The sessions, provided by Daniel Rutter from Step into Your Greatness, are actionable and practical aimed at staff and students looking to achieve the following positive outcomes including:

• Understanding how to manage stress and boost resilience with the aid of mindfulness/meditation
• Making meditation a daily habit to prioritise your health and happiness
• Better manage stress and anxiety by focusing on each task moment to moment
• Learning how to master concentration with the aid of meditation
• Developing the fundamentals of mindfulness and meditation with guided meditations
• Unlocking a further sense of calm, joy and fulfilment
• Discovering how you can increase their performance with mindfulness accessing 'flow'

These sessions are suitable for beginners and those with more experience with practising mindfulness. You will be provided with additional daily/weekly meditation resources to use outside of the sessions if you wish to use them. 

Yoga sessions are led by Arlene, one of the yoga instructors from Essex Sport. 

The sessions will begin with breathing techniques to allow the mind to settle and the muscles to relax and lengthen. The focus will be to gain strength, balance and flexibility, targeting the neck, shoulders, hip flexors, hamstrings and working the posterior oblique sling. Options will be given for beginners and more advanced practitioners.

For this class, please ensure you wear comfortable clothing and conduct this in an open space suitable to conduct stretches. We recommend you use a yoga mat - if attending on campus we will provide some for you to use.

The session is delivered by a qualified Nordic Walking Instructor and is a low impact walking exercise that involves the use of walking poles. Along with getting your heart rate up, Nordic walking is a full-body exercise that uses special poles to activate your upper body as you walk and great workout for those who have joint issues such as arthritis.

These sessions are aimed at all abilities, and you will be taught the correct technique before setting off and enjoying the scenery around campus.

Walking poles will be provided but you should ensure you wear comfortable clothing and suitable walking shoes or trainers. Please ensure you have filled out a Health Declaration and bring it with you to your first session.

Staff can book in via HR Organiser, students please email ohquery@essex.ac.uk.

Sessions are currently limited to 8 people due to availability of poles. If you have your own poles, you are not required to book through HR Organiser, but please let us know you will be attending via email.