threat-drive-and-soothing

Threat, Drive and Soothing

I spent some of my weekend writing about the three emotional system model, based in the Compassion Focussed Therapy work of Prof. Paul Gilbert. According to this model there are three emotional systems, threat, drive and soothe and they tend to be out of balance for most of us, due to our evolved brain, our…

stress-in-the-mess

Stress in the Mess

“Rather than letting our negativity get the better of us, we could acknowledge that right now we feel like a piece of shit and not be squeamish about taking a good look.” Pema Chödrön Well last week stress got the better of me. I forgot I was a mindfulness teacher let alone a mindfulness practitioner…

connecting-at-christmas

Connecting At Christmas

One of the jobs I get to do is to come up with the monthly themes and phrases for the MA monthly calendar. Then I send them on to Lisa, who works her magic and creates the beautiful calendars. For Christmas I chose a theme of connecting at Christmas because often this can be emotionally…

beneficial or egocentric

Beneficial or Ego-centric?

Last week I led a five day compassion retreat as part of our Mindfulness Level 2 – Responding with Compassion. It was intense, in a good way, and for many participants transformative. At the end of the course we had a sharing, which conveyed the significant switches of perspective that people had experienced, in particular…

making the obstacles the path

Making the Obstacles the Path

The consequences of the current pandemic have been devastating for many people, with much death and serious illness, leading to many being bereaved or having more caring responsibilities, but also with much economic hardship, with many losing their jobs and businesses and finding an inadequate safety net. These consequences should not be under-estimated and we…