The Habits of Holding

A four-week online exploration of how we unconsciously hold tension in everyday life, and how gentle awareness can begin to soften those patterns.

Have you ever noticed yourself bracing before a difficult conversation? Rushing ahead into tomorrow? Or carrying the weight of something long after the moment has passed?

These habits are often so familiar that we no longer notice them.

Through guided mindfulness practices, simple awareness exercises and gentle embodied experiments, we will explore the habits of holding that often go unnoticed in everyday life.

You don't need any previous experience of Qigong, meditation or mindfulness. Just a willingness to arrive as you are.

 

The habits we'll explore are often so ordinary that they can easily pass unnoticed.

 

We lean into tomorrow before today has arrived.

We rehearse conversations that haven't happened.

We brace ourselves for situations that may never occur.

We carry yesterday into the present moment.

And often, we do all of this without realising it.

What begins as a small habit of anticipation, effort or holding can gradually become so familiar that it simply feels normal.

 

This course is an invitation to explore those habits. Inspired by the work of Edmund Jacobson, best known for developing Progressive Muscle Relaxation, we will explore how tension, effort, anticipation and holding often arise automatically, and how awareness can reveal what has previously gone unnoticed.

 

This is not a course about changing who you are.

It is not about becoming calmer, more mindful, more spiritual, or a better version of yourself.

It is not about fixing anything.

The person was never the problem.

Instead, this course invites you to notice what is already here in each moment as that moment arrives.

 

Through a series of simple guided practices and experiments, we will explore questions such as:

What am I doing that I don't realise I am doing?

What am I adding to this moment?

What happens when anticipation arrives?

What happens when I notice tension without trying to get rid of it?

What changes when holding becomes visible?

 

The emphasis throughout will be practical and experiential. Rather than discussing these ideas, we will explore them directly through guided exercises that can be applied in everyday life.

Each week will include a live online session, recordings, and a series of short practices that can be revisited throughout the week. Because the learning comes through direct experience, the recordings are just as valuable as attending live.

 

You may choose to explore the practices sitting in a chair, resting on a yoga mat, sitting in meditation posture, or lying comfortably in bed.

Come as you are and leave as you are.

The invitation is simply to notice.