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.
Today I am travelling from Manchester, via Munich to New Delhi in India. I am just descending into Munich as I write this. I was up at 3.45am to get to the airport for the 7am flight and so when I just did my practice, a lot of it was drowsy, with regular nodding off…
I was at Samye Ling Tibetan Centre near Lockerbie in Scotland this weekend. I find it a very nourishing and uplifting place, with lots of smiles and laughter with friends and colleagues. It is a great place to practice Mindfulness and Compassion because that is what the whole place is designed for! I was practicing…
When I sat down to do my practice on Sunday, I experienced feelings of sadness and anxiety. I have been experiencing these feelings pretty consistently over the last few months and along with this a real sense of self-criticism for feeling this way and a longing to feel a bit happier. I have an expectation…
This week, Choden and I are at the Oblate retreat centre in Crewe for a strategy meeting of the UK Network of Mindfulness Teacher Training Organisations. The meeting is for representatives of the teacher training organisations that are members of the UK Network, including Bangor and Oxford University, Breathworks, NHS and the MA. Also, we…
I missed writing my blog last week as I was very poorly with bronchitis. I fell ill while I was in Venice to teach the first weekend of our Level 3: Seeing Deeply training. It was interesting being poorly and away and teaching. Somehow while I was teaching, I was able to tap into a…
I am just home from Spain, more precisely Catalonia, where I have been delivering the MBLC teaching skills retreat. This will be the first group of Spanish graduates from our teacher training program and it is exciting to think of them delivering the program all across Spain. People travelled here from Las Palmas in the…
I was at Samye Ling at the weekend teaching on the Masters degree programme we deliver in partnership with the University of Aberdeen. It started in 2010 and our seventh cohort of students began in September last year. They did a module on Mindfulness last year and this weekend they were starting on their second…
This last week I have been delivering the Compassion Based Living Course (CBLC) teaching skills retreat at Samye Ling with my colleague and good friend Choden. He is a great person to be delivering the retreat with as he is an expert in this field, drawing on his extensive experience as a Buddhist practitioner and…
This week, like many women my age, I have been pondering Brian Cox, but perhaps not in the same way as others! I have been wondering how he remains so relentlessly cheerful, despite the stick her gets for being, well, relentlessly cheerful! I like to listen to radio four, but not in the traditional way.…