Navigating Anxiety & Stress Through Mindfulness
Meet anxiety and stress with greater awareness, more kindness and room to respond.
With Andrew Safer
Anxiety can pull us into the future. Stress can keep the body and mind braced for what comes next. A single thought becomes a storyline; the storyline becomes a loop; and before long, we are no longer here.
Navigating Anxiety & Stress Through Mindfulness offers another way of relating to these experiences — not by running away from them or forcing them to disappear, but by learning to meet them with awareness, curiosity and kindness.
Across 12 live sessions, Andrew Safer guides participants through authentic mindfulness practice and practical teaching that can help create a pause, interrupt rumination, recognise habitual patterns and develop a new relationship with thoughts, feelings, fear and everyday stress.
What you will learn
Choose your learning pathway
Navigating Anxiety & Stress Through Mindfulness is available as two individual learning modules, as a complete 12-session journey, or as a complete programme for organisations.
Understanding Anxiety and Cultivating Inner Resources
Begin by understanding how mindfulness can help, turning towards anxiety with curiosity, recognising negativity bias and discovering inner resources that can support everyday life.
- 01 — How Mindfulness Can Help; You Can’t Do It WrongBegin with an accessible introduction to mindfulness and the reassurance that the practice does not require perfection.
- 02 — Getting to Know Anxiety Instead of Running Away From ItExplore what can change when anxiety is approached with awareness rather than immediate avoidance.
- 03 — Negativity Bias; Mindfulness-Awareness PracticeUnderstand the mind’s tendency to notice threat and become familiar with mindfulness-awareness practice.
- 04 — Birthright of Goodness: Discovering Inner ResourcesExplore the inner resources available beneath habitual self-doubt and anxious patterns.
- 05 — The Superpower of KindnessDiscover kindness as a practical capacity for self-regulation and dealing with difficult circumstances.
- 06 — Mindfulness in Everyday LifeBring mindfulness beyond formal practice and into ordinary life.
Meeting Stress, Rumination and Everyday Challenges
Continue looking into the patterns that keep stress moving — automatic pilot, rumination, difficult emotions, fear and digital distraction — while strengthening the capacity to pause and return to presence.
- 07 — Stress: Being Proactive and the Power of PausingExplore how pausing can help you meet stress proactively instead of being carried into automatic reaction.
- 08 — Turning Habits on End: Presence vs. Automatic PilotNotice habitual patterns and returning to what is happening here and now.
- 09 — Interrupting RuminationLearn to recognise repetitive mental loops, know that there is an alternative, and create space around anxious storylines.
- 10 — A New Relationship with Feelings and EmotionsExplore how awareness can change the way you meet difficult feelings and emotions.
- 11 — Fear and FearlessnessExamine fear, what it means to walk through fear, and what fearlessness is.
- 12 — Digital Distraction: Mindfulness Meets the InternetAdapt mindfulness elements to the habits of inattention in digital environments.
Navigating Anxiety & Stress Through Mindfulness — Modules 1 + 2
For those who want to experience the complete journey — from understanding anxiety and cultivating inner resources to meeting stress, rumination, emotions, fear and digital distraction with greater awareness.
- 12 Sessions × 90 mins/session
- 18 hours
- Standard Programme Value: USD 600
Save USD 75 when enrolling in the complete 12-session programme · 12.5% saving
Enrol in the Complete JourneyNavigating Anxiety & Stress Through Mindfulness for Organisations
Support your people in developing a more aware and workable relationship with stress, uncertainty, rumination, emotional experience and digital distraction.
The complete 12-session organisational learning programme brings mindfulness into the realities of contemporary professional life. It can be customised in consultation with your organisation while retaining the core sequence and integrity of Andrew Safer’s programme.
Areas of focus can include:
For organisations with different group sizes, multiple cohorts, organisation-wide delivery or specific customisation requirements, please contact ZEN Institute for a tailored proposal.
Enquire about corporate programmesProgramme outcomes
Previous evaluations offer an indication of how participants have experienced Andrew Safer’s teaching. Results relate to the specific groups and programme deliveries described and do not guarantee individual outcomes.
