The supreme good is like water, which nourishes all things without trying to. It is content with the low places that people disdain. Thus it is like the Tao. In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous. In governing, don’t try to control. In…
The latest sticky note on my computer screen reads : ‘remember to be kind in feedback’. Do you ever fire back an email to someone only to read it back and realise you missed the etiquette of a polite ‘hello’ ‘how are you?’ I do. I’m hoping it’s just a symptom of a busy work-focused…
In July I will be attending the Mindfulness Based Living Course (MBLC) Level 2 Teacher Training Retreat and I have found out that as part of that training I will be delivering a ten-minute talk on settling the mind. I thought I would share my thoughts here about what I have learned so far from…
The word tenderness is the closest translation to the Tibetan word TSEWA. Tsewa addresses self and others. Pema Chodron says it expresses itself as kindness, compassion, vicarious joy, generosity, tolerance, mental clarity, courage, resilience, unshakable cheerfulness and in many other internal ways. Tsewa is about expressing and experiencing our own tender hearts. This week I…
I originally had no intention to ‘teach’ Mindfulness. After completing the Level 1 teaching course as part of my Masters in Mindfulness Studies with the University of Aberdeen the seed was planted and I now find myself in the middle of the teacher training pathway. between the Level One course (Next Level One weekend courses…
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…
February 5th It’s my turn, to lead. Later today. I notice how this thought permeated my whole day, from the moment I woke up. I notice how this thought had a sticky persistence, and its delivery somehow becoming more urgent. I really saw how “what I resist persists”. I didn’t want to be thinking about…
Fear and Butterflies 5 Minutes before peer group zoom teaching session where I will teach Recognising the Unsettled Mind – I realise I have an Unsettled Mind. Body jittery. Heart, announcing its presence and power by thumping. Hard. I can’t focus. Do I really want to do this? What have I let myself in for?…
This is a blog about the initial stages of my experience of training to become a teacher of Mindfulness. I am not a teacher of Mindfulness yet, and so anything I write here is of my experience only. I have completed the first training at Level One and have signed up to the Mindfulness Association’s…