MBLC Teachers

New MBLC teachers

I have just completed delivering the 6 day Mindfulness Based Living Course teaching skills retreat and seen a new cohort of embodied mindfulness teachers committed to sharing the benefits of compassion based mindfulness with their communities. It was a wonderful week working with my friends and colleagues Choden, Barbara Reid and Alan Hughes – what…

masters retreat on Holy Isle

Masters retreat on Holy Isle

I am on the beautiful Holy Isle this week delivering the year end retreat for the first years of the University of Aberdeen’s MSc in Studies in Mindfulness. There can be no better place on the planet to practice mindfulness! It is a pilgrimage to get here. A wonderful journey, at each stage meeting up…

growing-courage

Growing Courage

When we think of mindfulness and compassion in action, we often jump straight to thinking about gestures of kindness, or caring interventions, or supportive acts, and usually aimed at someone other than ourselves. I sometimes feel there can be something a bit ‘Tom and Jerry’ about this – you know the thing – Tom chases…

The Hardest Part

On a recent retreat a well-intentioned participant informed me that my drive system was overactive. She was referring to the three-circle model of Prof. Paul Gilbert which is part of our Mindfulness Level 2 – Responding with Compassion. This model postulates three psychological systems: a threat system, which triggers the fight, flight, freeze response when…

exciting times

Exciting Times

It is early Sunday morning and I am awake early in my cozy room at Samye Ling Tibetan centre. It is before the start of our second day of this MSc Studies in Mindfulness weekend. The first year students are beginning their Compassion training. The second year students are learning research skills as well as…