PhD on Equity Diversity and Inclusion in Mindfulness: A Decolonial Approach – Part 2 EDI? And why a decolonial approach, what does that even mean? Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) are buzz words right now, which is timely and necessary to make mindfulness more inclusive, but how do we turn these ideas and aims into…
Before I started practising yoga, I had no idea about the power of the breath in regulating the body. This changed twenty two years ago when I began to practice yoga and then within a couple of years trained to teach yoga. I became aware of the yogic practice of pranayama, a practice of breath…
For some reason, I vividly remember a conversation I had with a friend when I was about 16 years old, where we discussed contentment. Tevredenheid in Dutch, and considering that word now, I can still taste the flavour of contempt we had for it. “Who would be satisfied with that?!” we wondered out loud. Wouldn’t it…
Once, I ran from fear so fear controlled me. Until I learned to hold fear like a newborn. Listen to it, but not give in. Honor it, but not worship it. Fear could not stop me anymore. I walked with courage into the storm. I still have fear, but it does not have me. Once,…
The Long Term Path – Mindfulness, Compassion, Insight, Wisdom Many mindfulness courses last for just eight weeks. Here at the Mindfulness Association we offer mindfulness based meditation training over four Levels over four years. Our training is flexible to meet your needs and we start with one module of mindfulness meditation training over one weekend…
We are now in the second year of the University of West Scotland (UWS) MSc in teaching Mindfulness and Compassion. It is a collaboration between the Mindfulness Association (MA) and UWS Psychology Department. The MA provides the teaching in mindfulness and compassion and UWS provides academic input on psychological theory underpinning mindfulness and compassion as…
The majority of mainstream mindfulness courses on offer today have their roots in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), which was developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn in 1979. It was initially developed to help people to manage stress and chronic health conditions. Jon Kabat-Zinn created MBSR to capture and embody key Buddhist teachings and to put the…
Secular mindfulness began in the clinical realm with Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), which was developed in the early 1980s by John Kabat-Zinn in the US for people experiencing chronic health conditions. This inspired the development of Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) in the mid-1990s by Mark Williams and others within the UK as an…
“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few” Shunryu Suzuki My mind is full, and not always mindful. And I’ve been doing this a while. It’s not getting easier, but it is getting deeper, messier. What a joy! The deep path of mindfulness training as opposed to the…