A MEDITATION centre in Northwich is running a workshop to help people struggling with these difficult times.

Odiyana Kadampa Meditation Centre is running an online half-day workshop next month looking at how to begin developing deep inner peace.

Julie Forrest, education programme coordinator for the centre, said: “We live in difficult times. If we look back on the past few years we have had the threat of terrorist attacks, floods, Brexit, COVID-19 and now a combination of all these things.

“One of the biggest things we face is uncertainty. We can’t guarantee anything anymore.”

But while this sounds bleak, Julie and the team at the centre say there are steps people can take to improve things, which will be the focus of the workshop at 10am on Saturday, March 27.

She said: “At present, we try to protect ourselves from stress and anxiety with entertainments. Unfortunately, these entertainments don’t improve our mental resilience or our ability to deal with stress. They just provide a timely distraction or a little relief. Also, with these lockdowns, many of these distractions are not available.

“What we really need is something that gives us this relief, makes our mind stronger and more able to deal with difficulties, and that cannot be taken away from us by lockdown restrictions.”

“If we train in inner peace and gradually deepen this peace over time we will develop this mental resilience as this peace becomes more and more stable changing external conditions will start to have less power to knock us off balance until finally we will be able to remain peaceful even in the most challenging situations.

“This is what Buddha taught 2,600 years ago. It was relevant then and is even more relevant now in this modern world.”

The workshop costs £10 to attend and can be booked by visiting www.meditationincheshire.org