The Calm Café

In this hectic, noisy world, how do you create daily space to care for yourself and refresh your energy?

Too often, we take a break but we're still caught in the momentum of our day. We worry, we scroll, we feel overwhelmed or irritated - and we continue depleting our energy.

It doesn't have to be this way. Even a small break can be a haven for you: supportive, nourishing, restful.

In this course you'll establish your own intention for your wellbeing.

You'll find a selection of ten practices to calm your mind and warm your heart. You will create a space that's unique to you, to:

-re-set your mood
-learn the joy of monotasking and how it protects your energy
-release the past, letting go of a difficult morning
-establish yourself in this moment, so that a looming To Do list doesn't sabotage your roundedness
-nourish a sense of joy
-take care of anxiety or anger
-explore deep relaxation to release built-up tension and stress
-take great care of your precious self - for life!

If you've got ten minutes, you have time for this.

So get yourself a cuppa, pull up a chair and create a space of deep ease for yourself.

Leçon 1: Welcome to The Calm Café

Dive straight in to explore the essential ingredients of mindfulness for yourself: a) prioritizing your body b) generating unconditional kindness for you and c) taking time for reflection

You'll also take a quick tour of the course and its core themes.

Leçon 2: The Sanctuary is You

Learn to come home to your body and establish your solid, kind presence. Your mind is the greatest time-traveller but your body is always here for you, so it's a great anchor for your attention and focus.

Leçon 3: Establishing Kindness

Practice cultivating unconditional kindness towards yourself, so that you can enjoy learning. Mindfulness shines a light on the parts of us that we ignore, dislike or are ashamed of. We practice 'heartfulness' to strengthen our heart so that we can take really good care of ourselves in any situation.

Leçon 4: Clarity in this Moment

Your thoughts are very real, but not necessarily true. In this lesson, you learn to notice your thoughts and feelings (for better or worse). You train yourself to notice your thoughts and learn not to believe everything you think.

Leçon 5: An Ocean Break

In this lesson you explore ways to release tension in your body. Learning to listen inwards for what you need right now, you develop a care response to help offer the perfect care for yourself.

Leçon 6: Monotasking part one (with food or drink)

In this session we are going to practice the art of monotasking!
Usually, we are paying partial attention to several things - this squanders our energy and weakens our presence.
By monotasking, we protect our energy and establish a quality of presence. Drinking or eating are already part of our day, so nothing outside needs to change. By cultivating our attention, we can experience our food more deeply and can truly savour this moment of nourishment. So make yourself some tea or get your lunch and we'll explore this together!

Leçon 7: Monotasking part two (walking)

In today's class we continue monotasking. We're going to re-learn to walk!
Walking is a great 'invisible' practice like eating, which can nourish us several times during our day. Walking meditation is particularly useful when we're feeling strong emotions like anger or anxiety. Together we bring a fresh energy to our steps so that we can walk in true freedom.

Leçon 8: Reset your State part one (teaching)

In this lesson we learn to unhook ourselves from a difficult or tiring experience. We don't need to let a bad experience become a bad day. By doing this, we strengthen our capacity to let ourselves begin anew in this fresh moment.

Leçon 9: Reset Your State (part two - practice)

This gentle practice helps us to explore our fundamental mammalian needs for shelter, warmth, water, food and safety. Each time we do this practice, we are strengthening our ability to naturally feel supported, safe and grateful. Over time we deepen this awareness and we become less reactive.

Leçon 10: Deep presence

In this session we practice to establish a deep, stable presence so we can be less hooked by anxiety and anticipation. We use a short excerpt from Howard Thurman's 'Deep is the Hunger': "I abandon all that I think I am, All that I hope to be, All that I believe I possess. I let go of the past, I release my grasping hands from the future, and in the great silence of this moment, I alertly rest my soul."

Leçon 11: Trusting in Your Goodness

In this session we practice trusting in our own goodness. The ability to generate a feeling of appreciation for ourselves means that we can be a good ally and our own best friend. By taking care of you, you are already taking care of everyone else in your life. It all starts with you.

Leçon 12: Wider Goodness

In this session we practice widening our perspective to be aware of the many conditions of support in our life.

Leçon 13: Beyond The Calm Café

Where do we go from here? In this short lesson, we'll explore tips for embedding a sustainable practice to support you through your life.

Reviews

These past 13 days have been nothing short of magical. This course opened doors to new ways of seeing, feeling, and creating. Each moment was filled with inspiration, depth, and gentle transformation.

Ola guided us with such grace and intuition, leading us beyond what words can express, beyond what I ever thought possible.

I am deeply grateful for this journey, for the light it brought, and for the beautiful souls who shared it. My heart is full.

Thank you for this truly extraordinary experience 🙏🙏🙏

I loved this course! Simple steps and reminders of returning ourselves to the present moment!

This was a wonderful series. Just the right balance of instruction and practice. Thank you.

I really enjoyed this course. Filled with bite-sized lessons presented in a very loving & encouraging manner. I will try to incorporate these ideas in my daily life. Thank you so much Orla.

This course is amazing. It is filled with so many wonderful ways & ideas to be mindful in our every day life. I found myself looking forward to hearing Orlaith’s voice - it was a perfect way to begin my day. Thank you.

Timely and wonderful practices that helped me to remember the little things and how significant they are when you put them together in the big picture. I look forward to listening to this course again and taking even more notes and engaging in these practices thank you so much.

Really good, and very thorough course. I really enjoyed it❤️

Fabulous course! Easy to follow, practical tips, joyful delivery. Highly recommend for anyone looking for a mindful pause at any time.

A wonderful daily ritual. I especially appreciated Day 12’s practice reflecting on all the goodness in our life; invaluable during a difficult time. Thank you!

I actually laughed during the session that talked about getting angry at yourself. I have been doing that often and I have a different view on it now. Thank you so much for this course.

I love her voice very calm experience I always have a great time listening to this because it makes me feel so relaxed and calms my anxious mind and reeling thoughts

Thank you for a wonderful course! I enjoyed it very much and learned a lot!

Orlaith’s class was amazing she really helped me learn techniques of self love and kindness. I will use the calm cafe as a anchor by having a wonderful cup of tea while mono tasking after a long day of work 😀. Thank you so much for all these amazing lessons that I can take with me as a I have a short break at work.

I've done many courses on InsightTimer but this is a great refresher for mindfulness that I will come back to again. I felt like I was having a chat with a wise friend - it was full of valuable nuggets in an a gentle, accessible approach. With an lovely Irish accent that was soothing as well.

I really enjoyed the course, thank you for sharing your wisdom 🙏

Lots of good practical advice and exercises that you can use in daily life.

This is a wonderful and heart warming course. I found some really useful tools for every day life. Thank you, Orlaith!