In this moment as you read these words, turn your awareness to your body. Are your shoulders hunched up, your breathing shallow, your neck tense? What else do you notice? Develop your Awareness It’s a fact that throughout the day your body experiences a continual flow of tensions. You only need to develop the simple Continue reading
My rage against reality causes stress ‘I don’t want this to be happening!’ Well, I could be referring to political events here in Britain or around the world. It certainly would be true! My rage against reality causes stress. Do you recognise how this happens for you in your daily life? ‘I wish my child Continue reading
I’ve had an earworm stuck in my mind for several days now. It’s unwanted An earworm is an unwanted tune that’s in your head, on repeat! Mine is ‘Let it go!’ which comes from a Disney film I never saw. But it’s currently being used on a TV ad. Earworms are a bit like Continue reading
Do you feel you’re not Being or Doing enough? At the start of a new year it’s easy to look critically at ourselves. We decide that we’re not being or doing enough. All the things that need improvement seem glaringly obvious. We read how everyone else is setting goals for success. When we compare ourselves Continue reading
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 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. It Continue reading
A calm life means you’re not agitated or disturbed. It doesn’t mean that the unexpected or unwanted never happens. That would be pretty impossible right now, wouldn’t it? Instead, with mindfulness, everything feels a little more under control. No, that’s not true. Mindfulness can help you feel a tiny bit empowered about how you respond Continue reading
Are you carrying round a heavy burden? It might be a secret, a grudge, resentment or regret. Maybe it’s busy-ness or sadness. Whatever your burden, you know it’s time to let this go. ‘I think of the trees and how simply they let go, let fall the riches of a season, how without grief (it Continue reading
Most of us put on a brave front. We push ourselves harder and we keep positive. And yet beneath the veneer of success or mask of serenity that we’ve created, we often don’t feel good enough. A ‘trance of unworthiness’ lies beneath all our endeavours. This is Tara Brach’s term – a trance of unworthiness Continue reading
What do we mean to ‘reveal the true you’? The Clay Buddha Jack Kornfield reminds us in ‘The Wise Heart’ of a story from Thailand. A clay statue of a Buddha had sat for hundreds of years in a village square. One day a villager noticed a crack in it and had a closer look. Continue reading
‘At the most basic level, meditation is simply about thinking thoughts, then letting go of them,’ says Suze Yalof Schwartz, founder of Unplug Meditation. ‘It’s about learning to distinguish between thoughts that serve us and thoughts that don’t.’ How can you let go of negative thoughts with mindful meditation? Very often it seems to Continue reading
