And so Heather describes the type of meditation and which human condition that may help us with. But when I signed up for meditation I had No Idea at all what was going to happen to me and my brain. I could not conceive of the changes it would make to me and my behaviour – my relationships, my state of being in the world. It is impossible to explain or describe what might happen for you. You might get bored straight away and then tell everyone it’s rubbish. You may have a life changing insight on your first session. What works for me won’t necessarily work for you.

The list of different practices and what we might gain from each of these practices shows that Mindfulness is not one thing. It is banded about as a heal-all one size-fits-all term, but no, the ancient traditions of meditation described many different practices for many different approaches to suit different personality and character types. In education there is a lot of talk about learning styles well it’s the same for meditation; and like that – we can get stuck on one type of mediation that we ‘like’, avoiding those we don’t so much (for me this was mindful movement and bodyscan! No! don’t make me do that!) and I have learned over the years there is a lot to be learned from noticing these aversions and resistances to things….they are signposts for sure – about where I needed to go. These practices were transformative for me once I had learned to ‘lean in’ to the resistance.

“You should sit in meditation for 20 minutes a day, unless you’re too busy, then you should sit for an hour.” – Zen Proverb

Mindfulness as a term is like saying Cheese. There is a whole cheeseboard out there to suit your particular recipe. But try to use edam on your pizza instead of mozzarella and you’re going to be disappointed. And if you’re a vegan, then you might need a different approach altogether. The No-Cheese approach. Sounds very Zen!

I have experienced different stages and types of realization in my meditation, and definite preferences to different types. At times resistant to compassionate colour at other times it’s my go-to practice. Sometimes nothing much happens as I sit in the moment open to whatever arises. Sometimes a feeling of immense gratitude comes bounding in the door. Another day a tsunami of emotion erupts about I don’t-know-what. I have learned that if I have a sticky situation or feeling that is causing rumination then RAIN works for me and I actively go and find my seat. Each day is so different each practice can be like chalk or cheese. Back to cheese again. Have I got cheese on the mind? Am I hungry? Oh I’m off again.

The MBLC APP, link below, is brilliant for having a wide variety of practices to hand.

Human experience is nebulous – ever changing; my impressions, judgements and understanding of you and the meaning of the words you are saying might change every couple of seconds throughout our conversation, so much so that the continual judgement-making can make the mind wander off and suddenly I’m not even listening any more. Mindfulness in daily life this week has shown me how rude my mind is! Is it me or can I just blame my mind? This week I feel that I am accountable. I am studying on Fay Adam’s Inquiry Course and we are practicing ‘Active Listening’ – so I’m going to fess up right here right now about how rude my mind is and what it did.

This week I noticed this a few times. Perhaps because it is the active practice at the moment. The Gardener (Him Outdoors) was talking to me at the kitchen table probably giving me the day’s news roundup, and I was gone. I was even looking at him, and nodding and able to say uh-hu but had no idea what he had said. Oof so Mindless! So ‘rude’! But my mind just went off.. I could justify saying well, that’s just what the mind does… but actually with all the practice I have done, that’s a bit of a cop out! Sorry, I drifted off, I had a really alive internal storyline going on about something completely different which made me completely DEAF to his words…that is the truth, I have a notion of the sounds he was making and knew when to say ‘uh-hu’ what an incredible feat of the mind in multitasking ( badly) – and isn’t that an insight right there?

But can I admit that? My egoic system is reluctant to declare my rudeness. That’s another blog.

Mindfulness training has given me this; an ability to catch myself and my subtle patterns of behaviour, as well as many other benefits, personal to me, and too numerous to itemise. I’m not sure if I signed up to meditation thinking I was going to be calling myself out every five minutes !– what DID I sign up for and how different is it to what I thought meditation was? This may take some consideration. Mindfulness Level 2 – Responding with Compassion is key to negotiating the stormy inner waters we may find ourselves in, the mindfulness is the compass, the compassion the fuel that keeps me strong enough to face any inner storm.

When I started mindfulness meditation I didn’t know what a job I would have on my hands. I kind of thought mindfulness was about drifting, and clouds, and feeling calm, and space, and emptiness.

It wasn’t long before I could see that I was a hopeless case – my mind was way too busy, too messy, too out of control! But that is exactly what happens – we go from what the Buddhists might term ‘ignorance’ what Rob Nairn would say as being lost in the undercurrent. I did not know there was a way to climb out of that river, or even that I was lost in a river of consciousness in the first place.

I had a teacher that once said to me, if you want to understand the nature of your mind, you wont find the answers I books. Yu can buy the whole library and you wont learn a thing. You just need to sit on the cushion.

“So what is a good meditator? The one who meditates.”- Allan Loko

Warmest wishes,

Lisa Hellier.

