Transformational Masters
Heather Regan-Addis, lead tutor, author and head of the Mindfulness Association, shares her experience whilst teaching students studying the MSc Studies in Mindfulness on their retreat on Holy Island.
Masters retreat on Holy Isle
I am on the beautiful Holy Isle this week delivering the year end retreat for the first years of the University of Aberdeen’s MSc in Studies in Mindfulness. There can be no better place on the planet to practice mindfulness! It is a pilgrimage to get here. A wonderful journey, at each stage meeting up…
Lost in a Vortex
Life is good. And yet, I seem to allow myself to suffer. The cause of my suffering? My mind of course! I notice I have been quite serious lately. A bit weighed down with my negative thought patterns. The resistance in this feels like sticky dark treacle clouding my mind – clinging to negative thoughts. …
Mindfulness in Nature
Mindfulness in nature
Mindfulness of Birds
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…
Homeward Bound
It is my last day in India. We have empowerments this morning with Tai Situpa Rinpoche and then our teachings for this year are ended. This afternoon we have a massage booked and then online check in, packing and hotel check out. I feel immensely fortunate to have received the teachings and to have spent…
Mindful Musings in India
I am in India this week for year four of a six or seven year training in Mahamudra meditation. The teachings are from Tai Situpa Rinpoche, the latest in a lineage of teachers that can be traced back to the historical Buddha Shakyamuni. The teachings were systematised 500 years ago, based on teachings brought to…
The Hardest Part
On a recent retreat a well-intentioned participant informed me that my drive system was overactive. She was referring to the three-circle model of Prof. Paul Gilbert which is part of our Level 2 Compassion training. This model postulates three psychological systems: a threat system, which triggers the fight, flight, freeze response when we feel threatened;…
Mindful Holiday
I am a week into a two week winter sun getaway to Cyprus. Away from the busyness of work I am noticing a lot of inner-critic dialogue along with an underlying feeling of being a failure. I am aware of a constant vigilance for instances where I might be subject to humiliation. Moreover I appear…