The majority of mainstream mindfulness courses on offer today have their roots in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), which was developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn in 1979. It was initially developed to help people to manage stress and chronic health conditions. Jon Kabat-Zinn created MBSR to capture and embody key Buddhist teachings and to put the…
Patient: Doctor! I feel like a pair of curtains Doctor: Pull yourself together! This week a blog appeared out of an insight I had after I sat mindfully unstitching and then stitching some curtains. I saw how the mind tried to steal my bliss by making up a story to make me feel bad. But…
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…
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,…
There is a ruined old farmhouse in Northumberland called Blawearie. The name, apparently, means “tired of the wind”. Living on the North Yorkshire coast, I understand the sentiment behind this name and use if frequently, when day after day there is a relentless wind that rattles my bones, frazzles my energy and is a real…
Mindfulness is a way of being in our daily lives as well as a way of being that is central to most types of meditation. We practice mindfulness meditation as a way of becoming more mindful in our daily lives. But what do we mean by mindfulness or being mindful? Here at the Mindfulness…
The Humble Raisin is a portal to Mindfulness and beyond! How can a humble raisin possibly be a portal not only to the world of Mindfulness, but to the subtle thinking and emotional realm that goes on just beneath consciousness and then further down into the root of compassionate energy and a sense of connection…
This week Heather looked at the How Best to Learn Meditation in her Science and Mindfulness Blog – it was really helpful to see the different types of meditation and what benefits they have. As Heather said in her blog, there is scant scientific data to tell us what is the best way to meditate,…
Mindfulness + Wine = Winefulness? I don’t think so! I like a glass of wine. Or two. And sometimes it’s three. Mindfulness and wine. Hmm, not sure. This week I have decided to focus on wine, or I should say the lack of it, as my mindfulness practice. The Famous Buddhist art of Not-Doing! A…