The Minded Institute

The Minded Institute We are a world leader in yoga therapy, providing research-based professional training. We hope you enjoy learning with us!

The Minded Institute is an international leader in yoga therapy and mind-body training. We wholeheartedly believe that yoga therapy and aligned disciplines can play a vital role in prevention, management, and treatments of various mental and physical long-term conditions. To support this mission we provide expert education to help yoga and health professionals in the service of this goal and work to translate the benefits of yoga therapy to health services. https://themindedinstitute.com/product-category/courses/

All of our courses incorporate a yogic therapeutic perspective, the psychological and physiological understanding of conditions and related yoga practices, up to date research, and guide for best practice - based on years of clinical experience. As the body-brain-mind connection is often crucial in unearthing the benefits of yoga therapy we also like to do a deep dive into neuroscience when appropriate!

We’re excited to be partnering with Menopause in Practice Conference 2026, the UK’s only conference dedicated to support...
09/01/2026

We’re excited to be partnering with Menopause in Practice Conference 2026, the UK’s only conference dedicated to supporting healthcare professionals as menopause first responders.

Now in its fourth year, this multidisciplinary event brings together leading experts in women’s health for a full day of evidence-informed learning, clinical insight, and professional connection, with up to 25 CPD hours available.

Designed for healthcare professionals working across primary care, women’s health, integrative and allied health settings, the conference is available in person in London or online, making it accessible wherever you’re based.

📅 Friday 6 February 2026
🎟 Use code MINDED10 for 10% off
🔗 Link in first comment
📍 London & online

Therapeutic work isn’t always steady. Even during breath, movement, or awareness, familiar patterns like avoidance, self...
09/01/2026

Therapeutic work isn’t always steady. Even during breath, movement, or awareness, familiar patterns like avoidance, self-criticism, or overwhelm can interrupt the process.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) offers a way of understanding and working with these moments. As a mindfulness-based psychological approach, ACT supports presence, psychological flexibility, and values-led change.

In this online seminar, Deidre Dee Opp explores how ACT can be woven into yoga therapy to deepen therapeutic work, while remaining grounded in embodied practice rather than technique-driven intervention.

🗓 Tuesday 3 March 2026
🕡 6.30–8.00pm (UK time)
💻 Live online | Recording available

🔗 Link in first comment






Healthcare is changing. Chronic pain, trauma, mental health conditions, and stress-related illness now shape much of cli...
08/01/2026

Healthcare is changing. Chronic pain, trauma, mental health conditions, and stress-related illness now shape much of clinical work, raising important questions about how care is delivered and supported.

Yoga therapy is increasingly being explored within this landscape as a complementary, evidence-informed approach that works alongside healthcare, rather than outside it. But integration has not been simple or uniform.

In this online seminar, Heather Mason, founder of The Minded Institute, explores how yoga therapy has developed, professionalised, and begun to integrate into modern healthcare, and what is needed for that integration to deepen responsibly.

🗓 Tuesday 13 January 2026
🕡 6.30–8.15pm (UK time)
💻 Live online | Recording available

Link in first comment






What Every Yoga Professional Should Know About TraumaThe words trauma and PTSD are often used interchangeably. They are ...
07/01/2026

What Every Yoga Professional Should Know About Trauma

The words trauma and PTSD are often used interchangeably. They are not the same thing, and the difference shapes how we work.

Short trainings have value and limits. A weekend offers useful skills. But it does not prepare you to ground someone who has left the room while still sitting in front of you.

Voice matters. Affective prosody (tone, pitch, rhythm) is processed before language. Your voice is a regulatory signal. Steady and warm supports regulation. Rushed or high-pitched can trigger defence.

Breath is not the starting point. PTSD is distinct from anxiety. Relaxation can destabilise. Grounding comes first. Once there are tools to find safety when overwhelmed, breath can be introduced. It remains one of the most beneficial tools available.

Neutral stimuli may not be perceived neutrally. Someone with PTSD may code a racing heart or tight chest as dangerous when it is simply sensation. Moving from "notice what you feel" to giving clear physiological reasons for how the body might respond, and why, can shift threat salience. A sensation explained is less likely to be read as danger. This can create interest where there was fear.

Watch for readiness, not just distress. If someone closes their eyes for more than a moment, notice it. It can indicate settling, or it can indicate withdrawal. Look for the difference: softening versus disappearing.

Real change is possible, but change doesn't mean becoming someone else. Many people will always carry sensitivity. That is not failure. Accepting that life has shaped you, without apology, is part of the healing.

Read the full piece: themindedinstitute.com/blog

“Enduring patience is the highest austerity.”The Buddha understood that true discipline is not found in physical hardshi...
05/01/2026

“Enduring patience is the highest austerity.”

