Articles and blog posts written by team members, tutors and supervisors of the Mindfulness Association about how they bring mindfulness into their lives.
I was taught this model many times over the years by Rob Nairn and have taught the model myself many times, as well as writing about it. Rob developed this model from the Tibetan Buddhist Mahamudra tradition, making it accessible to non-Buddhists. It is an important model for both our Level 1 mindfulness and Level…
“Mindfulness is knowing what is happening, when it is happening, without preference.” I originally heard this sentence when I was taught for the first time by Rob Nairn. At the time I was new to the world of mindfulness and did not really know who Rob was. However, in the coming years, his teachings, and…
Introduction: Mindfulness in Real Life Mindfulness is the practice of being fully present, aware of our thoughts, feelings, and surroundings, without judgment. At the Mindfulness Association, we understand it not as a distant ideal or a productivity tool, but as a lived experience – a way of relating to yourself and the world with curiosity,…
How is it that we can experience joy and heartbreak at the same time. How can we navigate that space so as not to drown in the heartbreak? We live in a world that can sometimes feel overwhelming with challenges and pain, it’s easy to feel helpless when the difficulty seems too great. The difficulty…
I first came across the seven points of mind training when I started working with Pema Chodon’s book ‘Start Where You Are’, the accompanying Lojong phrases and tonglen practice, back in 2003. It has always struck me as a practical and common-sense approach for generating compassion and awareness in our modern times. The…
I have been practicing compassion meditation now for over twenty years…..and it has been transformative. When I started my journey, I was highly self-critical and believed in personal blame….generally my own. I remember going to a weekend of compassion focussed therapy in Derby with Prof. Paul Gilbert towards the start of my journey. This is…
Sometimes in an inquiry with a participant, the air becomes electric. It’s like they are standing at the edge of a cliff about to spread wings they didn’t know they had, in order to fly into the horizon of a new possibility. The exhilaration of inner discovery has completely captured all of us in the…
There are different levels of anxiety that might be experienced in meditation practice. Anxiety might arise in relation to a worry or concern about something happening in our life. Maybe an upcoming house move or a job interview. It might also arise because we have a strong habit of anxiety, which we have cultivated over…
Have you ever wished you could be transported to a peaceful desert island—somewhere quiet enough to finally hear yourself think? Or arrived at a familiar, beloved place, like a treasured holiday spot or a retreat centre, and felt your body soften the moment you got there? Where we are matters. Environments profoundly shape how we feel…