Meditation Group

Meditation has been used to reduce the likelihood of depression repeating, strengthen lungs, lift mood, bring calm, improve mood, and more.

Since launching in June 2022 people with lived experience of homelessness, sector volunteers and staff have all met up to meditate together.

This group now runs free-of-charge meditation sessions in the centre of Oxford every Monday evening. Here, you can:

• share hot tea
• get a sense of community
• meet new people
• meditate silently with others for 20-30 minutes

For beginners they offer you guidance on how to begin. There’s also time to ask questions about meditation and find out how to improve.

This group is here for you if:

• you have ever experienced living with no home, or
• you are staff in Oxfordshire’s homeless sector, or
• you volunteer in the sector

They are:

• free to use
• ongoing
• not from a particular religion or tradition
• not-for-profit
• easy to understand

This project is run by volunteers who met through other work in the homeless sector. The volunteers:

• encourage you to take up your own regular meditation practise for your own benefit
• support you doing this as best they can
• seek to inspire you to think in new ways without anyone telling you what to think

Group motto: “It’s your meditation practise. You stay in control. Do what’s best for you.”

You can join any week and drop into, and out of, their sessions as much as you like. They don’t run the ten-week mindfulness course, MBSR or MBCT. No specific training is provided at the sessions. Instead, if you do want something more structured, they have their own material you can follow. This has been put together specifically for this meditation group. It is completely optional, and free. More details on their website.