I am currently working with my friend Michaela (Ki) James on the delivery of a new Mindfulness Based Healthy Living course. Key focuses of this course are self-compassion and healthy eating habits. Last week in the course we explored the obesogenic environment and the evolved human condition and concluded that we are in a fight…
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’,…
Mindfulness + Wine = Winefulness? I don’t think so! I like a glass of wine. Or two. And sometimes it’s three. Mindfulness and wine. Hmm, not sure. This week I have decided to focus on wine, or I should say the lack of it, as my mindfulness practice. The Famous Buddhist art of Not-Doing! A…
Release the harsh and pointed inner voice. it’s just a throwback to the past, and holds no truth about this moment. Let go of self-judgment, the old, learned ways of beating yourself up for each imagined inadequacy. Allow the dialogue within the mind to grow friendlier, and quiet. Shift out of inner criticism and life…
Life is always at some turning point Irwin Edman I have been reflecting on turning points. Those subtle moments when a shift happens which leads to change. There was a moment a week or so ago when I looked out the window and I could see a subtle change in the landscape. Something seemed…
Simple family exchanges are where I exercise my Mindfuness practice. Isn’t that just exactly where it’s all happening? Mindfulness has helped me so much with this unravelling which is a truly messy affair and takes a while, well, like forever, and I am deeply committed to that. The more I practice, the more I go…
Last week I was tutoring with Choden on the Level 2 Compassion Retreat. Whilst planning for one of my sessions – Sympathetic Joy – I recognised that I had experienced the total opposite. Instead of rejoicing in others joy I found myself having negative feelings about others. The feeling I had has a word –…
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…