I’m very pleased to be working alongside Globe Community Services and Tower Hamlets for their ‘Take Back Your Life’ program, where I will be delivering several choral workshops for their participants.
Take Back Your Life is a mindfulness-based project addressing chronic pain, illness and related social isolation and inactivity. The project is initially based at Cranbrook Community Centre, which is located on one of the largest housing estates in Bethnal Green in London’s East End, in one of the most deprived boroughs in the UK.
Chronic pain and ill-health can feel unbearable, debilitating, and unfair and often lead to depression and social isolation. Clinical trials show that mindfulness meditation can be as effective as prescription painkillers, and can enhance the body’s natural healing systems. Mindfulness can also reduce the anxiety, depression, irritability, exhaustion, and insomnia that arises from chronic pain and illness.
The programme aims to give participants the tools and skills to live well with chronic pain or health conditions. This is pioneering work as mindfulness courses have rarely been offered to this target group.