Articles and blog posts written by team members, tutors and supervisors of the Mindfulness Association about how they bring mindfulness into their lives.
In the first phase of my Mindfulness training, I was taught acceptance, being with difficulties and blocks unconditionally. This was rather gruelling as in those early days there was a lot to be accepted: rage; rejection; jealousy; fear of failure; self-criticism & lack of self-worth. At that time, not seeing these subtle thoughts or emotions…
I have been working a lot with acceptance lately. From a professional standpoint, the members at the weekly sit requested a session with the practice of RAIN, or the meditation on acceptance created by Tara Brach, then I modeled the RAIN practice when I was teaching on the MBLC Teaching Skills retreat and I will…
I am at Samye Ling in the middle of delivering the retreat for people training to teach the brand new Mindfulness Based Living Course for Young Adults (MBLC-YA). I am delivering it with the creator of the course, Heather Grace Bond (nee MacKenzie), a graduate of our MSc in Mindfulness (click here) who we are…
I usually have a question dropped in to the back of my mind on the look out for a theme for my blog. Generally, something emerges and the blog writes itself. This week is different, as the themes that are emerging are all ones I have written about many times before, such as: Firstly, an…
Today I am sitting in the sunny garden of my new house in Scotland, awaiting the arrival of Choden and Norton Bertram-Smith for a Board meeting of the MA. We are the three Directors of the MA, which is a Scottish not for profit Limited Company. Today we will be mainly reviewing accounts and discussing…
I’ve done something really useless “Time to recognise the sanctity of the world, of minerals, rocks, river and plants” – Rachel Corby Rewilding “Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better” – Albert Einstein Many of my mindfulness friends and colleagues are very keen gardeners. They grow a wide range…
One of the best teachings I received from Rob Nairn was on self-acceptance. He would say ‘If we accepted ourselves wholly and unconditionally would it matter what others think of us?’ He would also say that ‘We might as well accept this version of ourself as we don’t have a spare in the cupboard!’ That…
As I mentioned last week, I am currently at my cabin in the north of Canada; moreover, I have been sharing space with a lot of people in a small house. My cabin is an 800 square foot wooden structure with three bedrooms, 4 teenagers, a set of grandparents, my brother and myself. Things are,…
This last weekend I was in Venice to teach the last weekend of the Level 3 – Seeing Deeply (insight) training. I have worked a lot with this group – most did their Level 2 – Responding with Compassion training with me, some did their Level 1 – Mindfulness: Being Present training with me and…