many people is to reduce this wandering. Studies have shown that by quieting the DMN, meditation appears to reduce this wandering. Meditators are better at returning to the present even when the mind does wander.

Changing traits

In their book 'The science of meditation', Daniel Goleman and Richard J. Davidson, examine various research into meditation. Consistent meditation practice develops greater functional connectivity between the prefrontal areas of the brain that manage emotion and the areas of the amygdala that react to stress. 'Traitlike' changes occur in long-term meditators who appear calmer, even when not meditating, and have lessened stress reactivity and improved emotional regulation when challenged.

Preserving the brain

A study from UCLA found long-term meditators' brains were healthier than those of non-meditators as they aged. Those who'd been meditating for an average of 20 years had a higher volume of grey matter throughout the brain. Although older meditators did have some volume loss compared to younger meditators, it was less pronounced than non-meditators.