Weekly Challenge

This week in the Weekly Challenge, I invite you to ask yourself, ‘what is it I hope to gain from my Mindfulness practice?’ Write those things down in your diary or on a sticky note as a way of supporting yourself to stay focused. Notice if you have any expectations around your practice, and any disappointment you may feel. If this arises use a self-compassion practice to allow the feelings to be there, and remind yourself these are subtle thoughts, and let them go.

Just being able to be present during a conversation with near and dear ones is a simple yet wonderful gift. This will be my practice this week. See if you can offer this to those you may come into contact with. Read Heather’s blog to look at the different practices and how they may benefit you. Find a meditation that is either your least favourite meditation practice or one that answers a particular need for you this week – and stick with it this week.

Our Free Mindfulness Based Living App is a great resource to have to hand. Try a practice you haven’t tried yet, or your least favourite one. My wish is that you have time this week to really engage with your practice and that it may benefit you and those around you, opening to a more peaceful, compassionate and understanding way of being.

Then what causes us to suffer? Poor health, lack of vitality, hopelessness in the face of the impending climate crisis? So, I look to the scientific evidence to explore the causes of suffering and how to relieve that suffering. What I am advocating, as a lifestyle change, to move towards more of a plant based diet, is a scientifically evidenced way of increasing our health and vitality and making a personal contribution to help address the climate crisis. If it relieves suffering, of ourselves and the planet – it is compassion in action!

This week I have been delivering a compassion in action online retreat. I have been very much enjoying sharing some compassion practices and doing a lot of practice at home. The part of the day I have found particularly enjoyable is the discussion at the end of the day. We watch 30 minutes of a video around the benefits of a whole food plant based diet and then spend 30 minutes discussing it.

On Saturday evening we watched 30 minutes of Dr Gregor’s video How Not to Die where he looks at peer reviewed scientific literature on nutrition to show how fourteen of the top fifteen diseases that kill us in the West can be halted or reversed by switching to a whole food plant based diet. And what is the one out of the fifteen causes of death in the list which cannot be halted or reversed by a whole food plant based diet? It is accidents!

I think many of us know that moving towards a whole food plant based diet can help with circulatory problems such as heart disease and stroke, etc. But there is growing evidence that it can also prevent certain cancers and even support recovery from some cancers. Our discussion was around how we don’t all know this information. For example, processed meat is listed as a carcinogen, equal to asbestos, by the world health organisation. Think of the outcry if a school was found to have asbestos in the roof. Meanwhile in the packed lunches and in the cafeteria ham and bacon are still being served. This is a crazy situation!

What is particularly relevant now is that a whole food plant based diet can reverse many of the risk factors associated with being adversely affected by the current coronavirus, such as heart disease and diabetes. Have a look at this recent video from Dr Gregor.

As I have said above, I have been questioned by some colleagues and some readers of my blog for promoting a vegan diet on this retreat and in my blog. But let’s go back to the 1950s. What would you do if all the people you loved and cared about were smoking 20 cigarettes a day, oblivious to the detrimental effect on their health? Would you tell them or would you keep quiet? We are in the same situation now, with powerful lobbies trying to confuse the issue of what a health promoting diet is. The evidence is unequivocal. Have a look at the video documentary Vegan 2019, which we watched last night for an overview.

I always go back to evolution when deciding on what lifestyle to lead. We are evolved to live mainly on whole plant based foods. We are not evolved to eat lots of meat and in particular we are not evolved to eat large amounts of dairy. When we add to this that moving towards a whole food plant based diet is the biggest thing we can each do, as individuals, to contribute to reducing the climate crisis, then it seems a no brainer to me. This is the topic for our video this evening.

Let’s walk our talk if we care about our health and wellbeing and if we care about the planet. Is it possible to at least make a few tentative steps?

As it says on the page of my blog on the website. What I write in this blog does not represent the views of the Mindfulness Association. I am just hoping to help.

Kind Wishes

Heather

Charlie teaches more than just lucid dreaming. He teaches mindfulness of dream and sleep, which includes conscious sleeping as well as lucid dreaming, so that we can extend our mindfulness practice into the third of our life when we are asleep.

One of the advantages of living, and sleeping on my own, is that I can wake up several times in the night and write in my dream diary without disturbing anyone. I have a strong motivation for this practice, but I also notice a strong resistance too. I will explore this using the ACT bus exercise during the retreat I am leading this week. I can use this exercise, to explore what my resistance is, but also what causes and conditions are in place to support my mindfulness of dream and sleep practice.

I am looking forward to the retreat I am leading later this week. It is on a subject close to my heart – Compassion in Action – or how do we find the courage and commitment to walk our talk. To actually do something in the face of social injustice and climate crisis, with hope and joyful diligence, rather than giving in and moaning about the world. I am delighted that Rob Nairn will be joining me to deliver three sessions over the week. One on mindfulness, one on compassion and tonglen and one on insight.

