Showing unprecedented interest, about 65 doctors, nurses, Sisters and Matrons from various fields in the health sector gathered at the SLFI this afternoon (December 2) for the first mindfulness workshop for health sector personnel, organized by the Sati Pasala Foundation.
The degree of enthusiasm shown by participants who travelled from as far as Kandy was very encouraging. In addition to Venerable Dhammajiva who introduced the simple practice of mindfulness and how applicable it will be in hospitals, wards, pain clinics, and similar places, a few additional resource persons participated in today’s event.
Venerable Paññāvamsa (Founder of the Mindkraft Foundation) spoke of his own experiences in conducting mindfulness programs in Prisons in Sri Lanka and on MBSR & MBCT. In his work Venerable Paññāvamsa had received the advice and guidance of scholars from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge to culminate the MINDKRAFT programs. Prof Diyanath Samarasinghe (Consultant Psychiatrist) described his experiences with the work of the Foundation of Health Promotion where they actively use special therapies in community settings to protect people from destructive habits and addictions, like from alcohol, drugs and cigarettes.
Deepal Sooriyarachchi gave an account on how mindfulness can be practiced simply, in our day to day lives.
The Sati Pasala Foundation is commencing a program in January 2018 to train interested personnel from the Health Sector (and other sectors) in order to become mindfulness practitioners themselves and to eventually become Mindfulness Ambassadors, so that the message of mindfulness can be shared amongst colleagues and patients.
Those who wish to enrol with us could kindly contact Dr. Nimmi de Silva (nimmidesilva@yahoo.com or text message on 0774436426) and register with us, and we will then update you with the planned training programs during 2018. Please visit the Sati Pasala website for regular updates on our mindfulness training programs (www.satipasala.org).