The Buddha understood that true discipline is not found in physical hardship, but in staying present with the movements of the mind, without numbing, defending, or turning away. This kind of patience asks far more of us than endurance. It asks us to remain steady with irritation, fear, longing, and discomfort, allowing clarity to emerge rather than reaction.

At The Minded Institute, this understanding sits at the heart of our work. We focus on cultivating the capacity to meet experience as it is, so that insight and change arise from awareness rather than force.

Patience reshapes the mind slowly. It widens perspective. It strengthens our ability to respond with care, to ourselves and to others.

Where in your life are you being invited to practise this kind of patience?

01/01/2026

New Year’s Day can arrive quietly, or with a tired body, a foggy head, or a nervous system that needs a little care.

This 10-minute practice offers a slower, more spacious way to support clarity and freshness at the beginning of the year. It unfolds gently, allowing the system time to settle, clear residual tension, and reorganise itself without effort or pressure.

If you are short on time or energy, a 90-second version of this practice is also available. If you have the space today, you may wish to stay with this longer practice and allow its effects to deepen.

As the practice comes to a close, take a moment before moving on. Let the body register what has shifted, and notice how you enter the day from here.

01/01/2026

New Year’s Day can begin in many ways.
Sometimes with clarity and energy. Sometimes a little slower, with a foggy head or a tired nervous system.

This 90-second practice is designed to help you feel fresher and more lucid, gently clearing the residue of the night before and supporting an easier entry into the year ahead.

If you’d like to go more deeply, we’ve also shared a longer 10-minute version of this practice. Take what suits you today.

Notice what shifts.

31/12/2025

New Year’s Eve does not need to be loud or full of resolution.
It can be a moment to pause, breathe, and let the year settle.

This meditation is an invitation to slow down at the turning of the year. To listen inwardly, allow what has been carried to soften, and meet what is coming with steadiness rather than pressure.

If it feels supportive, take this time for yourself.
You are welcome to share what you notice, and how you feel as we move into 2026.

29/12/2025

The Yoga4Health podcast continues with episode two, a timely conversation on how yoga might be meaningfully integrated into primary care.

In this episode, Paul Fox and Heather Mason are joined by GP and yoga teacher Dr Chang Sun Park to explore lifestyle medicine, behaviour change, and the role of yoga at the first point of contact with healthcare in the UK.

If yoga is to play a role in addressing lifestyle related disease, it needs to meet people where they are. For many, that begins in General Practice.

In this short excerpt, Chang reflects on the capacity of yoga to support sustainable behaviour change and healthier ways of living.

🎧 Listen to the full episode via the link in bio.

Huberman’s statement points to something many people overlook. What we call hope is not an abstract quality, but a direc...
29/12/2025

Huberman’s statement points to something many people overlook. What we call hope is not an abstract quality, but a direct reflection of how the brain interprets the possibility of change.

It emerges when our internal landscape shifts enough for us to sense that we are not confined to a single trajectory, that things are not fixed. This shift may be subtle; it often happens in the nervous system long before we consciously recognise it.

As we continue to engage in mind-body practices that create the conditions for flexibility, the system begins to register that another outcome is available, and from one moment to the next the idea that things can be better or different may emerge.

When we have felt hopeless and then notice even the slightest return of hope, we are already experiencing neuroplastic change. The system is responding to what we are doing in our lives, even if the direction of that change is not yet visible.

From this we can recognise that sustained engagement in practice, even when change feels impossible, still creates the conditions in which change begins to occur. We can be hopeful that hope will arise.

Meditation is often presented as a path to change.And it can be.But insight alone is not always transformation.Especiall...
26/12/2025

Meditation is often presented as a path to change.
And it can be.

But insight alone is not always transformation.
Especially when the nervous system remains organised around effort, threat, or survival.

Real change happens when the system itself shifts.
When the body moves into a state of restoration, not through management or control, but through experience.

In the new year, The Minded Institute will be offering monthly spaces to explore this more deeply through guided retreats, alongside reflective writing on the blog.

Sometimes the body needs experience, not explanation.

- Read the blog to explore this further
- Join us in practice through upcoming retreats

Comment below:
What helps your system settle, rather than strive?

Yoga nidra is often translated as yogic sleep, but its relevance to mental healthcare lies in how the practice is struct...
24/12/2025

Yoga nidra is often translated as yogic sleep, but its relevance to mental healthcare lies in how the practice is structured rather than in rest alone.

This carousel outlines the core stages of yoga nidra, from guided attention and the removal of effort, through to breath awareness and visualisation. Each element is deliberately sequenced to support state change, receptivity, and psychological flexibility.

The full blog explores the psychophysiology behind this sequencing, the clinical responsibilities involved when working with altered states, and how yoga therapy training supports safe, ethical application in mental healthcare.

Read more at themindedinstitute.com/blog

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