Importance of Sangha

I’ve really come to realise lately how important it is to have a community of like minded people around you. The word we use for this is sangha, which is a Pali word meaning  community of practitioners, people we share our lives with. It is our network where we find others on a spiritual journey…

The Stillness of Movement

Brand new Online Course: The Stillness of Movement Starting  May  2017   Within mindfulness training, one of the primary precepts is mindful embodiment: a continual shift towards reconnecting our minds with our bodies, a measured effort to live our lives more holistically from a place where we inhabit the whole of our experience: mind and…

The Compassionate Self

Paul Gilbert is a friend and mentor of mine.  I first met him at a Neuroscience and Buddhism conference in Holy Isle in 2008.  I remember going swimming with him off the sandstone rocks at the north end of Holy Isle (he loves swimming!).  I recall too his energy and enthusiasm, and how he decided…

RAIN in Manchester

On Saturday, I attended the third weekend of the Level One Mindfulness course: Being Present (for more info: click here) in Manchester at Luther King House. The weekend seemed to have crept up on me after attending weekend two in January. I was a bit dubious, wondering if I had done enough practice and feeling…

MBLC Research and the Everyone Project.

Hello fellow Members, Jane has asked me to say something about the research that we’re carrying out on the Everyone project, which I’ve been spending some time on over the last few weeks.  As I’m sure you remember, the Everyone project offers eight week Mindfulness Based Living Courses (MBLC) to groups who may not otherwise…

Reflections on Being Like A Mountain

Being like a mountain It came as a surprise to me initially that the ongoing work we do in mindfulness training involved so much bodywork or embodiment (why is it called mindfulness? I found myself asking). Grounding in the body comes on the back of our settling the mind practices and this “somatic descent” is…