Articles and blog posts written by team members, tutors and supervisors of the Mindfulness Association about how they bring mindfulness into their lives.
I am a very fortunate person. Things have gone well in my life. Although I have had the odd set-back, my mum says of me that each time I fall in a pile of crap I come up smelling of roses. And yet still I worry. I find myself in a lovely new home,…
I have had a lovely weekend at Samye Ling with the new cohort, our eighth, of MSc students. I have a lovely tutor group this year and it was wonderful to hear their aspirations for Mindfulness in their life and work. It made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end to…
I am very fortunate to have many good friends around me, my family, many that I work with and many that I practice with. Their love, support and kindness helps me to keep going, especially when things get tough. They remind me of common humanity, that I am not alone on this path, especially when…
I am packing up my house, with my husband and daughter, after 16 happy years and moving to be closer to Samye Ling. There is a lot to do and so many boxes, so many things to sort. The house is chaotic: the bathroom ceiling came down because of a leak from next door’s roof,…
In the first phase of my Mindfulness training, I was taught acceptance, being with difficulties and blocks unconditionally. This was rather gruelling as in those early days there was a lot to be accepted: rage; rejection; jealousy; fear of failure; self-criticism & lack of self-worth. At that time, not seeing these subtle thoughts or emotions…
I have been working a lot with acceptance lately. From a professional standpoint, the members at the weekly sit requested a session with the practice of RAIN, or the meditation on acceptance created by Tara Brach, then I modeled the RAIN practice when I was teaching on the MBLC Teaching Skills retreat and I will…
I am at Samye Ling in the middle of delivering the retreat for people training to teach the brand new Mindfulness Based Living Course for Young Adults (MBLC-YA). I am delivering it with the creator of the course, Heather Grace Bond (nee MacKenzie), a graduate of our MSc in Mindfulness (click here) who we are…
I usually have a question dropped in to the back of my mind on the look out for a theme for my blog. Generally, something emerges and the blog writes itself. This week is different, as the themes that are emerging are all ones I have written about many times before, such as: Firstly, an…
Today I am sitting in the sunny garden of my new house in Scotland, awaiting the arrival of Choden and Norton Bertram-Smith for a Board meeting of the MA. We are the three Directors of the MA, which is a Scottish not for profit Limited Company. Today we will be mainly reviewing accounts and discussing…