‘The only way to take care of the future is to be present now.’ This year has been a year of solitude and of connection for me. In January I moved into a remote cottage, on my own, after 20 years of living a happy family life. Then lockdown arrived in March. And I…
I spent some of my weekend writing about the three emotional system model, based in the Compassion Focussed Therapy work of Prof. Paul Gilbert. According to this model there are three emotional systems, threat, drive and soothe and they tend to be out of balance for most of us, due to our evolved brain, our…
Next week, after a journey that began that began at the start of 2016, I shall graduate with a PhD in Education from the University of Aberdeen. I guess the journey really began in the autumn of 2013 when I embarked on the Masters programme in Studies in Mindfulness with the Mindfulness Association and the…
“Rather than letting our negativity get the better of us, we could acknowledge that right now we feel like a piece of shit and not be squeamish about taking a good look.” Pema Chödrön Well last week stress got the better of me. I forgot I was a mindfulness teacher let alone a mindfulness practitioner…
One of the jobs I get to do is to come up with the monthly themes and phrases for the MA monthly calendar. Then I send them on to Lisa, who works her magic and creates the beautiful calendars. For Christmas I chose a theme of connecting at Christmas because often this can be emotionally…
Last week I led a five day compassion retreat as part of our Level 2: Responding with compassion course. It was intense, in a good way, and for many participants transformative. At the end of the course we had a sharing, which conveyed the significant switches of perspective that people had experienced, in particular a…
I recently had an experience which triggered some trauma from earlier in my life. It resulted in a rather spectacular and intense display of memories connecting together and some emotional distress, which lasted for a couple of days. As a result of my years of practice, while experiencing the coming and going of thoughts, emotions…
Recently, as part of training in mindful inclusion, I was watching a video by Cornel West a philosopher, activist and professor at Harvard and Princeton who speaks on the role of race, gender and class in American society. He is an impassioned speaker – known for saying that “justice is what love looks like in…
Breathe, said the wind How can I breathe at a time like this, when the air is full of the smoke of burning tires, burning lives? Just breathe, the wind insisted. Easy for you to say, if the weight of injustice is not wrapped around your throat, cutting off all air. I need you to…