Articles and blog posts written by team members, tutors and supervisors of the Mindfulness Association about how they bring mindfulness into their lives.
I was at Samye Ling Tibetan Centre near Lockerbie in Scotland this weekend. I find it a very nourishing and uplifting place, with lots of smiles and laughter with friends and colleagues. It is a great place to practice Mindfulness and Compassion because that is what the whole place is designed for! I was practicing…
Hello fellow Members, Jane has asked me to say something about the research that we’re carrying out on the Everyone project, which I’ve been spending some time on over the last few weeks. As I’m sure you remember, the Everyone project offers eight week Mindfulness Based Living Courses (MBLC) to groups who may not otherwise…
When I sat down to do my practice on Sunday, I experienced feelings of sadness and anxiety. I have been experiencing these feelings pretty consistently over the last few months and along with this a real sense of self-criticism for feeling this way and a longing to feel a bit happier. I have an expectation…
This week, Choden and I are at the Oblate retreat centre in Crewe for a strategy meeting of the UK Network of Mindfulness Teacher Training Organisations. The meeting is for representatives of the teacher training organisations that are members of the UK Network, including Bangor and Oxford University, Breathworks, NHS and the MA. Also, we…
I missed writing my blog last week as I was very poorly with bronchitis. I fell ill while I was in Venice to teach the first weekend of our Level 3: Seeing Deeply training. It was interesting being poorly and away and teaching. Somehow while I was teaching, I was able to tap into a…
I am just home from Spain, more precisely Catalonia, where I have been delivering the MBLC teaching skills retreat. This will be the first group of Spanish graduates from our teacher training program and it is exciting to think of them delivering the program all across Spain. People travelled here from Las Palmas in the…
I was at Samye Ling at the weekend teaching on the Masters degree programme we deliver in partnership with the University of Aberdeen. It started in 2010 and our seventh cohort of students began in September last year. They did a module on Mindfulness last year and this weekend they were starting on their second…
It strikes me how important compassion is when it comes to training the mind. Mindfulness is on everyone’s lips now, but it is compassion that brings about real change. Certainly, mindfulness can bring about significant change too – for many people it is a revelation to realise that they do not have to follow all…
This last week I have been delivering the Compassion Based Living Course (CBLC) teaching skills retreat at Samye Ling with my colleague and good friend Choden. He is a great person to be delivering the retreat with as he is an expert in this field, drawing on his extensive experience as a Buddhist practitioner and…