One optional element of the retreat is an evening discussion based on videos I have shared with the participants around how moving to eat more of a whole food plant based diet can benefit our own health as well as freeing the animals enslaved within the cruel animal agriculture industry. We will also explore the massive contribution that the animal agriculture industry makes to carbon emissions and habitat destruction which is driving the current climate crisis. Topically, we will also look at how the animal agriculture industry has caused and is likely to cause virus pandemics such as the one we are currently subject to. None of this is conjecture or opinion, it is thoroughly evidence based.

In my life and in my practice I follow the evidence. My first degree was maths and physics and so thankfully, I understand the scientific method, which is more than just another opinion. I love the fact that neuroscience, psychology and evolutionary psychology are reaching the same conclusions as Buddhist and meditation practice about the reality of this human condition we find ourselves imprisoned in.

When I ask myself why am I prepared to wake up in the middle of the night, several times, stay up and do some practice or write in my dream diary. It is because I long to know what is true and what is delusion. It is because I recognise that so much of our suffering is based on this delusion and therefore is optional. So I will keep going and share what I learn so that I can hopefully be of some benefit in this world.

One way to relieve some of the needless suffering that might happen during the night is to be aware of what we do in the twenty minutes or so before we fall asleep. What we do then will set the tone for our whole night of sleep. If we are doing something stressful, anxiety or anger provoking then this does not set us up for a night of calm refreshing sleep. Chose to do something that promotes a sense of calm, kindness, safeness and compassion before bedtime. Good things to do might be compassionate imagery practices from the Compassion section of the free Mindfulness Based Living app. Lie down and do a compassionate bodyscan, safe place or compassionate colour practice before falling off to sleep. Have a go and see how this affects the quality of you night’s sleep.

Until next week.

Kind Wishes

Heather

When I say vegan what I really mean is a whole food plant based diet, ie. mostly unprocessed home prepared fruit, vegetables, nuts and beans – yum! When I first became a vegan, that was all there was, except for Linda McCartney sausages and cheap junk foods that were accidentally vegan. Now there is lots of vegan junk food. Most coffee shops sell at least one vegan cake – we used to have to settle for a bag of nuts – and there is a proliferation of vegan beige food – sausage rolls, pasties, pies and pizzas – in our supermarket isles to tempt us.

There are three key reasons for adopting a more whole food plant based diet.

The first is human health. Many pundits in the media despair over the nutritional imbalance of a vegan diet, implying that most people on a so called ‘normal’ diet are eating in a nutritionally sound way – which if you just look around you – is manifestly not true! I follow (as best I can!) the evidence based nutritional advice of my nutrition hero Dr Gregor. Check out his website nutritionfacts.org and search for whichever medical ailment you have in your family history and look at the research evidence for lifestyle changes that might help.

Watch this video – it may just save your life or the life of a loved one!

While I do take vitamin B12 and vegan omega three supplements, there is no issue with eating enough protein or getting sufficient nutrition from a vegan diet. Vitamin B12 comes from dirt and as animals live in the countryside their meat contains it. As modern humans generally live in a dirt free environment, we need to supplement. I get omega three from flax seeds, but supplement – probably unnecessarily – to be on the safe side.

As with any diet it takes time to change and it takes attention to make sure the new diet is balanced, but it soon becomes a way of life. I recommend Dr Gregor’s excellent ‘How not to Die’ cook book, which gives an overview of his ‘daily dozen’ food group recommendations, and contains the best recipe for vegan Mac ‘n cheese ever! And it’s healthy! Another favourite recipe in this book is ‘nice cream’, my favourite desert. Frozen fruit (best with banana and berries) blended with nut butter to make a delicious ice cream alternative. Add a few dates for toffee like chewy chunks! Add raw cacao powder for chocolate flavour. What’s not to like? You can track your ‘daily dozen’ progress each day on Dr Gregor’s free app, just search for ‘Dr Gregor’s Daily Dozen’.I feel a lot better on a vegan diet and my complexion glows as it never did before. Many minor health niggles have receded, as have peri-menopausal symptoms.

The second reason is animal welfare. This is all very grim. If you want to know the truth about animal agricultural practices within the UK, watch ‘Land of Hope and Glory’, but only if you have a strong stomach. Here are the facts many of which are shown in the movie Land of Hope and Glory.

The third reason is concerns for the environment. On a personal level the biggest way to reduce our carbon foot print is to move to a whole food plant based diet. Watch the movie Cowspiracy and George Mobiot’s recent Channel 4 documentary Apocalypse Cow.

For an overview of veganism within in the last year, watch the excellent and comprehensive Vegan 2019.

Compassion, health and sustainability these are the reasons I eat a whole food plant based diet. I want to walk my talk. I investigate and follow the scientific evidence and make my own mind up. If you want to join me and are struggling and want some help or are thriving and want to celebrate, I am running a retreat in Scarborough at the end of June based on compassion based mindfulness practice as a foundation for moving towards a more vegan lifestyle.

Kind Wishes

Heather