It’s like the scent of rain after a month of drought, the way it rises up and fills the lungs, quiets the body and gentles the mind – that’s what it’s like when, after grasping and spinning and reaching and clenching at last, exhausted with my own fear, I lay my hand on my own…
And sometimes when I move at the edge of a greatness— a lake or a sea or a mountainside— my insignificance thrills me and the largest of my sadnesses dwindle smaller than the space between grains of sand and in that moment, knowing my place, comes a love so enormous I can love anyone, anyone,…
My friend and I snickered the first time we heard the meditation teacher, a grown man, call himself honey, with a hand placed over his heart to illustrate how we too might become more gentle with ourselves and our runaway minds. It’s been years since we sat with legs twisted on cushions, holding back our…
One of those strange phenomena of being human is that we get ill. This body sometimes gets tired, and it also succumbs to a wide variety of viruses and bugs thrown at it daily. This body also has the possibility of becoming sick with diseases that can take us by surprise. I would regard myself…
Just recently I have become very aware of stress. It’s a bit sneaky is stress. It just crept up on me when I wasn’t paying attention. I was too busy to notice. When I did notice it – my body began to send me signals. It usually lurks between my heart and solar plexus –…
I am currently working with my friend Michaela (Ki) James on the delivery of a new Mindfulness Based Healthy Living course. Key focuses of this course are self-compassion and healthy eating habits. Last week in the course we explored the obesogenic environment and the evolved human condition and concluded that we are in a fight…
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…
Simple family exchanges are where I exercise my Mindfuness practice. Isn’t that just exactly where it’s all happening? Mindfulness has helped me so much with this unravelling which is a truly messy affair and takes a while, well, like forever, and I am deeply committed to that. The more I practice, the more I go…
This week my own challenge is to try to focus. I have an important document to write by next week. And I have this blog to write. I was going to write this blog about the document called “Initial Thoughts” I have to write next week because I thought it might help me galvanise my…