practice day Archives - Mindfulness Association

Online Vision Board Reflection Day

Helen — Tue, 28 Oct 2025 10:00:23 +0000

Do you feel that you’re a bit off course? Would you like to feel more aligned with yourself and your vision for life in 2026? Does the idea of feeling inspired by a sense of possibility and potential for the coming year stir something within you? Would time to reflect, create and share in friendly company be just lovely?

You’re invited to join Fay Adams on Saturday 3rd January 2026 (10.00am-15.00pm) to creatively connect with your inspirations, aspirations, longings and dreams for 2026 through making a vision board! You don’t need to think of yourself as creative or artistic to participate – this is a day to follow your heart, leave aside your self-critic and get into the joy of creative flow.

When we give dedicated time to getting out of our heads and connecting with ourselves though following our creative impulse and our intuitive hunches, we are often thrilled and surprised by what emerges.

Vision boards seem to have a magical influence on the future through the power of clarity and intention and through bringing alignment with what feels true to us. If we connect with our heart, we find our north star and then we’re more likely to stay on course.

On the day we’ll combine mindfulness practice and reflection with a long period of silent creative immersion and then we’ll conclude by sharing with others. We’ll give a little bit of kind attention to our self-critic before we begin, so that we feel more free to follow our flow and then we’ll see what emerges!

Before the day you’ll be guided to prepare by gathering materials and inspiring images, quotes or poems. All you need as a minimum is a (preferably) A2 sized piece of card, thick paper or board, glue, some magazines to cut out, some scissors and something to make marks with. Even part of a cardboard box would work! More info will be sent out to you in the weeks preceding the day.

You don’t have to be good at art to participate – just allowing emergence of any creativity from within is all that is needed.

Have a watch of this short video to see an example – my 2024 vision board (credit goes to the Needs Based Coaching Institute for this wonderful idea and for facilitating the workshop that produced this)[/vc_column_text]

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Kindling Contentment

Kristine Mackenzie-Janson — Mon, 05 Dec 2022 17:45:37 +0000

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 be terrible sad to settle (or worse still, to aim for tevredenheid), when the world was so full of bliss and terror, excitement and drama?! In comparison, contentment felt like consenting to bland mediocracy, and not reaching for more and better.

Twenty-five years later, I have got a different view.

How wonderful to actually be content with what’s here, what freedom and possibility lies in the ability to start from a place of enough and of being happy with one’s situation in life! Maybe, like acceptance, this doesn’t mean you may not also want to change things. But if the change comes from a place of contentment rather than from lack and frustration, it may come much more joyfully.

But although I now see the value in contentment, that doesn’t mean it’s as present in my life as I’d like. In Buddhism, much attention is given to the three main mind poisons: greed, hatred and ignorance. On reflection, we may find that one of these subtly (or not so subtly) dominates our life. Perhaps we’re always reaching for something more and different… Or maybe we live with a habitual sense of aversion and dislike for what’s here… Or we may find there’s a basic disinterest and boredom towards whatever is happening. It’s clear to me that my main tendency is around the first of the three: this forward leaning, restless desire for the next and better moment.

We may all have our own sense of what contentment means for us. These days, for me it means coming to a place of balance – not reaching towards or leaning away from. It means actually being right in the middle of what’s here – and finding it alright. Growing this quality and kindling its flame further, seemed like a good ambition for 2023 and therefore, a nice theme to practice with on a retreat day between Christmas and New Year. (And yes, the irony of aiming to be content, or practising being more content, is not lost on me!)

So, in preparation of the day, I rummaged through my growing selection of poetry to see what it may offer in terms of contentment, of happily being with the good of what’s here (which of course doesn’t mean we’re not actively caring for the almost inevitable difficulties that are also here!). And I came across the poem below, and reading it I felt an immediate softening and sense of ease in the invitation of it. Let’s see what it would be like to let that this invitation take centre stage for a while…

The Cure for it All

Go gently today, don’t hurry
or think about the next thing. Walk
with the quiet trees, can you believe
how brave they are—how kind? Model your life
after theirs. Blow kisses
at yourself in the mirror
especially when
you think you’ve messed up. Forgive
yourself for not meeting your unreasonable
expectations. You are human, not
God—don’t be so arrogant.

Praise fresh air
clean water, good dogs. Spin
something from joy. Open
a window, even if
it’s cold outside. Sit. Close
your eyes. Breathe. Allow
the river
of it all to pulse
through eyelashes
fingertips, bare toes. Breathe in
breathe out. Breathe until
you feel
your bigness, until the sun
rises in your veins. Breathe
until you stop needing
anything
to be different.

by Julia Fehrenbacher

Wishing you a contented, joyful festive season…

You can find the details for Kristine’s Kindling Contentment Retreat day on 28 December HERE.

Online retreat days and practice days cost £30 – begin at 10am and finish at 4pm.

