I am struck by contrast in my life at the moment. On a day to day basis, I experience a peaceful, retreat like existence. I practice and teach sessions of meditation; mindfulness, compassion and insight. I walk the dogs by the river in this beautiful isolated valley. I work at my computer contributing to…
This last weekend I have been teaching weekend three of our Mindfulness Level 1: Being Present course. This weekend we focus on preference and acceptance. One of the big things that comes up over this weekend is a habitual pattern that many of us have that we are not good enough. This habit can be…
I am away now to a bungalow by the sea for four weeks. I am treating myself to some solitary retreat time with two of my dogs, Holly and Nutmeg. Then I have some holiday time at Christmas and New Year with family. After the new year I have some more solitary retreat time. Then…
I have had the great good fortune this week to be teaching at Samye Ling with Choden on the new Access to Insight retreat. During the retreat, it was a great chance for me to practice along with the participants. We practiced acceptance, self-compassion, the four immeasurable qualities of loving kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity…
We had our annual Board meeting for the Mindfulness Association in Edinburgh yesterday. I travelled over there with Choden from Lockerbie and Norton travelled down from Aberdeen for the day. Kristine, who lives locally, and who is going to be taking on half of my management role in the new year joined us in the…
I am excited that we now have confirmation for our 10th anniversary celebration of the Mindfulness Association. Ten years seems like a long time but seems to have passed in an instant. I vividly remember my first retreat teaching with Rob Nairn and Choden on Holy Isle in June 2009. For me this was a…
It’s already a couple of weeks ago but it feels like yesterday, when finally, the Launch of the Mindful Nation Scotland took place in Holyrood. It took many months of preparations, as this was a collaboration between most of the Scottish mindfulness teacher training organisations. We came together to devise a curriculum especially tailored to the…
Yesterday I took my daughter back to University. Last night I experienced a scary and quite gruesome dream. This morning I woke up feeling sad. My body felt heavy, there was a pain in my heart and a heavy and pre-tear feeling in my eyes. So when I woke up, my inclination was to stay…
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…