Resting in Awareness
A meditation by Dean Francis
We are Dean and Aesha Francis, Mindfulness practitioners and teachers/facilitators in the
process of completing our MSc Studies in Mindfulness with the University of Aberdeen.
We are Co-founders of the Urban Mindfulness Foundation C.I.C, located in the diverse
London Borough of Newham where we facilitate fortnightly mindfulness drop in sessions on
a donation basis and run mindfulness and compassion courses amongst a growing diverse
and dedicated team, with social inclusion at the heart of what we do for the pluralistic world
of the 21 st Century!
We are married, with two children, one teenager, one ‘preenager’ and a dog to keep us on
our toes and we are passionate about living life fully.
We too are passionate about inclusion and welcome people from all walks of life to practise
Mindfulness within a Community of Practice framework. By exploring critical thinking and
developing a personal mindfulness practice that supports everyday living, participants are
encouraged to step out of their comfort zones so that they can build the capacity to get
comfortable with being uncomfortable and meet challenges that can show up in the everyday world.
Much of our training pathway has been with the Mindfulness Association, with whom we
have trained to deliver the Mindfulness Based Living Course (MBLC) and have also taken
internship with. Recently we were invited by the Mindfulness Association to facilitate a
session for MSc level year 1 and year 2 students and teachers from the University of
Aberdeen to experientially explore a social based mindfulness programme that we are
building to understand mechanisms and processes of separation that occurs in society and
how understanding qualities such as equality, diversity and inclusion (E.D.I) can help to
overcome social suffering.
The programme we are developing is called Mindfulness Based Inclusion and
Interconnection Training M.B.I.T and has been built in response to our own experiences as
part of the BAME community to understand how social conditioning can create social
separation and suffering. Through the programme we explore how we can utilise individual
and collective agency through mindfulness and compassion for social change to occur.
We hope our contributions are practical and useful in these times of challenge and
uncertainty. Please feel free to get in touch at any time if you have any questions or are
interested in joining a practice session or course.
Take care, receive care and give care,
Aesha and Dean