Highland Mindfulness Group

Kindfulness: a 4-week Self-care Course

Wednesday afternoons from 4pm – 5.30pm
4 sessions on 1st, 8th, 15th and 22nd October 2025
at Nairn United Reformed Church Hall

Thanks to funding from the Whole Family Wellbeing Programme, we are offering this course free of charge to anyone over 18 who lives or works in Nairn / Nairnshire.

Our mindfulness course is based on compassion and kindness to self and others. This 4-week course includes the following:

• 4 sessions with trained mindfulness facilitators Jan Grigg and Rhona Mackenzie (see bios below)
• Practice sitting meditation and mindfulness including loving kindness practices
• Learn self-care tools
• Mindful movement, mindful walking, energy sessions
• Short sessions on poetry, art, drawing, reflective writing
• Body scanning and learning to rest and be at ease with yourself
• Nature connection, meditation and appreciation
• Gratitude practices and reflection
• Altruism, being kind to yourself and others
• Random acts of kindness
• Meet new people, enjoy conversation, share your journeys with each other
• Access to audio recordings of the guided meditations
• Course manual (PDF)

No previous experience of mindfulness is required but may be helpful.

We highly recommend that you attend at least 3 of the 4 sessions to get the most out of the course. If you miss both of the first 2 sessions, then you will be unable to start on this course and we would transfer you to the next one.

HOW TO BOOK
Our October 2025 course in Nairn is now fully booked. We would like to run it again if there is sufficient interest, so please feel free to email Daniel (admin) on highlandmindfulness@gmail.com to be notified of future dates. Over 18s only.

In addition, we usually run the course on Zoom twice a year, so please contact us to be notified if you are interested in this option (when the course isn’t funded, the cost is £65 / £40 concessions).

Comments from previous participants:
“l really enjoyed the course. It has transformed my whole attitude to myself and been extremely beneficial.”
“A wonderfully safe, open and pressure-free learning and practice environment.”
“It’s ok to be kind to myself – something I realised I hadn’t done much in the past.”
“Helped me to identify how hard I can be on myself, given me skills to be kinder and more compassionate, also helped me identify useful resources to take my practice further.”
“The facilitators were lovely and very supportive and explained everything well. Manual is very thorough and extremely good to have to refer back to.”

‘Unite and be Mindful’ is the Highland Mindfulness Group project for Nairn and Nairnshire funded by the Whole Family Wellbeing Programme

We will be running more sessions and courses in Nairn and Nairnshire as part of this year-long project. In the meantime, course participants are welcome to join in with the regular free drop-in sessions offered by the Highland Mindfulness Group to help people maintain their practice. These are currently in Inverness and on Zoom. Learning and practising mindfulness in a group helps individuals to develop compassion and self compassion through shared experiences and an understanding of our common humanity.
We also offer a variety of other courses which participants can follow after they have completed the Kindfulness course.

For Groups & Organisations
Developed by us during Covid to help local foster carers, we have also delivered this course to NHS and health & social care staff in 2022-23. It is ideal for community groups and charities (e.g. staff, volunteers or service users). Please email us for further details if you would like a course for your group. It can be delivered on Zoom or in person in the Highlands.

FACILITATORS

Jan Grigg is a fully qualified, experienced Mindfulness teacher having trained and then tutored with the Mindfulness Association. Having practiced meditation and yoga for over 30 years, she gained a Masters in Mindfulness studies from the University of Aberdeen in 2013. With over 20 years’ experience as a Biology/Science teacher, Jan has also researched, written and trialled mindfulness courses in a wide variety of settings from schools and businesses to NHS professionals and Armed Forces personnel, families and Veterans. She is a CEO of Mindful Forces which aims to bring mindfulness training to the Armed Forces community and Emergency Services personnel. She enjoys running mindfulness courses and retreats, as well as mentoring new teachers. Jan has been teaching Mindfulness courses since 2010. Jan co-developed the Kindfulness course with Rhona Mackenzie.

Rhona Mackenzie is the owner of The Butterfly Effect EFT. She offers a blend of emotional wellbeing therapies to promote positive change and self-healing. She is an NHS accredited Mindfulness teacher, clinical hypnotherapist, EMDR and Emotional Freedom Technique practitioner. Underpinned by 30 years’ experience within mental health nursing and health visiting in the NHS. She has been teaching with the Highland Mindfulness Group since 2018 including beginners, Insight and Compassion courses.