Here is Your 3 Minute Mindful Check-In
Are you rushing about your day with your head full of worries and your body following you along for the ride? The Mindful Check-In is a 3 minute awareness exercise. It takes a few minutes to do a Mindful Check-In and notice how your body, emotions and state of mind are doing. It’s great to…
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Are your Thoughts on Autopilot?
Your brain likes to conserve energy. Lots of things you do occur on autopilot so that you can function easily and swiftly. But possibly less helpful are your thoughts on autopilot. Me and My Big Mouth! You may find you go through the motions of your life on autopilot. Yet it’s not just your day-to-day…
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Keep Calm and be Mindful!
You wake up. You launch yourself into the day. Like a rocket or a whirling dervish, in a blur of landscape. Or do you drag yourself out of bed with groans and great reluctance. You will yourself to be motivated! Either way, here’s how to start your day and keep calm and be mindful. Steps…
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Create New Habits with Mindfulness
Every day is filled with repeated behaviours, thoughts and experiences ‘Experience is just showing up even though your mind is elsewhere, Awareness is when you notice you’re there.’ Ruby Wax As Ruby Wax says in ‘Sane New World’, we can all go through the motions, but bringing mindfulness or ‘awareness’ to what we’re doing transforms…
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Mindfulness is a String of Pearls
Mindfulness is a string of pearls that holds together the best values you might wish to embody: acceptance peace patience gratitude compassion joy love and so many more strong qualities Mindfulness If you practice mindfulness and meditation, it doesn’t mean you shut the world out. It’s not about staying safe in your own little bubble.…
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Are you Living or Surviving? Mindfulness is the key
Are you living or surviving? Much of what we do is on auto-pilot where our minds are elsewhere or caught up in anxiety. Thich Nhat Hhan talks about ‘…hurrying to get the dishes out of the way as if they were a nuisance …’ We’re never present! In all areas of our lives this can…
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Hate and Blame
What can we do with hate and blame? I was in Amsterdam not long ago and re-visited Anne Frank’s house. It’s a place that provides a powerful memory of Anne’s life so cruelly ended with the atrocities that took place. Also while there, I read ‘Night’ by Elie Wiesel, a slim poignant read. It details…
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How to transform your life with one single thing
You have the power right now to transform your life with one single thing. Pretty much everyone experiences stress at one time or another. It’s not all bad – as humans we do enjoy challenges and even a little bit of fear! But it can get too much. Do you recognise any of these? tight…
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You are Valuable
‘Name a quality or strength that you value about yourself’ Silence. This was a suggestion to each person during our Meditation Session. Everyone found this tricky – they either couldn’t think in that moment of anything, or were reluctant to say! Sit on your own and give yourself time to think about it. You may…
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How being mindful stops you going round in circles
Have you noticed how all your thoughts – positive, negative and neutral, repeat themselves? You might realise that you are going round in circles. You experience thoughts and emotions that don’t differ greatly from when you were a child. Life-long circles of behaviour Many of the beliefs we picked up in our childhoods remain within…
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Something’s got to change
What prompts you to try something new? Curiosity? Following a trend? Don’t want to miss out? Blind panic? As I update this blog post in November 2017, we are surrounded by the need for change. (Sexism, power inequality, a need for underlying change in our society.) You may be feeling this within you too. An…
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Are you Asleep or Awake?
Are you living your life asleep or awake? Consciously or unconsciously? With mindfulness or without it? You might find yourself going through the motions of your life. Your journey to and from work, the seasons outside your window, wishing away your hours at work, anticipating the weekend and dismissing weekdays. You may well have learnt…
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How to Deal with Difficult Emotions
Are you fed up? … with experiencing difficult emotions and struggling to deal effectively with them? Is your mind an overwhelm of tangled information and unwelcome thoughts? Mindfulness is a way of life that lets you interpret your body’s moods and experiences more skillfully. It’s a skill that gives you a way to untangle your…
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The Trouble with Mindfulness Practice
The trouble with mindfulness practice is that you forget! You get immersed in your busy life. The reasons you want to be more mindful are the same reasons that make it feel you have no time for it! Life feels like you’re on a carousel, where whirling thoughts take you round in circles. Or maybe…
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Why 2016 will be the year you become more mindful
New Year is a great time to set your intention to become more mindful. If you can give yourself 10 minutes morning and evening for some mindful meditation, you will find a spaciousness starts to open up inside you. That’s one way to develop it. Yet ‘mindfulness’ is an umbrella term for a way of…
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Don’t believe everything you tell yourself about stress
Do you tell yourself that life would be better if everything was easier and stress-free? Yet what you tell yourself about stress is usually an auto-pilot reaction! Don’t always believe what you tell yourself about stress. Here are 3 ways to shift your view. 1. View your body’s stress response as helpful, not debilitating Your…
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WORK VS LIFE: How to Achieve Work-Life Balance
WORK VS LIFE! – How do you achieve a work-life balance? For some of you, there might not be enough challenge and satisfaction in your work. Or the stress of experiencing a lack of work if you are freelance or in retail. For others, there may be too many meetings or tasks packed into a…
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How to be a Jedi Knight: the mind-body connection
The discipline of a Jedi Knight Through years of disciplined training and meditation, the Jedi Knight honed body and mind into perfect harmony. Whether you’re a Star Wars fan or not, there’s a lot of interest in the Mind-Body connection. What exactly does this mean? As a child, you may remember moments of exuberant joy…
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How are you?
Busy thank you! I read somewhere that this is the accepted greeting among Chinese business people. Q: How are you? A: Busy thank you! It’s universal, isn’t it? These days ‘busy’ equates with success – a successful ‘busy’ business, a ‘busy’ social life, an activity holiday packed with ‘busy’ activities and scheduled relaxation time. When…
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Why do you Need Mindfulness?
You’re a busy person. You don’t have time to slow down. So why do you need mindfulness and what could it mean for you? Mindfulness means ‘awareness’ Another meaning for ‘mindfulness’ is ‘awareness’. So, if are always rushing on to the next moment, what happens to the one you are in? Without awareness, it’s easier…
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The Powerful Pause
A swift reaction You know that split second when you open your mouth and say something without thinking it through? How can you gain control and implement a powerful pause? Your swift reaction comes direct from the most primitive part of your brain. It happens swiftly often disguising anger or fear. It hits you powerfully…
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