This week my own challenge is to try to focus. I have an important document to write by next week. And I have this blog to write. I was going to write this blog about the document called “Initial Thoughts” I have to write next week because I thought it might help me galvanise my…
TRAINING TO TEACH MINDFULNESS – THE MBLC RETREAT I don’t really want to be a teacher, I said, as I applied for the course. Fear was pulling me back, but something stronger was pulling me – compassion to share all this with others. Facing fears in the MBLC Teaching retreat, accepting, meeting and looking deeply…
Loving kindness meditation practice is a big part of the curriculum of the Mindfulness Association’s courses. In our mindfulness courses we practice loving kindness for a dear friend and then loving kindness for a dear friend and ourselves. In our compassion courses we practice widening the circles of loving kindness, where we start with a…
In this new blog we will be looking at some of the science in psychology, biology and neuroscience around training the mind in mindfulness, compassion and insight. If you want to investigate further, links are provided at the end of the blogs to the cited literature. This blog is partly inspired by our work with…
The supreme good is like water, which nourishes all things without trying to. It is content with the low places that people disdain. Thus it is like the Tao. In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous. In governing, don’t try to control. In…
Today I find myself in a house in Bempton (East Yorkshire coast) with my wonderful MAHQ colleagues. We have all taken our lateral flow tests and are together in person for the first time since February last year. It is strange, but amazing to see everyone manifest in 3D rather than on a screen in…
The latest sticky note on my computer screen reads : ‘remember to be kind in feedback’. Do you ever fire back an email to someone only to read it back and realise you missed the etiquette of a polite ‘hello’ ‘how are you?’ I do. I’m hoping it’s just a symptom of a busy work-focused…
In July I will be attending the Mindfulness Based Living Course (MBLC) Level 2 Teacher Training Retreat and I have found out that as part of that training I will be delivering a ten-minute talk on settling the mind. I thought I would share my thoughts here about what I have learned so far from…
This week the Default-Mode Network that is my wandering mind, or undercurrent, has mainly amused itself by waiting for a strange blood clot to kill me after having the Oxford Vaccine on the 4th of April. Despite my ability to focus well on work, and to practice mindfulness – my mind is perpetually reminding me,…