LOTTERY CASH WIN SPURS REVOLUTIONARY 'MINDFUL HOBBIES' HEALTH INITIATIVE ACROSS SCOTTISH BORDERS

Peer 2 Peer Mindfulness, a grassroots mental health charity, has secured a major £66,614 grant award from The National Lottery Community Fund (TNLCF).

The funding will launch ‘Bringing Mindfulness to Life’ (BMTL), a two-year project transforming traditional mental health support by weaving research-proven mindfulness stress-reduction skills directly into everyday hobbies and creative activities across Scottish Borders towns.

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The windfall directly complements a separate £19,868 award from the Scottish Government’s Communities Mental Health & Wellbeing Fund (CMH&WBF), administered locally by Borders Community Action (BCA).

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​Together with a £2,000 training grant from the Hart Knowe Trust, the combined funding injects over £88,000 into early intervention mental health provision across the region.

Instead of traditional, seated meditation courses that can sometimes feel intimidating or clinical, the Bringing Mindfulness To Life initiative takes mindfulness ‘off the cushion’. Over the next two years, a network of peer volunteers will deliver 90 free-of-charge, informal hobby activity sessions.

Participants in the BMTL events can learn essential emotional resilience and stress-regulation techniques while actively engaging in hobbies locally, including mindful baking, bird-watching, gardening, pottery, painting, singing, stargazing, and wood-working, among others.

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All project volunteers are local graduates of the in-depth 8-week Mindfulness Based Living Course (MBLC) who have enhanced their own mental wellbeing through learning mindfulness. They have gained their specialised mindfulness facilitation and safeguarding skills through the charity's newly developed ‘Mindfully Sharing Treasure Course’ (MSTC), funded by the Hart Knowe Trust.

Brian Turnbull, CEO of Peer 2 Peer Mindfulness, said: > "We are incredibly grateful to National Lottery players and our funding partners. This support enables us to meet a massive surge in community need. Our MBLC graduates told us directly that, out of joy and gratitude, they wanted to share with others the life-changing benefits they had gained from mindfulness. By blending mindfulness into cherished hobbies, we open a new door of access to mindfulness for the wellbeing of people in the Scottish Borders. It creates a ‘compassion multiplier' effect right where people live, work, and gather."

During the ongoing cost of living pressures, the funding will ensure that anyone, regardless of their financial circumstances, rural location, or health difficulties can participate. In this way the project will allow more Scottish Borders people than ever before to gain the valuable well-being and mental health benefits that the ‘Bringing Mindfulness to Life’ sessions will provide through engagement with their favourite hobbies.

Neal Bennison, Funding Officer of The National Lottery Community Fund, said: > “We were pleased to invest in this innovative project delivering group wellbeing activities as a gentle introduction to mindfulness and self-care. The project will help people cope with the stresses and strains of everyday life and prevent isolation.”

By connecting mindfulness skills learning through enjoyable hobbies, the sessions offer an accessible gateway to enhanced mental well-being for up to 900 participants who may not otherwise commit to formal 8-week courses.

The Bringing Mindfulness to Life project operations will scale up rapidly with the recruitment of a paid BMTL project manager, administrator, and marketing support officer.

Follow Peer 2 Peer Mindfulness on social media for more news about this innovative and exciting mental wellbeing project.

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