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…
If you read my blog last week, you will know that I will shortly be moving house. Last week all was going ahead well, but since then there has been – another – spanner in the works. Despite how many times I tell myself that things will work out for the best in their own…
Watching the moon at midnight, solitary, mid-sky, I knew myself completely, no part left out. by Izumi Shikibu Original Language Japanese, English version by Jane Hirshfield and Mariko Aratani Izumi Shikibu was born in Japan in the late tenth century, and from what I learned about her on Wiki and here, she lived a…
Mindfulness with support on sound has been my go-to practice these past couple of weeks. I admit to a preference here – I find it so soothing, and find myself using sound at times rather than breath to bring myself back to present awareness in my daily life when I find my mind has wandered…
“Warriorship does not refer to making war on others, aggression is the source of our problems, not the solution… Chogyam Trungpa, The Sacred Path of the Warrior I just love the title of this book by Chogyam Trungpa gifted to me by a woman I met as I hitched my way to Italy in my…
Morning coffee has gradually become a slow savouring ritual for me. I am aware of my coffee urge as soon as I exit dreamworld – as soon as daily consciousness kicks in – it’s the only thing that will coax me out of my cosy brushed cotton cosy-bed-nest – it’s coffee time! I didn’t used…
As I practice mindfulness, compassion and insight meditation more and more I recognise more and more how I create my own reality. If I wake up with the expectation that the day should be one way and it turns out a different way, I can easily create a reality that is unpleasant for me and…
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…
One of the things I love about my home in Scotland is the birds. The little birds that come to feed on sunflower seeds and peanuts outside my kitchen window. The crows cawing in the tall trees as I practice in the morning. The starlings that roll across the sky in their flocks. The birds…