This week the Default-Mode Network that is my wandering mind, or undercurrent, has mainly amused itself by waiting for a strange blood clot to kill me after having the Oxford Vaccine on the 4th of April. Despite my ability to focus well on work, and to practice mindfulness – my mind is perpetually reminding me,…
What if there is no need to change? No need to transform yourself Into someone who is more compassionate, more present, more loving, or wise? How would this affect all the places in your life where you are endlessly trying to be better, or different? What if the task is simply to unfold To become…
Every time I have ‘too much to do ’ I have to really take myself for a walk, and there’s always resistance. I’ve learned to lean into the resistances, if only I can get myself away from my desk and out the door, or on to the cushion. I seem to be glued to the…
Jacky is away this week on the MBLC Teacher Training Retreat, which I have to say, I am relieved I’m not doing right now! And so it gives me an opportunity to cover for Jacky on the Weekly Challenge. This week – something a bit different – Mindfulness in my Dreams — how my dreamworld…
I had a visceral response to a thought this week as I sat peacefully watching the birds over my morning coffee. The stillness of my contemplative coffeetime created the perfect stage for mindfulness to witness my unfolding experience. But the silent soliloquy hit me like an unexpected punch in the stomach. As I try to…
“I felt free and therefore I was free.” Jack Kerouac Jacky was off on her hols last week, in a camper van and wandering free. I was here left at the helm (anything could happen!), on the computer, feeling a bit miffed, and slightly, ever so slightly jealous. I love the open road. As…
“A man that studieth revenge, keeps his own wounds green, which otherwise would heal.” –Francis Bacon Just this week, at the beginning of a 2-hour journey in the dark, my headlights decided to develop a gremlin. I hadn’t driven in the dark for some time, and with the subtle change in seasons occurring I noticed…
We have a soul at times. No one’s got it non-stop, for keeps. Day after day, year after year may pass without it. Sometimes it will settle for awhile only in childhood’s fears and raptures. Sometimes only in astonishment that we are old. It rarely lends a hand in uphill tasks, like moving furniture, or…
This week I am opinionated. “Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional”. The Buddha used an example of being struck by two arrows, I’m sure you know this – but what happened to me this week was a clear example. Pain in body or mind is the first arrow. Raw and pointed, it hurts as it…