One of those strange phenomena of being human is that we get ill. This body sometimes gets tired, and it also succumbs to a wide variety of viruses and bugs thrown at it daily. This body also has the possibility of becoming sick with diseases that can take us by surprise. I would regard myself…
Just recently I have become very aware of stress. It’s a bit sneaky is stress. It just crept up on me when I wasn’t paying attention. I was too busy to notice. When I did notice it – my body began to send me signals. It usually lurks between my heart and solar plexus –…
When one is able to overcome the romantic and emotional attitude, one discovers truth even in the kitchen sink. Chögyam Trungpa This morning, with my bare feet planted onto the kitchen floor, flat and smooth, my small brown earthenware coffee cup warms my hands as I look into the windswept garden. It’s really…
Two weeks have passed now since my first mindfulness course and I’m reflecting now on how the course has impacted my life. I can definitely see that I am becoming more mindful, particularly when it comes to being reactive. I’ve been noticing that when events happen which cause me to feel a rise in emotions…
This week I have been asked to write a blog on the science behind how best to learn meditation. Unfortunately, there is a limited evidence base on this topic. However, I will do what I can! One of the best books I have read on the evidence base for meditation is ‘The Science of Meditation’,…
Hi There, welcome back to my Mindful Futures blog! Over the weekend I took part in my first ever mindfulness course, the level one being present. I really enjoyed myself, admittedly more than I was expecting to. I think my dog also quite enjoyed it, she spent the first day sat by my side snoozing…
I have been asked to write my blog this week on the topic of how meditation works. To begin with it is important to bear in mind that this whole field of research is in its early stages, much of the research methodology has weaknesses, and there is much more work to do before we…
This weekend I was away with a friend and we had an interesting discussion about the amount of free will that we are able to exercise in our day to day lives. My feeling is that we think we exercise far more free will than we actually do and that the main advantage of training…
It was as if a window suddenly blew open and the sky outside the mind came flooding in. My childhood shriveled to a close, thread of smoke that rose and touched a cloud — or the cloud’s replica adrift on the slow river of thinking — and disappeared inside it. In that dark water, a…