Articles and blog posts written by team members, tutors and supervisors of the Mindfulness Association about how they bring mindfulness into their lives.
It falls to me each month to send out the membership packs to all of our wonderful members who upgrade to or renew their full membership. I love this job and settle down with some music on in the background to sign the letters, write and sign the certificates, stick on stamps and add the…
Self-Compassion – the perfect medicine for a mother’s heart I want to share with you a poignant moment which came not long after the birth of my son. I had been overwhelmed by a huge wave of relentless and overwhelming necessities. These washed over every moment of my life day and night – necessity to…
People often ask, ‘What is Mindfulness?’ and a good answer would be the lyrics of the Noah and the Whale song ‘Now is exactly the time’. I was listening to this yesterday as it is on my running play list. I am on holiday and aspiring to continue and reinforce a good habit; I have…
There are many benefits to mindfulness meditation, including the ability to deal skilfully with long term conditions and challenging life circumstances. I know many people who through their mindfulness practice are able to come to terms with their physical or psychological pain and flourish in their lives despite it. Mindfulness practice enables us to think…
Last week I was teaching on the MBLC teaching skills retreat. This causes a lot of our participants to go into anxiety meltdown as they have to be assessed while teaching session extracts from the MBLC 8 week course. It seems to trigger a lot of memories of being tested at school. Also, when teaching…
This week I have found myself very busy, but also still tired after my stomach bug of last week. I was leading our Joyful Club weekend and retreat at Samye Ling in Scotland, going straight from there to a two and a half day meeting of the U.K. Network of Mindfulness Teacher Training Organisations in…
Equanimity is a wonderful gift that over the years has developed from my mindfulness, compassion and insight practice. It means that when the shit hits the fan, I am less likely to panic and am more able to accept the situation as it is and see what unfolds. This contrasts sharply with my…
I was delivering the first weekend of Level 1 Teaching Skills – Introductory Teaching Skills at Samye Ling at the weekend. I found myself in the tutorial group feeling the palpable anxiety of the group who were each delivering 3 minute extracts from the Mindfulness sitting practice of settling, grounding resting and support (SGRS). Although I…
Our body is a wonderfully complex machine. We have the ability to move in so many different directions allowing a vast array of shapes, movements and postures without having to think about doing it. In specific movement classes such as yoga and pilates, we find that neural pathways need to connect automatically for these movements…