In my weekly blog, Heather’s Musings, I write about what has been happening in my life and how I am applying my mindfulness, compassion and insight practice to it. The process of writing the blog is often an opportunity for me to gain more clarity and recognise what is happening and I find it highly beneficial. My wish is that it is also helps other meditation practitioners who are on a similar journey.
The opinions and beliefs that I express in this blog are my own and do not represent the opinion of the Mindfulness Association.
I think that many of us see many problems and challenges in the world around us: political; social, environmental and economic. And at times there doesn’t seem to be much light on the horizon. This is what motivates me to teach compassion based mindfulness – it empowers people in their lives to find their way…
As many of you know I moved to Scotland in the autumn last year. There were many reasons. One was to be close to Samye Ling where most of my teaching work is located, but also to be a part of the community of meditation and dharma practice there. When Lama Yeshe Rinpoche is there…
There is a lot of collaboration happening at the moment within the mindfulness community within the UK, which I am involved in. Today I have been at a strategy meeting for the Mindfulness Initiative (MI), which was initially set up to support the work of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Mindfulness at the UK…
Many of us mindfulness practitioners have children or grandchildren – some of them are young adults, like my own 18 year old daughter. Before we had her my husband and I did talk about whether it was OK to bring a child into the world. But it was just after the fresh Tony Blair government…
I am in India again for teachings with Tai Situpa Rinpoche on Mahamudra. Yesterday he was telling us about what it means to be a yogi in the Mahamudra tradition and he made a joke that we were all 5- star yogis, as our teachings are taking place in the 5 star Leela Ambiance Convention…
I had a few weeks on my own during the snow and this gave a chance for my mind to settle. I was also listening to Johann Hari’s book Lost Connections (click here) and was practicing the on duty off duty practice from the insight training (click here) each morning. I felt open and my…
My friend Barbara recommended a book to me called ‘Lost Connections: Uncovering the real causes of depression and the unexpected solutions” by Johann Hari and so I downloaded it to my iPhone and am now listening to it…for the third time! I could not recommend it more strongly for anyone who is interested in human…
My morning routine is to get up and do my meditation and then do some exercise. I listen to an inspirational playlist while I exercise and after my meditation this is sometimes a great opportunity for insight and a sense of freedom and space in my mind, especially when I go on the cycle machine.…
Last week I was fortunate to be invited by Moira Harris to a showing of the film ‘Walk with Me’ (click here for the trailer) about the community at Plum Village led by Thich Naht Hahn. Watching the film was a meditation in itself and it felt like receiving a transmission of the most profound…