Articles and blog posts written by team members, tutors and supervisors of the Mindfulness Association about how they bring mindfulness into their lives.
How can our mindfulness skills help to resource us for making positive change in the world? There may be many things happening today in our world that feel deeply concerning and huge at the same time. These might include climate change, social and political injustice, poverty, animal welfare issues… topics with no easy answers, no…
Happy New Year to one and all! 2018 has stopped me in my tracks- literally! I have been in bed sick with the flu for the last week. However, and thankfully, my wonderful colleague Alan Hughes has stepped up to the plate for me and has written this week’s challenge and blog post. Alan writes…
I would like to live a long and healthy life, free of the main health problems that beset us in the West: heart disease, stroke, degenerative brain diseases, cancer and lung diseases. Would you? I would like to protect the environment from the effects of greenhouse gasses, deforestation and ocean dead zones. Would you? But…
I have a bit of a double whammy – a new year and a new decade of my life – for new year new me resolutions. The pressure is on, from me and from my culture, to make some changes to become a better version of myself. The implication is that I’m just not good…
Each morning when I practice I choose one of Pema Chodron’s compassion cards, which accompany her book ‘Start where you are’ (both excellent additions to any Christmas list). I select a card at random and then read the relevant section of the book, which is often just a couple of paragraphs. I take this as…
At Christmas time, with the night’s drawing in, we can find ourself cooped up in the house. This can feel quite claustrophobic, especially if we are guests or if we have guests staying over the Christmas period. Also, with all the over-eating, alcohol and Christmas telly a good walk in the fresh air can blow…
Many of us struggle with the coming together of old friends and family that happens at Christmas. So how do we bring ourself fully into these occasions? I think first it is important to acknowledge that some relationships are difficult, due to clashes (or more likely similarities) in personality. This is part of the rich…
I did my Christmas shopping yesterday, with my husband and daughter. We had a fun day out, spent enough but not too much money and hopefully bought some nice gifts that will be enjoyed by our friends and family. In general, Christmas troubles me: the unrealistic expectations, the excess, the over-spending, especially in an economy…
I enjoy this Coldplay lyric from 2011’s ‘Every Teardrop is a Waterfall’ and so apparently do they, as it has been used again in the recent ‘Miracles’. Our mind state inside effects everything. We know this from the difference between the days when we get out of the wrong side or the right side of…