Anxiety, Stress & Mindfulness
Two 12-week series were delivered from September to December 2019 in partnership with the Canadian Mental Health Association–Newfoundland and Labrador, with funding from the Department of Health and Community Services. 16 participants completed both the pre- and post-programme quantitative evaluations across 17 questions. Selected results included:
- 50% improvement relating to anxious storylines and the ability to pause or interrupt the pattern
- 48% improvement relating to control over thoughts, moods and feelings
- 47% improvement relating to believing one can make a difference in one’s life
Helpfulness Rating
Twenty-two respondents rated how helpful the workshop series had been. Source: Safer Mindfulness, Anxiety, Stress & Mindfulness Outcomes Report, January 7, 2020.
Additional programme evidence
Memorial University Study — 2016
A previous programme evaluation involving 40 participants reported:
Improvement related to getting stuck in anxious storylines without knowing how to pause or interrupt the pattern
Improvement related to repeatedly thinking about things that had already happened
Approximately 40% average improvement related to storylines sustaining everyday stress and pulling participants from the present moment
Participants described the programme as extremely helpful (30%), very helpful (35%) or somewhat helpful (35%). Source: Martha Traverso-Yepez, PhD, and Andrew Safer, "Navigating Anxiety and Stress through Mindfulness", June 2016.
What participants say
"I’ve learned that I can change my relationship to stress."
"It has helped me to understand that anxious thoughts and feelings are fleeting and that being more present in everyday moments helps to slow negative thought patterns down."
"It’s given me the ability to realize when I’m stuck in a spiral of negative thoughts and break the cycle, even if only for a few moments. It’s also made me a lot more patient!"
"I learned that anxiety is not something to run away from but is a temporary thing, which is more to be acknowledged than pushed away."
"I am much more conscious of when my thoughts are not present-focused now, and am able to bring myself back to the present fairly quickly when I notice same, which lessens my anxiety."
Included with your programme
Your learning continues beyond each session. Participants receive:
Programme workbook
A programme workbook to support reflection, practice and application throughout the learning journey.
Anxiety, Stress & Mindfulness: A Do-It-Yourself Guide to Wellness (e-book)
An e-copy of Andrew Safer’s book, Anxiety, Stress & Mindfulness: A Do-It-Yourself Guide to Wellness, to support continued learning and mindfulness practice during and beyond the programme.
Integration takes place throughout the programme as participants learn to bring mindfulness into everyday life and apply it when meeting anxiety, stress, habitual patterns, rumination, emotions, fear and digital distraction.
Certificate of Completion
Recognising Your Learning Journey. Participants who successfully complete the programme will receive a ZEN Institute Certificate of Completion recognising the learning pathway completed with Andrew Safer.
- Navigating Anxiety & Stress Through Mindfulness — Module 16 Sessions
- Navigating Anxiety & Stress Through Mindfulness — Module 26 Sessions
- Navigating Anxiety & Stress Through Mindfulness — Complete JourneyModules 1 + 2 · 12 Sessions
- Navigating Anxiety & Stress Through Mindfulness for Organisations — Complete Programme12 Sessions
Certificates recognise programme completion and do not constitute professional accreditation or certification as a mindfulness teacher or trainer.
Course schedule
Choose the course timing that suits you.
Course Timings
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Meet Your Faculty
Andrew Safer
Andrew Safer has been practising mindfulness for more than five decades and has devoted many years to bringing mindfulness into everyday life, professional environments and programmes focused on mental well-being.
He is the author of Anxiety, Stress & Mindfulness: A Do-It-Yourself Guide to Wellness and Mindfulness in the Workplace: Cultivating Well-Being at Work. His teaching brings together long-standing personal practice with practical applications for contemporary life.
Not by fighting every thought or feeling. But by learning to pause, becoming aware and relating with a fresh mind to whatever arises.
Navigating Anxiety & Stress Through Mindfulness with Andrew Safer
Important note: This programme offers mindfulness education and practice. It is not a diagnostic service, a treatment or cure, or a substitute for medical, psychological or other professional mental-health care. If you are experiencing significant distress, please seek support from an appropriately qualified professional.