Kingston Mindfulness Meditation Group

 Wednesday 19th May 7.30- 9:00 pm

After over a year apart, we are thrilled to be able to return to the Quaker Centre and hold our meetings iN-person. We are planning to continue to run zoom alongside in-person live from the centre. 

Initially, we plan for our online meetings to be 15 mins longer and in-person 15 mins shorter, finishing at 9pm, as we adjust them to fit together.

In order to hold our sangha, we have to follow some restrictions which are for everybody’s wellbeing and health.

We have space to seat 25 people with one meter spacing between each chair. This means that we might need two circles rather than one.  This is also the maximum number of people the centre allows, so regretfully we would have to refuse entry to anyone once 25 people have arrived.

Please email us if you are planning to attend and if you change your mind. You are welcome to come along if you haven’t emailed, but if we do hit capacity you may not be able to attend.

Other rules that the Centre have implemented:

• A mask must be worn inside the Quaker Centre unless speaking during our practices.

• The kitchen will not be available to us, so please bring your own drink with you.

• Toilets are available -please observe any Covid notices in the centre regarding using the loos.

• The Centre requires us to sign in with our contact details which we will give them after each sangha. There will be a signing-in sheet – please ensure that you sign in when you arrive.

• The door to the garden must be kept open. (Make sure you wear something warm)

In view of the above changes, we are having to make changes to our practices as well. On arrival, please keep your shoes on until you are seated, they can be left under your chair. You may decide to keep them on. Please put your shoes on again before you leave the meeting so that the exit from the meeting room remains free.

Changes and reminders for our in person  practice:

We are not allowed to chant yet, so we are exploring alternatives to The Om Practice. We will probably be humming!

At the moment we will be keeping the online format for Dharma Reading with one person offering to read it to us every week.

Please arrive by 7.25pm so that we can start promptly at 7.30pm

Donations:
During lockdown, we have been able to send donations to support other organisations within our wider sangha as we have not had to pay for the hire of the meeting hall.  From May 19th we will be paying for the use of the hall so we will be relying on our own generosity once again.  As before we need to raise around £75 per week. All donations large or small are welcome and as before we invite a donation of £5 or more, if you can afford it. This generosity helps to support those who are less financially fortunate to be able to attend the Sangha. We will accept cash, but would prefer bank transfers if possible.
Zoom members are now also invited to donate, if you can afford, to support the Sangha. Please contact us to get our details.

Please do not come to The Quaker Centre Sangha if you have symptoms suggestive of Covid-19 such as a new continuous cough, fever, or loss of taste or smell or if you have come into contact with someone with coronavirus or coronavirus symptoms. Please visit https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/ for more information

Finally.  Welcome Back! We are so grateful that we are in this wonderful Sangha together, and we look forward to seeing you in person or on Zoom very soon.

Wishing you love and peace, courage and wisdom, good health and happiness
KMMG

You are very welcome to join our online sangha. We now host a joint in-person and online. The meeting will start at 7:30pm using Zoom:
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/8897654321?pwd=U1ZSd3VUVzIrMVI3QUE3d25hVzIvZz09

If you don’t have a PC or smart phone you can also dial in using one of these numbers:
+44 208 080 6592
+44 203 481 5240
+44 208 080 6591
And use Meeting ID 88 9 7654321 and passwd: 123321
(Calls are at a standard rate and will be included in any minutes you have.)

Top tips:

• When you click on the link it will prompt you to download the Zoom client if you don’t yet have it. Or you can download the Zoom client on your PC or the Zoom app on your phone for Android or iPhone.
• If you are new to Zoom we the meeting will be open from 7:15pm and we recommend you connect early to iron out technical difficulties and avoid unnecessary stress. 🙂
• If you are comfortable with Zoom please join at 7:25pm
• Make sure you are sitting comfortably in a place where you won’t be disturbed.

We expect the group to last about 1 hour to 1 hour 15mins. It will have a similar format to the normal group, but nothing is fixed yet whilst we adjust to this new way of being together. During most of the practices, we will be muting the group members so that everyone can relax. There will be some time for sharing and we hope that it will still feel like a sangha.

Please bear with us for the first few meetings whilst we iron out any technical difficulties and get used to the platform. If you have a problem, common Zoom questions and difficulties are covered here and we are happy to help you too.

Your feedback and suggestions will be much appreciated. We will do the best we can. And we invite you to come back to your breath if things aren’t working the way that you want, breathe right down into your belly for a few breaths and if you can find a smile for yourself.  And perhaps consider – why should everything always go your way?

“Try not to resist the changes that come your way. Instead, let life live through you. And do not worry that your life is turning upside down. How do you know that the side you are used to is better than the one to come?“ ~ Rumi

Our group is fundraising for much needed support so that we can continue to meet for our lovely mindfulness evenings at the Kingston Quaker Centre.

One of our fundraising activities is attending a Car Boot Sale in Apps Court Farm, KT12 2EG on Sunday 23rd September. We welcome any contributions to the Car Boot sale in the form of items to be sold, generous assistance or actual funds!
Please bring any donated items to Wednesday meetings on 5th, 12th or 19th September 2018.

If you have any other ideas for fundraising please get in touch.

Dear all,

Please join us for a community meeting on Wednesday 8th August, 7:30pm to help shape and grow our beautiful sangha.
We will begin our evening with some meditation practice and then move into mindful speaking and listening for the community meeting. The main item on the agenda is raising more money for the hire of the lovely Kingston Quaker Centre meeting room. So please bring your body, heart, mind and ears for listening, thinking and feeling and any ideas you might have will be most welcome.

We look forward to seeing you there!