All Courses & Retreats - Compassion Based Mindfulness - Mindfulness Association

The Seven Points of Mind Training

Helen — Wed, 29 Oct 2025 19:00:00 +0000

Tutors: Choden and Heather Regan-Addis

Dates: 29th October 2025 – 16th September 2026

Price: £330.00, payable in two monthly instalments of £165.00.

Times: Wednesday evenings from 19.00-21.00pm. The dates are the 29th October, 12th November, 17th December 2025, 21st January, 11th February, 11th March, 29th April, 27th May, 17th June, 15th July, 19th August and 16th September 2026.

Booking: contact info@mindfulnessassociation.net

Location: Online via Zoom

This course will explore the Seven Points of Mind Training (called Lojong in Tibetan) in a pragmatic step by step way. Lojong is a profound and famous text from Tibetan Buddhism that lays out specific guidelines for how to apply wisdom and compassion in our meditation practice and daily lives. It is characterised by pithy slogans for relating proactively to everyday issues and difficulties and seeing them as the fertile ground for living a wise and compassionate life.

It is based on the principle of regarding life obstacles and difficulties as the basis for deepening our awareness and strengthening our compassion rather than them being issues that drag us down. The well-known practice called Tonglen (taking and sending) comes from the Seven Points of Mind Training.

In the words of the Dalai Lama, “Lojong teaches us how to regard others with the dignity and care that they deserve, and also how to transcend the limitations of conventional ego-grasping.”

It challenges our default setting of ‘me’ and ‘mine’ – our ingrained egocentricity – by encouraging us to expand our hearts to include the pain and struggles of other living beings and see them as being just like our own. This is the basis for sacred outlook – seeing our life as an integral part of the rich fabric of life on this planet, rather than something separate and distinct.

During the course we will cover these key themes:

Explain each of the 7 Points in an experiential and pragmatic way

Explore the meaning of bodhicitta (awakening mind)

Explain the principle of relative and ultimate truth and how Lojong deepens our compassion at the relative level and awakens our wisdom at the ultimate level.

Apply awareness and compassion to the detail of our everyday lives through the pith instructions of Lojong.

Explore tonglen practice in the context of the Lojong teachings

This course will be taught in the experiential style of the Mindfulness Association that draws on wisdom traditions like Tibetan Buddhism but does not require adherence to any faith or religious tradition.

Choden and Heather will lead monthly online evening sessions and provide home practice guidelines between sessions including reading materials and guided audios of the practices.

We hope that you will join us on this one-year journey of mind training. This training is suitable for anyone who has trained in mindfulness meditation.

Mindfulness Level 1 – Spring Intake

Helen — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 19:00:00 +0100

This is the introduction to our Level 1: Being Present Mindfulness Training taught on a Monday evening. It can be taken in isolation as a retreat or a refresher for those already with a Mindfulness practice or is a perfect way to begin a Mindfulness journey. After the first part you can choose to continue to complete the course over a further three parts.

Tutor: Alan Hughes

Dates on a Monday evening:

Part 1- 4th May, 11th May, 18th May, 25th May and 1st June 2026

Part 2- 15th June, 22nd June, 29th June, 6th July and 13th July 2026

Part 3- 27th July, 3rd August, 10th August, 17th August and 25th August 2026

Part 4- 7th September, 14th September, 21st September, 28th September and 5th October 2026

Price: Part 1 = £185.00 Parts 2 – 4 £555.00 = 6 monthly payments x £92.50

Times: 19.00pm-21.00pm

Booking: To book the first part of this Monday evening course please click the booking link. You will be contacted after attending the first part to book the following three parts, these can be paid for in six monthly instalments of £92.50.

Location: Online via Zoom

If you are making up for missed weekends, please email info@mindfulnessassociation.net to sign up.

Find out more about this course here.

Research

We are delighted to announce that a large scale, long term research study is about to start in relation to our Four Level Pathway. This research is led by Dr Oleg Medvedev (link: https://profiles.waikato.ac.nz/oleg.medvedev) and Katya Gus of Waikato University in New Zealand.

As a participant in this course you will be invited, with no obligation to do so, to take part in this research. Find out more here.

We are very excited to be developing a strong evidence base and hope that you will be willing to support us in this.

Living Mindfully – An Online Course

Jacky Seery — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0100

A warm welcome to the Mindfulness Association’s Living Mindfully course.

Each week for 10 weeks, we will send you an email that includes video and audio practices taken from our Level 1 course – Being Present. In addition, you will also get free 6 months access to our membership. The course information and booking link are below.

If you have any questions then please email us at info@mindfulnessassociation.net

If you can’t make it to one of our tutor-led courses or want to practice from the comfort of your own home then our online living Mindfully course is a great starting point.

Come practice with us!

Weekly Topics

What is Mindfulness?

We start with looking at What Mindfulness is and our present moment experience.

Automatic Pilot

We look at automatic pilot and our settling the mind practice.

Daily Tips

Daily tips and mindful eating practice.

