In the meditation practice that I offer, I regularly give the instruction that if you are disturbed by noise, by stories, planning, thoughts in your head, to note the disturbance with “no judgement,” and return to the breath.

It is easy for me to judge myself. I put expectations on myself, how I expect myself to be. How I expect myself to show up in the world and on the meditation cushion. Acceptance is about me recognizing that I am human. That I have struggles and that that is OK - no judgement.

On the meditation cushion it is “no judgement.” With time that starts to seep into and impact our daily lives - I make a mistake and I accept that, “no judgement.” But there is rush to get there. For now let’s deal with our mind in the safety and privacy of our meditation practice.

It is very easy for meditation to become another thing that we are fitting into our daily, busy lives. We still engage in it sincerely with interest, and in time feel the benefits of our practice.

However, there is a simple action that I believe will help to take your experience of meditation that little bit deeper. It was something that I was taught when I started my meditation practice, and I still continue it today. This is the simple act of taking a few moments before and after your practice to reflect on why you are choosing to spend a part of your day in meditation. I call it Intention and I talk about it in this episode.

In this episode I speak about the benefit of having an overarching goal, a reason, an intention that brings you to your meditation cushion - Goal. At the same time I offer a word of caution of the expectations that we might bring to our individual meditation sessions - No Goal.

So there is a dance happening. On the one hand we have a reason to want to build and develop our meditation practice. On the other, how can we hold our intentions lightly, free of expectations? I explore this balance in this episode.

When do we meditate? How long for and what time of the day? And how about where? Do we just sit wherever we find ourselves, or do we have a place put aside for our meditation practice?

In this episode, I explore these questions, offering some perspectives to help you find what works for you.

In a podcast on the subject of meditation, it feels prudent to ask the question, “What is meditation?” I have covered this in earlier episodes, but I believe that it is good to revisit these subjects to become familiar with them. And göm, the Tibetan word for meditation which means “to familiarize,” is what I explore in this episode.

Meditation is a step by step process, session by session, breath by breath. Meditation is about continuity, each session building on your previous work, even at times when it feels as though nothing much is happening!

In this episode I discuss this step by step path of meditation by using the analogy of a recent experience that I had repairing my air conditioning unit. Please join me for today’s meditation session as we take another step along with our practice.

After just over three years, I am relaunching the Behind The Thoughts podcast. The last episode of podcast was published in September 2017…and then nothing, for no particular reason! 🤷🏼‍♂️

So today I am happy to be publishing Episode 41, with the current aim of posting an episode a week. Today’s episode contains a welcome back, a short introduction to meditation, a meditation session, and some closing words. I look forward to sitting with you over the coming weeks.

Taking care of the foundations of our meditation helps to build a solid base for developing our practice. With reaching the 40th episode I review some of the ideas that I covered in the early episodes and that underpin our meditation practice.

Sitting with difficult emotions or pain from, for example, a headache can be challenge. However, it is a challenge that is eased by the motivation, the reason that you enter into the meditation.

After a break in the podcast which has seen me moving house, I return to a subject that I visit from time to time because I believe that it is important. It’s that of keeping the continuity of one’s practice going, regardless of what is happening in your life.