A warm welcome to Julie Bolton, who will be facilitating the weekly meditation group at Bloomhill on Thursdays at 10.45am, from August 11th.
Julie invites Bloomhill clients to join her for an hour of coming together in a supportive, peaceful and nurturing space where she will provide opportunities for guided meditation and a deepening understanding of the practice of mindfulness for improving emotional well-being.
A counsellor and educator by trade, Julie is passionate about the role of meditation and facilitates beginner’s mindfulness classes both on the Sunshine Coast and online.
“Extensive research has shown that regular meditation practice can significantly benefit our physical and mental wellbeing,” Julie said. “Meditation can help to calm our mind and relieve it from incessant thinking!
“Mindfulness meditation has also been shown to improve our sleep, increase our ability to focus, reduce stress and anxiety, improve our immune system, increase our ability to regulate our emotions and even help us to better tolerate pain.
“I will be providing a peaceful, inclusive and nurturing space, during which I will be gently introducing clients to some simple mindfulness practices, and leading them through guided meditations.
“These guided meditations can be very effective in helping to calm our nervous system when it has been triggered up into the “Fight or Flight” response due to the trauma of a cancer experience or other stressful situations in our lives.
“All are welcome from first time beginners to those who have practiced meditation for some time.”
As a cancer survivor herself, Julie said she was very fortunate to access Bloomhill in 2013 while going through cancer treatment.
“I know first-hand how beneficial it was to be able to spend time in a nurturing, healing environment surrounded by caring staff and volunteers, and supported by others who had been through something similar,” Julie said.
“It means a great deal to me to be able to share with Bloomhill clients some of what I have been fortunate to learn through my studies as well as through my own lived experience.”
Julie is passionate about providing better psycho-social-emotional support for cancer survivors and their families.
“I love sharing the gift of Mindfulness meditation as a way of supporting the healing process,” she said. “Mindfulness also teaches us how to gently turn towards our difficult thoughts and feelings and to accept things as they really are.”
Asked what she was looking forward to about her work at Bloomhill, Julie said she wanted to provide a nurturing space in which cancer survivors can re-connect with themselves as well as others who have been through something similar.
“Clients do not need to bring anything with them to their first session – except their presence,” Julie said. “However, in the cooler weather they are very welcome to bring their own snuggly blanket.”
