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.
This week I have the amazing good fortune to be on retreat, with thanks to my husband and mother-in-law for the time. I have rented a cozy cottage by the beach on the Solway Firth. My husband dropped me off with my food for the week and I have the luxury of being here alone…
We human beings love stories. Stories are how we make sense of the world. Our stories about ourselves, all the others and the rest of the world. It is useful to check our own particular set of stories, as well as the main emotional tone and core beliefs that underpin them. We tend to mindlessly…
I have been practicing Tonglen recently. It is a Compassion practice in which we bring to mind someone who is struggling and imagine breathing in their difficulty – taking it in – and breathing out what will help, all that is good – sending it out. This reverses our usual tendency to want all that…
This last weekend, I have been teaching with Choden on the insight module of the Masters in Mindfulness. The material we presented was a bit different from usual, as the two of us are half way through writing a book with Rob Nairn on this subject. We covered the same themes: the key insight practices…
I am a very fortunate person. Things have gone well in my life. Although I have had the odd set-back, my mum says of me that each time I fall in a pile of crap I come up smelling of roses. And yet still I worry. I find myself in a lovely new home,…
I have had a lovely weekend at Samye Ling with the new cohort, our eighth, of MSc students. I have a lovely tutor group this year and it was wonderful to hear their aspirations for Mindfulness in their life and work. It made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end to…
I am very fortunate to have many good friends around me, my family, many that I work with and many that I practice with. Their love, support and kindness helps me to keep going, especially when things get tough. They remind me of common humanity, that I am not alone on this path, especially when…
I am packing up my house, with my husband and daughter, after 16 happy years and moving to be closer to Samye Ling. There is a lot to do and so many boxes, so many things to sort. The house is chaotic: the bathroom ceiling came down because of a leak from next door’s roof,…
In the first phase of my Mindfulness training, I was taught acceptance, being with difficulties and blocks unconditionally. This was rather gruelling as in those early days there was a lot to be accepted: rage; rejection; jealousy; fear of failure; self-criticism & lack of self-worth. At that time, not seeing these subtle thoughts or emotions…