About Estia Wellspace
In the spirit of our namesake (Estia has 3 meanings in ancient Greek, "home'/'household', 'hearth', and 'being'), our mission is to offer a home for total wellbeing to the community of Oxford. With many different holistic classes - from mindfulness meditation to yoga and pilates, personal wellness coaching, and other healing arts - we aim to bring people together to explore the limits of their bodies, clear their minds, nourish their hearts, and discover how to live at their best. Our approach is based on research and experience of over 20 years in the field of mindfulness and wellbeing. Estia is our solution to a holistic, intelligent approach to human flourishing.
Our unique approach:
Wellness of Mind Body Heart
We use the World Health Organisations definition of wellbeing- a state of mental, physical, and social/emotional health- and have categorised our programmes by mind, body, and heart. Human beings seem to function at our best when these three are healthy and integrated.
Mind- Evidence-based practices which train core capacities of mind from clarity to focus, stability, creativity, resilience, and agility.
Body- A range of practices with different themes- building strength or flexibility, finding proper alignment, releasing tension and relaxing, to getting good sleep, eating well and balancing the digestive system.
Heart- Practices to cultivate joy, balance the emotions, reduce anxiety and depression, have healthy relationships, explore the outdoors, be artistic and creative, and socialise.
Personalised
Wellbeing isn't one-size fits all. We have a range of classes, teachers, and styles, and offer coaching to help you find your individual recipe for a good life with a mix of different classes and workshops. We even offer a lifestyle assessment through medical-grade heart rate variability monitoring to assess key indicators of your stress levels, recovery periods, fitness, and sleep.
Science-based
We bring together wisdom from ancient mindfulness traditions with modern insights from the latest wellbeing research including: neuroscience, psychology, nutrition, and medicine. We also offer devices and programmes to do your own research, test your wellbeing levels, and track improvements.
Excellence and Embodiment
From our choice of furnishings, to our offerings, and teachers- we aim for the highest standard. Our space is intended to embody mindfulness- we have sourced as much as possible from local artists and artisans -from our plants to our handmade tea cups and furniture- and have used only the highest quality materials to create an elegant space that evokes mindfulness and encourages wellness. We have selected Oxford's most experienced teachers who are leaders in their field and have dedicated their lives to practice so that their teaching is informed by deep personal experience. Our senior teachers have 10,000+ hours of personal practice, embody what they teach, and are teacher trainers globally.
Social
We're coining the term 'Social Mindfulness'. There is something the mindfulness movement has missed- it is not a practice to do at home alone on an app (a difficult practice to establish) - rather it is a social practice. If you look at the history of mindfulness traditions over thousands of years in different cultures it has always been guided by experienced teachers in a social context and conducive environment. Even the advanced wild yogis meditating alone in caves first learned the practices with community. This makes sense- we are social creatures and learn in social environments. It's also difficult to learn and to sustain mindfulness in our busy, fast-paced world where we have a million other things to do and can't seem to find the time or space. So let's do it together!
