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 led the free daily sit on Friday evening and we did a practice using a mantra of ‘Body like a mountain, breath like the wind, heart of compassion like sunshine and mind like the sky’. At the end of the practice an interesting discussion ensued about anger and fear. A first participant shared their…
‘The only way to take care of the future is to be present now.’ This year has been a year of solitude and of connection for me. In January I moved into a remote cottage, on my own, after 20 years of living a happy family life. Then lockdown arrived in March. And I…
I spent some of my weekend writing about the three emotional system model, based in the Compassion Focussed Therapy work of Prof. Paul Gilbert. According to this model there are three emotional systems, threat, drive and soothe and they tend to be out of balance for most of us, due to our evolved brain, our…
One of the jobs I get to do is to come up with the monthly themes and phrases for the MA monthly calendar. Then I send them on to Lisa, who works her magic and creates the beautiful calendars. For Christmas I chose a theme of connecting at Christmas because often this can be emotionally…
Last week I led a five day compassion retreat as part of our Level 2: Responding with compassion course. It was intense, in a good way, and for many participants transformative. At the end of the course we had a sharing, which conveyed the significant switches of perspective that people had experienced, in particular a…
I recently had an experience which triggered some trauma from earlier in my life. It resulted in a rather spectacular and intense display of memories connecting together and some emotional distress, which lasted for a couple of days. As a result of my years of practice, while experiencing the coming and going of thoughts, emotions…
The consequences of the current pandemic have been devastating for many people, with much death and serious illness, leading to many being bereaved or having more caring responsibilities, but also with much economic hardship, with many losing their jobs and businesses and finding an inadequate safety net. These consequences should not be under-estimated and we…
I have taken to doing a shortened version of the three stage breathing space regularly within my day as a way of becoming more mindful. I have discovered that I often have a frisson of anxiety, which manifests in the heart, even when I am feeling quite happy. This is what I do: Firstly, I…
One day this week I was looking at the news on my Guardian app. Relentless awful news: Covid rising again, young students confined to their rooms, new policy in schools to not teach anything anti-capitalist and a further undermining of the BBC and free journalism in the UK. I have friends who are facing the…