Mindfulness

Le Riboudin was established as a centre for Mindfulness in response to the growing wave of anxiety and depression we saw around us.  Having battled work-related stress and clinical depression in our own lives, we found Mindfulness as a clinical tool for the treatment of anxiety and depression in 2013.  After studying the works of Jon Kabat-Zinn, Mark Williams and the Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh, we realised that this was a path that we had to follow in order to escape the cycle of depression and medication that so many people fall into.

Throughout 2014 and 2015 we developed our practise quietly, and found great benefits.  It was not a simple journey, we fell often and frustration was a common emotion, but we continued as best we could with meditation and study.  From mid-2015 we began talking of our experiences with our friends and family, and it soon became apparent that our struggle was a common one.  It was like releasing the cork in a bottle of something fizzy, because as soon as we touched on the taboo subject of mental health from our experience, we found so many of our near ones who were bottling up the same problems.

We are not cured, nor are we experts, but we felt that we could offer a safe haven for others in our home in Normandy, so we decided to change our pace of life and open Le Riboudin as a centre for Mindfulness.