I had a wonderful time at our conference earlier this month. It felt like a coming of age. We were our own keynotes, without needing to import big names in from the US. We acknowledged our roots with warm and insightful sessions with Rob Nairn. We acknowledged the success of our Masters students and their…
So, this is a tricky one – it’s present, so here goes. Recently I have noticed my sense of unworthiness coming up more frequently than I’d like to admit! Tara Brach talks about “the trance of unworthiness” that we can find ourselves in! My teacher, Lama Yeshe tells me to “keep doing the weeding”. What…
I have just enjoyed a wonderful week in Bridlington, with Rob Nairn and his sister Margaret. We stayed in Helen’s holiday chalets and spent some very happy evenings talking over past times. We reflected back over the start of the Mindfulness Association and marvelled about what it has become a decade later. It was a…
I find it equally frustrating and amusing – my mind’s habitual pattern of imagining in the future. Having a conference to organise isn’t helping. Last minute arrangements, coordinating speakers, planning my sessions. The merchandise has arrived and hopefully the conference booklets will be ready in time. I am there in the future anxious about all…
The mindfulness conspiracy. It condemns all mindfulness practitioners/teachers as being obsessed with happiness and acquiescence to the causes of inequality, environmental degradation and oppression. In essence the article is all conjecture – it is based on opinion and without evidence. So, I invite you to consider a few points that I think may cause more…
I like the following definition of equanimity which I use in our compassion training: “A warm engagement with the world without being troubled by it.” The definition needs some unpacking as some of the things happening around us can be deeply troubling. If we allow ourselves to become distressed – aka troubled – by what…
I seem quite far removed from a ‘mindfully invisible’ nature experience last weekend whilst writing this in a coffee house at Stockholm airport. However, writing whilst travelling seems to be a common theme for mine and Heather’s blogs. So last weekend, despite being quite tired, my friend and I decided to take a short walk…
Heather Regan-Addis, lead tutor, author and head of the Mindfulness Association, shares her experience whilst teaching students studying the MSc Studies in Mindfulness on their retreat on Holy Island.
I am on the beautiful Holy Isle this week delivering the year end retreat for the first years of the University of Aberdeen’s MSc in Studies in Mindfulness. There can be no better place on the planet to practice mindfulness! It is a pilgrimage to get here. A wonderful journey, at each stage meeting up…