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…

Mindfulness for Life Retreat 2017

The Mindfulness Association’s Level 4 training was developed to support and inspire people following on from Mindfulness, Compassion and Insight Trainings.  Even though we may have experienced positive personal changes arising from our practice and even though we may have seen our life situations and relationships with others become not perfect but certainly a bit…

Choden on Compassion

It strikes me how important compassion is when it comes to training the mind. Mindfulness is on everyone’s lips now, but it is compassion that brings about real change.  Certainly, mindfulness can bring about significant change too – for many people it is a revelation to realise that they do not have to follow all…

Mindful Relating

Want a more mindful couple relationship? 3 great tips how to… Mindfulness is often portrayed as an individual practice, whether in its formal habit of sitting, walking or bodyscan, or even in the co-called informal practices of tea meditation or turning queue waiting into a breathing meditation; the “going solo” aspect is often privileged. But…

A Message from South Africa

I am in Cape Town for a month and the weather has been sunny and hot every day.  It is like a different world to Scotland. I have been spending time with my mother and old friends.  I have also been spending time with Rob Nairn working on the structure for a book on Insight.…

Christmas Presence

  Christmas is just a few days away, but after 3 hours shopping for all my family and friends I’m frazzled. Where is my mindfulness practice? I know that the trainings say that mindfulness is all about losing it and getting it, but sometimes I just feel I’ve really lost it! Keeping our practice alive…

Mindfulness in Newcastle

It is with great pleasure that I can announce that my colleagues Ani Tselha, Chris Penlington and I are co-delivering the Level 1 Mindfulness Training: Being Present for the Mindfulness Association in Newcastle upon Tyne at Northumbria University. 8th and 9th April 2017 24th and 25th June 2017 23rd-24th September 2017 4th-5th November 2017 This…