Kindness in Daily Life

Happiness and wellbeing for ourselves and others.

Automatic Pilot Continued

We continue to look at our automatic pilot and a 3 monute breating space practice.

Attitude

The attitude we bring to our Mindfulness practice is one of kindly curiosity and self-acceptance regardless of what is happening in the moment.

Grounding

Grounding practice establishes a sense of being embodied, which means having a sense of being present within the body.

Mindful Walking

Tutor led videos on Mindful Walking Practices.

Daily Tips

We look at grounding tips that we can use in our daily life.

Kindness to Ourselevs

Looking at Kindness to our bodies and minds.

The Importance of Self Kindness

Tutor led videos on the importance of being kind to ourselves

Daily Tips

Tips for smiling more in our daily lives.

Putting It All Together

We put into practice what we have learned and also cover key elements of our practice, such as, intention and motivation, posture and support. We also include links to audio files of our practices.

Settling Ground Resting

Practices with sound and breath support.

Self Compassion

Mindful Compassion: How the Science of Compassion Can Help You Understand Your Emotions, Live in the Present, and Connect Deeply with Others.

Self Compassion Break

A guided practice on a self compassion break

Distraction

We familiarise ourselves with the biggest challenge to mindfulness – distraction.

Partial and Complete Distraction

A significant part of our mindfulness training consists in recognising distraction and learning to let it go and return to the support.

Compassion

We look at different types of emotional regulation systems and Mindfulness Association patron, Professor Paul Gilbert talks more about the compassionate mind and evolutionary psychology.

Life Values

An exploration of our life values

Increasing Awareness of Pleasant Events

We practice attending to pleasant events in our daily life.

Nourishing and Depleting Activities (adapted from MBCT)

We look at our norishing and depleting actiivities. How can we develop strategies to reduce or change the way we engage in depleting activities and schedule more nourishing activities.

A Mindful Life

Practice for the rest of your Life

Increasing Awareness of Pleasant Events

We practice attending to pleasant events in our daily life.

Nourishing and Depleting Activities (adapted from MBCT)

We look at our norishing and depleting actiivities. How can we develop strategies to reduce or change the way we engage in depleting activities and schedule more nourishing activities.

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Introduction to Mindfulness – Online Email Course

Jacky Seery — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0100

A warm welcome to the Mindfulness Association’s FREE Online Introduction to Mindfulness course.

This is a great opportunity to find out a little about Mindfulness without any commitment, in the comfort of your own home, at your own pace, in your own time.

Each week for 4 weeks, we will send you an email that includes video and audio practices taken from our Level 1 course – Being Present. The course information is below. Please click the booking button and we will send you the first week’s course!

If you have any questions then please email us at info@mindfulnessassociation.net

We hope you enjoy the course.

Come practice with us!

Weekly Topics

What is Mindfulness?

We start with looking at What Mindfulness is and our present moment experience.

Automatic Pilot

We look at automatic pilot and our settling the mind practice.

Daily Tips

Daily tips and mindful eating practice.

Kindness in Daily Life

Happiness and wellbeing for ourselves and others.

Automatic Pilot Continued

We continue to look at our automatic pilot and a 3 monute breating space practice.

Attitude

The attitude we bring to our Mindfulness practice is one of kindly curiosity and self-acceptance regardless of what is happening in the moment.

Grounding

Grounding practice establishes a sense of being embodied, which means having a sense of being present within the body.

Mindful Walking

Tutor led videos on Mindful Walking Practices.

Daily Tips

We look at grounding tips that we can use in our daily life.

Kindness to Ourselevs

Looking at Kindness to our bodies and minds.

The Importance of Self Kindness

Tutor led videos on the importance of being kind to ourselves

Daily Tips

Tips for smiling more in our daily lives.

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Introduction to Compassion – Online Email Course

Jacky Seery — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0100

Introduction to Compassion – Online Course

We are delighted to offer a ten-week online compassion course, which enables participants to develop their mindfulness practice by training in compassion.

The course includes:

Videoed teachings by Rob Nairn, Choden, Heather Regan-Addis and Alan Hughes;
Daily formal compassion practice audio;
Guidelines for daily life compassion practice;
A free 6 month membership to the Mindfulness Association.

The course will be delivered to you via email in ten weekly instalments. It is suitable for anyone who has some previous experience of practicing meditation, in particular mindfulness meditation. If you are new to mindfulness we recommend our online mindfulness course.

Weekly Topics

Intention and Motivation

What is compassion

Practice – 10 min reflection on intention and motivation

Nurturing and Depleting Activities Worksheet

Daily life – Dropping a depleting activity and adding a nurturing one

What is gentle friendship

Practice

Daily life practices

Building Resources – Joy

Short talk about Joy

Practice

Daily life guidance and practices

Building Resources – Supportive Imagery

Short talk – introducing compassionate colour

Practice

Daily life practice and guidance

Building Resources – Embodiment

Short talk – importance of embodiment in our compassion practice

Practice