Local monk, meditation teacher, and Armed Forces mental skills trainer Arjuna Ishaya has just announced that he is looking for 8-10 male outdoor aficionados to test a revolutionary new meditation based “mental fitness” programme to be held in central Darlington over five weeks beginning early August.
In exchange for these volunteers’ time, effort and feedback, he is offering over £400 worth of training and coaching over the five week period completely free of charge.
The “Mountain Mindset” programme promises to bring about huge changes in performance and enjoyment levels for these men in their outdoor pursuits as well as in general life.
Arjuna says:
“This is a fantastic opportunity for local men who are serious about making the most of their time in the outdoors to gain some potentially life changing skills - such as the ability to choose to be in the “Zone” at will.
“Your state of mind changes everything. But in the outdoors, and sports in general, mental skills - for example to ignore self-doubt and pressure to remain calm and focussed - are rarely taught in a structured way unless at an elite level. Even rarer is the application of something like meditation to such a practical and observable purpose.
“I designed the Mountain Mindset programme in order to prove the value of meditation and mindset skills to “real” men’s lives. Having taught sections of the British Armed Forces meditation and yoga I know from experience what a barrier the perception of meditation is, but the reality is something else that men in particular are only just catching onto.
“I’ve taught thousands of people to meditate over the last 13 years but chose to run this initial trial with men because I want to demonstrate beyond a doubt the overwhelmingly practical benefits of these skills to even the potentially most sceptical.
“The trial programme might be free, but the volunteers will be expected to pay their way in effort and attitude. The return is that I guarantee participation will crank up the volunteers’ mental game a considerable and noticeable notch or two over the five week period of the trial, and even more if they continue to practice what I teach.
“By precisely following my simple instructions I can also guarantee that at the end of the trial they will notice such changes in their daily levels of calm, clarity and happiness they won’t want to stop their mental fitness training.
“I’m excited about the trial. The lucky volunteers will be blown away by the results that they get and I also plan to use the data gathered from the programme to feature in an upcoming book.
Prospective volunteers can get more information and apply here:
https://arjunaishaya.leadpages.co/outdoors/
Further Background Information:
Arjuna has been based in Richmond since 2008. He became an Ishaya monk and started teaching meditation in 2003 after observing the power of the mind over himself, his fellow outdoor enthusiasts, as well as his clients as an outdoor instructor in the mountains of the South Island of New Zealand:
“Fear and self-doubt stops everyone at some stage. I’ve seen it in the outdoors because you’re sometimes faced with very real danger. But mostly the challenge of a situation is less real than the mind's perception of it - the result of which is overload, stress and poor performance. You see it in business, in relationships, in raising your kids, you see it in every aspect of life.
“Equally all outdoor people know particularly well that heightened “Zone” state of awareness where you thrive on the challenge: presence, clarity, confidence, enjoyment and skill are all enhanced, sometimes hugely. The only problem is that very few people know how to choose to be in this Zone state at will.
“This Mountain Mindset programme - of which anyone can learn - is about switching off from the negative tendencies of the mind and learning to engage with this Zone state more and more deeply. It’s an extremely practical and simple set of tools for anyone who is interested in not only performing better, but living a much better quality of life.
Ishaya monks are known for their practical, pragmatic and fuss free approach to meditation.