One day this week I was looking at the news on my Guardian app. Relentless awful news: Covid rising again, young students confined to their rooms, new policy in schools to not teach anything anti-capitalist and a further undermining of the BBC and free journalism in the UK. I have friends who are facing the…
This morning in my practice I noticed a lot of thoughts about all I had to do and a lack of time in which to do it. It has been a busy time at the Mindfulness Association this September. We had a validation event last week and our new collaboration with the University of the…
I have been questioned by some colleagues and criticised by some readers of my blog about promoting a vegan diet on the retreat I am leading this week and in my blog. When I was discussing this with colleagues last week, the view I arrived at was that within the Mindfulness Association ‘Compassion is at…
Head over to our NEW Podcast Channel – https://mindfulnessassociation.podbean.com/ In this new series of PodCasts, Heather and Helen will be interviewing people about their mindful lives. Be sure to check in each week to listen to the podcast. The first podcast in Mindful Lives – is with Alan Hughes, Tutor and Mindfulness Association Headquarters team…
We are living in interesting times. There are a lot of challenges. However, it strikes me that as a country and as a human race there has never been more opportunity for positive transformation. This is the same in our practice, in our lives and in the world – challenge is the catalyst for positive…
“Warriorship does not refer to making war on others, aggression is the source of our problems, not the solution… Chogyam Trungpa, The Sacred Path of the Warrior I just love the title of this book by Chogyam Trungpa gifted to me by a woman I met as I hitched my way to Italy in…
People in cities in America – and other countries around the globe in solidarity – have taken to the streets to protest against the systemic inequalities that led to the death of George Floyd a few days ago. The unjust death of another black American, has brought the fault lines of deep tension around race…
Last weekend was our 10th anniversary celebration and I felt that the celebration manifested some key qualities of the Mindfulness Association: practice, presence, common humanity, compassionate messiness, kindness and joy. Qualities that Lana has captured beautifully in her documentary ‘Swimming Upstream: Ten Years of the Mindfulness Association’ that was premiered at the weekend. I am…
Don’t say that I will depart tomorrow — even today I am still arriving. Look deeply: every second I am arriving to be a bud on a Spring branch, to be a tiny bird, with still-fragile wings, learning to sing in my new nest, to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower, to…