Bringing our attention to the senses with open-mindedness and curiosity is one of the very first practices in an 8 week course You can find the previous segments of this video series on the following links below. Segment 1: Mindfulness for Life – Interviews with Jon Kabat-Zinn Segment 2: Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Segment 3: …
It’s not a question of finding the time to practice mindfulness, but rather of making the time; making the commitment to do nothing other than just pausing a little and being with your experience as it unfolds, from moment to moment. How does that sound as a resolution for the New Year? You can find …
Getting away from the drama of our personal stories and into an understanding of and intimacy with awareness itself; the realisation that there is no place to go, there’s nothing to do, and there’s no special mindfulness state to attain in order to become a whole person. You can find the previous segments of this …
Through mindfulness practice we learn to use our awareness to see how caught up we are with our likes and dislikes. We begin to notice how our tendencies to attach to the pleasant and to push away the unpleasant in our experience, are both harbingers of suffering. You can find the previous segments of this …
This video explores some of the mystery and wisdom inherent in the physical body and how the discipline of mindfulness based practice can enable us to get in touch and more intimate with all six senses and the ‘full dimensionality’ of human experience. You can find the previous segments of this video series on the …
This gentle, touching and understated piece of writing about the noticing of habitual behaviours, pausing and showing ourselves some love, turned up on my website some days ago. I thought it so good I asked the author if I could post it here. Thankfully she agreed. I hope you enjoy it as much as I …
In the fourth segment of this series Jon Kabat-Zinn talks about the practice of mindfulness as the path of liberation from our conditioned and habitual behaviours that we are, for the most part, unaware of. For the previous video segments of this series please see the following posts: Segment 1: Mindfulness for Life – Interviews …
A delightful and poignant gem from recently graduated UK animation student Tom Long. With over 1 million views on Youtube, other people clearly thought so as well. Take the three minutes to be thoroughly charmed; his examiners clearly were, as the film earnt him a first class honours degree from Southampton Solent University. An old …
This post brings you up-to-date with the latest courses and events at Embrace Mindfulness. 8 week MBSR programmes This is the core teaching programme of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). In the course you will become more aware of the unhelpful thought patterns that can trigger and perpetuate stress, anxiety and low moods. With that awareness …
It was such a beautiful November day in the UK today that this poem by Jeffery Harrison felt particularly apt. As you read perhaps spare a thought, and a penny or two, to help those whose lives have been turned upside down from some rather more inclement weather. Typhoon Haiyan Appeal from the Red Cross …
Pema Chödrön (born Deirdre Blomfield-Brown on July 14, 1936) is a notable American figure in Tibetan Buddhism. A disciple of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, she is an ordained nun, author, and teacher in the Shambhala Buddhist lineage Trungpa founded. A prolific author, she has conducted workshops, seminars, and meditation retreats in Europe, Australia, and throughout North …
A lovely little illustrative video on what it means to be present with your experience, what it means to pay attention and how important this is for our own welfare and the welfare of those we interact with. The video comes courtesy of Mindfulness in Medicine series developed by the University of Wisconsin School of …
“There is no question that the real mindfulness teacher, and the real meditation practice, is life itself. Every moment is an opportunity to realign ourselves with the actuality of what is unfolding, however challenging or mundane, and thereby choose not lose ourselves in our interpretations and stories about what is going on. This is easier …
John O’Donohue (1 January 1956 – 4 January 2008) was an Irish poet, author, priest, and Hegelian philosopher. He was a native Irish speaker, and as an author is best known for popularizing Celtic spirituality. O’Donohue’s first published work, Anam Cara (1997), which means “soul friend” in Gaelic, was an international bestseller and catapulted him …
Forty years ago, the astronauts of Apollo 8 orbited the moon for the first time and snapped the iconic “Blue Marble” photographs of the earth from space. It was not only an image of stunning beauty; it represented a powerful new perspective of earthly life and its place within the cosmos. It produced a radical …
This post brings you up-to-date with the latest courses and events at Embrace Mindfulness. 8 week MBSR programmes This is the core teaching programme of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). In the course you will become more aware of the unhelpful thought patterns that can trigger and perpetuate stress, anxiety and low moods. With that awareness …
An erudite and poignant article by Dr Grace Damman on the re-evaluation of her understanding of compassion following a near fatal car accident in 2008. Dr Damman is a long time resident of Green Gulch Farm (part of the San Francisco Zen Centre) and was honoured by the Dalai Lama at the 2009 “Unsung Heroes …
For those who may have missed it, the excellent Horizon programme on the neuroscience of personality which explores whether negative cognitive disposition (the tendency to be pessimistic) can be improved by amongst other things…..mindfulness meditation. First aired Wednesday 10th July, 2013
An incisive and thought provoking article first published in the Huffington Post on 1st July. I repost it here because I am inclined to agree with much of its content which addresses the perils of offering mindfulness based programmes in the workplace. The article is co written by David Loy, a professor and Zen teacher …
Lovely TED talk from Dr Brene Brown on what it means move towards our own vulnerability rather than trying to numb or avoid emotional pain and discomfort. Well worth the 20 minutes.