How to Have a Happy Christmas

Heather Regan-Addis — Wed, 30 Nov 2022 12:11:56 +0000

As we approach the end of the year and the associated festivities, for some of us it can be a wonderful time for joy, connection with loved ones and plenty of food, drink and presents. For others it can be stressful, with the extra burden of festive tasks on our to do list, a lack of money and resources or the prospect of socialising with certain people.

However you are feeling we will be there with you over Christmas with daily live online guided meditations at 10.30am and 7pm across the Christmas period, including Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day morning sessions as well as new Year’s Eve and New Year’s day evening sessions. Usually, our sits are Monday to Friday, but as Christmas and New Year fall on a weekend we have added these extra weekend days. To join our community of practice at these guided meditations, just visit our home page www.mindfulnessassociation.net. (*see note below)

Generating an attitude of kindness or gentle friendship is a good approach to life and especially at Christmas time. We can set an intention each morning to offer gentle friendship towards ourselves and towards others and the life circumstances we meet during the day. Then at the end of the day, we can reflect back on all the acts of kindness we experienced, kindness to others, kindness from others and kindness to ourselves.

“Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.”

Dalai Lama

When kindness meets a happy moment, it becomes joy.

Make a list of some of the things that make you feel happy at Christmas, such as: a favorite song or carol, fairy lights, a favorite seasonal snack or silly costumes or jumpers. Then whenever you notice one of these things, take a moment to be present, feel the feet on the ground and smile all the way to your eyes. Really pay attention and actively enjoy and relish the experience.

When kindness meets a challenge, it becomes compassion.

When you experience a challenge or a difficult moment, this is a great opportunity to pause and do a self-compassion break, by:

Pausing and making a gesture of self-soothing, such as placing your hand on your heart, giving yourself a hug or holding your own hand.
Acknowledging the challenge or difficult moment by saying to yourself in a kind voice, “This is a difficult moment”.
Then recognise common humanity. Being human is a messy business, with all of us experiencing troubling thoughts, strong emotions and painful sensations some of the time. None of us are perfect and we all experience difficulty sometimes, so we are not the only one that feels this way.
Then be kind to yourself. For example, you might say some kind words to yourself, reach out to a friend, do something that makes you smile or have a cup of tea.

If you see others around you that are experiencing challenges or difficulties, see if there is any way you can help. If you are unable to help, then send some kind wishes to the person who is struggling, such as:

May you overcome your challenges
May you be happy
May you be at peace

Carrying kindness with you in your heart, is the best way to be happy this festive season with all of its ups and downs. The Dalai Lama, one of the happiest people on the planet says that kindness is his religion. He advises us to be kind, and if we cannot be kind to at least do no harm.

It works for me and I hope it will work for you!

Wishing you a very Happy Christmas

Kind Wishes,

Heather

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Our online Christmas practice days are running on the 27th, 28th and 29th December this year. You can read more about them HERE

Online Easter Mindfulness Practice Days

Mindfulness Association — Wed, 16 Mar 2022 12:37:35 +0000

Time to unwind, time to nurture, time for compassion and time for mindfulness.

Time for yourself to relax, destress and recharge.

Our gentle nourishing Practice Days give you a chance to rest, pay attention, and just be.

10am – 4 pm

No previous experience required, all levels of experience welcome.

HAVE A BROWSE OF THE FOUR PRACTICE DAYS HERE

Four Easter Practice Days

Mindfulness Association — Fri, 12 Mar 2021 10:33:59 +0000

Join Any or All of our Soothing and Nourishing Easter Practice Days from the 2-5 April

Time to unwind, time to nurture, time for compassion and time for mindfulness.

Time for yourself to relax, destress and recharge.

Topics include,

LOTUS HEART: Friday 2nd April 2021 10am – 4pm Led By Fay Adams

Begin your Easter weekend by connecting with your lotus heart, inspired by this from Marianne Williamson.”We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be?”

OPENING OUT: Saturday 3rd April 2021 10am – 4pm Led By Kristine Janson

Throw the doors wide open
and step into the enormous palace
inside of you.

Breathe.
Breathe into every space…

– Jane O’Shea

Chenrezi, The Great Bodhisattva Of Compassion Sunday 4th April 2021 10 – 4pm with Choden

During this retreat day Choden will introduce the compassion practice of Chenrezi. He will explain some of the key principles underlying the practice, such as seeing the world as being non-solid and dreamlike whilst also opening to the suffering of living beings with love and compassion.

Finding Simplicity In Our Practice Monday 5th April 2021 10am – 4pm Led By Alan Hughes

Finding simplicity in our practice is the key theme of this practice day. With our mindfulness practice, there can sometimes be a subtle aspect of wanting to entertain ourselves, or an expectation that with novel practices we might experience something “different”. While different practices can be helpful at particular stages of our mindfulness journeys, there can be a danger that these can become a distraction from simply being with our experience, as it is. Suitable for more experienced practitioners.