On Thursday 15 May 2025 IP Inclusive and Jonathan’s Voice held a joint webinar on Mindfulness: Practising human connection to mark Mental Health Awareness Week. We were delighted to welcome back Dr Sally Rose, who guided us through a gentle mindfulness practice with her soothing voice. Sally Rose is a psychotherapist who specialises in workplace mental health and applying psychological theories and mindfulness to working adults. She is particularly interested in the power of using mindfulness practices to regulate attention.
Mindfulness can be used to generate insight into our own patterns and our own bodies but can also reveal patterns that are shared with others, bringing a sense of connectedness with the human race. All relationships between people are about paying attention and the skill of tuning into ourselves can be used to tune into others. Sally explained that feelings of being distracted or inattentive were common, and rather than criticising ourselves, we can see that all minds are distractable, leading to greater compassion and care for others. A poll during the webinar demonstrated that experiences during mindfulness such as mind wandering or restlessness are very common. With this connection with our humanness and the human condition, we can build compassion for our own minds and experience, knowing that mostly what we experience is also experienced by others at some point.
Finally Sally examined how mindfulness can be used for disconnection. By connecting with ourselves through mindfulness we can work towards disconnecting from the busy and intrusive world around us. Indeed, taking some time to focus on ourselves can leave us better able to connect with others in the longer term.