mindfulness-jigsaw

Why Mindfulness is Important

In the wake of the pandemic overall there are lower levels of mental and physical wellbeing. Levels of stress and anxiety are being exacerbated by worries about the cost of living crisis, the war in Ukraine and ongoing environmental degradation. In an aging population with less access to the NHS many are living with chronic…

secular-mindfulness

Secular Mindfulness

Secular mindfulness began in the clinical realm with Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), which was developed in the early 1980s by John Kabat-Zinn in the US for people experiencing chronic health conditions. This inspired the development of Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) in the mid-1990s by Mark Williams and others within the UK as an…

living-without-regret

Living Without Regret

I did the members teaching this week on this topic of living without regret. To prepare for it I looked at some research on this topic. Research by Gilovich et al (1995) looks into what people regret most in their lives and why, and indicates that mistaken actions generate more regret in the short term,…

Which-Path-of-meditation

Which Path of Meditation?

Here at the Mindfulness Association we offer a long term systematic training in meditation that moves through practices for cultivating mindfulness, compassion, insight and wisdom. As we do this we don’t leave the previous practices behind but they form a foundation for future practices and also provide a rich collection of practices to revisit whenever…

Surfing the Wave of frustration

Surfing the Wave of Frustration

Today it feels like the whole world is conspiring against me! Today I’m having a day! It’s such a shock to feel something not very nice stirring deep down somewhere, a surprise. I don’t like it. And yes, I do want it to go away. Everything. I want everything and everyone to go away. Well…