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.
Last week I had a meeting with my fellow trustees of the new Everyone Project Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO): Vin Harris, Chloe Homewood, Jan Major and Barbara Reid. You couldn’t wish for a more talented and effective group of people to launch a project with. We signed the articles, which brought the Everyone Project Charity…
To my delight, this week I received my 3 author copies of the Mindfulness Based Living Course (MBLC) book that Choden and I have written together. We finished writing it just before Choden did his one year retreat, in October 2015. So it has taken a while! It took time to find a publisher. After…
I had something difficult to say this week. I didn’t want to say it, but nevertheless it had to be said. I reflected and made notes on how to say it and after several iterations felt it was sayable. It troubled my sleep the night before and I was still undecided about whether to say…
The week just gone I have spent at the Purelands Retreat centre teaching a Compassion Based Living Course (CBLC) teaching skills retreat (click here). It was a coming together of fifteen teachers of the Mindfulness Based Living Course (MBLC) who had also completed our Mindfulness Level 2 Course: Responding with Compassion and who wanted to…
I am still getting over the flu and although I feel tonnes better, I am overcome by lethargy in the afternoons, especially if I have the audacity to actually do something in the morning! I am not moaning. It is so unusual to have such a prolonged period of doing so little. Usually I am…
This last week I have been ill with the flu – a wonderful cornucopia of alternating symptoms – head ache, shivers, overheating, ear ache, sore throat & a chesty cough that prevents sleep – doubly amplified compared to my usual experience of such symptoms. I guess that’s the Australian element! I’ve even lost my appetite,…
I would like to live a long and healthy life, free of the main health problems that beset us in the West: heart disease, stroke, degenerative brain diseases, cancer and lung diseases. Would you? I would like to protect the environment from the effects of greenhouse gasses, deforestation and ocean dead zones. Would you? But…
I have a bit of a double whammy – a new year and a new decade of my life – for new year new me resolutions. The pressure is on, from me and from my culture, to make some changes to become a better version of myself. The implication is that I’m just not good…
Each morning when I practice I choose one of Pema Chodron’s compassion cards, which accompany her book ‘Start where you are’ (both excellent additions to any Christmas list). I select a card at random and then read the relevant section of the book, which is often just a couple of paragraphs. I take this as…