Articles and blog posts written by team members, tutors and supervisors of the Mindfulness Association about how they bring mindfulness into their lives.
Today is my grandson’s birthday. He is 6. This is the first birthday I haven’t been with him. Usually I stay at their house overnight and surprise him in the morning when he wakes up. I’m usually helping out at his party. A photo on Facebook reminds me of the joy we felt at his…
I am struck by contrast in my life at the moment. On a day to day basis, I experience a peaceful, retreat like existence. I practice and teach sessions of meditation; mindfulness, compassion and insight. I walk the dogs by the river in this beautiful isolated valley. I work at my computer contributing to…
Morning coffee has gradually become a slow savouring ritual for me. I am aware of my coffee urge as soon as I exit dreamworld – as soon as daily consciousness kicks in – it’s the only thing that will coax me out of my cosy brushed cotton cosy-bed-nest – it’s coffee time! I didn’t used…
So I am here at the start of week three of being home alone and it is going pretty well. This weekend I had an online meeting with my mum and my sister Helen and a long FaceTime chat with my daughter. Helen’s husband did a live DJ set on FaceTime on Saturday afternoon…
I was looking through some notes on intention and motivation this morning and I came across some notes from doing a Charlie Morley golden shadow exercise from his book ‘Dreaming Through Darkness’. The golden shadow is made up of our good qualities and best aspirations, which often we are not able to admit to ourselves.…
Where do I even begin. Last night I joined in the evening sit – it was the first time I had managed because usually I am cooking dinner then. I’ve decided that we will eat earlier and make sure I connect with this most precious offering from the amazing tutors at the Mindfulness Association.…
I woke up on Friday morning feeling a sharp pain in my heart. My initial thought was – oh no my lungs are hurting, this can’t be good – then my next thought was that this was an emotional pain. It took a while for me to recognise what it might be. Then the thought…
I taught a session this weekend on equanimity. A definition of equanimity that I like is ‘a warm engagement with the world, without being troubled by it’. This counters the assumption that equanimity is cold or unfeeling. The opposite is true, as we continue to practice mindfulness and compassion, we grow to engage more and…
On Saturday 28th March I’m leading an online practice day with the theme allowing ourselves to be human. There will be the more familiar practices, plus some including a focus on our common humanity. I’m looking forward to appreciating the messy beauty of being human together. In the past when I’ve practiced self-compassion, I’ve focussed first…