This morning in my practice I noticed a lot of thoughts about all I had to do and a lack of time in which to do it. It has been a busy time at the Mindfulness Association this September. We had a validation event last week and our new collaboration with the University of the…
I had the last weekend off and my mum and dad came to visit. We had a lovely weekend together and they set off back home to York earlier today (Monday). I was sad to see them go. Like many people I have visited family and friends over the summer after the Lockdown spring. We…
Hello again! I am back after my summer break, refreshed and ready for whatever new challenges emerge. Challenges are always good, an opportunity for cultivating more patience and compassion, at the very least! Challenges are hopefully an opportunity for insight, understanding and personal growth. Still I’m not asking for challenges, just welcoming them should they…
Last week I had a busy work week, lots of busyness going on at home, a wee holiday up to North Wales with family and then I had my young grandchildren to stay – they are 7 and 5… And so although I have many tales to tell about all that – it wasn’t exactly…
Where I live is very prone to days of fog. It furtively appears, seemingly out of nowhere. It can be hot and sunny with cloudless blue skies and then suddenly the whole landscape disappears into white nothingness. Even in my garden I can sit and watch the wet mist swirling around just feet away from…
This week I am opinionated. “Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional”. The Buddha used an example of being struck by two arrows, I’m sure you know this – but what happened to me this week was a clear example. Pain in body or mind is the first arrow. Raw and pointed, it hurts as it…
This week I have been swamped with work, or so I thought, and an uneasy feeling of creeping overwhelm has threatened to flood me. Lockdown had provided me with what felt like a dreamy safe haven, some of my freelance work had been on hold and I think I liked that a bit too much!…
There’s a route I walk a few times a week. The last part of the walk involves a mile-long uphill path through fields of ripened wheat. I call it the never-ending field. I’ve called it that because, at the end of the walk it is not only an uphill struggle, especially if it is raining…
This week has been a week of emotional extremes for me and I have watched myself surf and sink and resurface, at times mindfully aware, at times getting sucked into thinking, worrying, ruminating, celebrating – and the whole time I can honestly say I kept a mindful watch on myself as I navigated the highs…