Mindfulness For Beginners

If you’re listening to this early in 2021 then you might have spent some time thinking about new years resolutions, commitments to make your life happier and calmer. If you’re like me, new years resolutions tend to be a bit of a mixed bag, for every driving test passed there’s a gym membership that doesn’t get used beyond February. In this episode, we talk about how to make change stick.

Join me on my mindfulness course in Feb (only 12 places): https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/be-calm-be-happy-online-mindfulness-course-saturday-afternoon-group-tickets-133001853123

Join the Facebook group:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/999461463825856/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mindfulness_for

[email protected]

Meditation can be used to reduce stress / anxiety, improve your mood and live a  more peaceful, fulfilled life. If you find it helpful, I invite you to share on Facebook and say hello! If you're on itunes / Apple Podcasts, you may wish to leave a review. May you be happy, may you be peaceful, may you be healthy and live a long life.

Join me on my mindfulness course in Feb (only 12 places): https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/be-calm-be-happy-online-mindfulness-course-saturday-afternoon-group-tickets-133001853123

Join the Facebook group:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/999461463825856/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mindfulness_for

[email protected]

Meditation can be used to reduce stress / anxiety, improve your mood and live a  more peaceful, fulfilled life. If you find it helpful, I invite you to share on Facebook and say hello! If you're on itunes / Apple Podcasts, you may wish to leave a review. May you be happy, may you be peaceful, may you be healthy and live a long life.

If you’ve ever been in a place where you’re feeling low or  life just feels like a grind, you might have asked the question, what is it all about? There’s no shortage of influencers who want to provide you with answers, especially on TV or social media. In this episode we explore the mindfulness perspective on why we exist - the answer is simpler than you might think!

Join me on my mindfulness course in Feb (only 12 places): https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/be-calm-be-happy-online-mindfulness-course-saturday-afternoon-group-tickets-133001853123

Join the Facebook group:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/999461463825856/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mindfulness_for

[email protected]

Meditation can be used to reduce stress / anxiety, improve your mood and live a  more peaceful, fulfilled life. If you find it helpful, I invite you to share on Facebook and say hello! If you're on itunes / Apple Podcasts, you may wish to leave a review. May you be happy, may you be peaceful, may you be healthy and live a long life.

In the Buddhist tradition, desire is the root of all suffering; when we’re dissatisfied with our lives its because we’re attached to the idea that something better is out there that we don’t have. You might look at gratitude as being the antidote to that sense of dissatisfaction - we can be grateful for the important things in our life, the people we love or our health but also the little things like what we eat and our breath. Practicing being thankful works in the same way as our usual mindfulness, training our minds with a guided meditation or stopping every so often during the day to notice what's going on. Its in these moments we can draw happiness from the world in front of us.

Join the Facebook group:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/999461463825856/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mindfulness_for

[email protected]

Meditation can be used to reduce stress / anxiety, improve your mood and live a  more peaceful, fulfilled life. If you find it helpful, I invite you to share on Facebook and say hello! If you're on itunes / Apple Podcasts, you may wish to leave a review. May you be happy, may you be peaceful, may you be healthy and live a long life.

This week we’re talking about compassion, being aware of suffering and feeling a desire to alleviate it. Compassion is one of the key practices of mindfulness and its something we find easy when we think of someone we love. But where we can really struggle is feeling compassion towards ourselves; when we’re suffering we sometimes punish ourselves more for not being good enough. Mindfulness is a practice of compassion and that begins with yourself - when you let go of the idea of who you think you need to be and accept yourself as you are it’s an act of compassion that allows you to start to let go of suffering.

Join the Facebook group:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/999461463825856/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mindfulness_for

[email protected]

Meditation can be used to reduce stress / anxiety, improve your mood and live a  more peaceful, fulfilled life. If you find it helpful, I invite you to share on Facebook and say hello! If you're on itunes / Apple Podcasts, you may wish to leave a review. May you be happy, may you be peaceful, may you be healthy and live a long life.

In mindfulness we call the decisions we make ‘watering the seeds’. These everyday choices can contribute to our anger, our happiness, our fear - just in the same way that if you choose to water certain plants in your garden, you’re choosing what your future garden looks like. Being aware of decisions and prioritising your wellbeing as the most important factor makes a huge difference over time.

Join the Facebook group:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/999461463825856/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mindfulness_for

[email protected]

Meditation can be used to reduce stress / anxiety, improve your mood and live a  more peaceful, fulfilled life. If you find it helpful, I invite you to share on Facebook and say hello! If you're on itunes / Apple Podcasts, you may wish to leave a review. May you be happy, may you be peaceful, may you be healthy and live a long life.

Last chance to win a free place on mindfulness course - join our Facebook group to enter: https://www.facebook.com/groups/999461463825856

If you have kids or nieces/nephews you might have seen a baby suddenly become aware of their hand. They look at the palm, they look at the fingers, then they turn it over and realise there’s a back of the hand. And if they tell the fingers to move, it they wiggle! They laugh and laugh until the next experience comes along.  That’s what beginners mind is - approaching the world without assumptions, without judgement, without an idea in our heads for how things ought to be - just observing, accepting, feeling gratitude and joy. When we apply beginners mind to our loved ones, our environment and our body we have a deeper appreciation for what we have and can live happier lives.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mindfulness_for

[email protected]

Meditation can be used to reduce stress / anxiety, improve your mood and live a  more peaceful, fulfilled life. If you find it helpful, I invite you to share on Facebook and say hello! If you're on iTunes / Apple Podcasts, you may wish to leave a review. May you be happy, may you be peaceful, may you be healthy and live a long life.

If you think about what you need to be happy, you might think about achieving something in your career, or a relationship, or buying a house. All of these things have one thing in common - attachment. When we think of the things that make us happy or sad, there is always something within that that we’re attached to.  For example, when we worry about what people think of us we’re attached to our reputation or attached to relationships. Of course its OK to enjoy possessions, enjoy relationships and doing our jobs well - but we can love someone without worrying that they’ll stop loving us, that they’ll leave us someday.

Join the Facebook group for a chance to win a free place on the Be Calm, Be Happy mindfulness course:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/999461463825856/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mindfulness_for

[email protected]

Meditation can be used to reduce stress / anxiety, improve your mood and live a  more peaceful, fulfilled life. If you find it helpful, I invite you to share on Facebook and say hello! If you're on iTunes / Apple Podcasts, you may wish to leave a review. May you be happy, may you be peaceful, may you be healthy and live a long life.

You might have been feeling stressed recently with events happening across the world or closer to home; a lot of that tension is manifested in our bodies without us being fully aware of it - that might be in your back, in your brow or simply in a general feeling of restlessness which could be interfering with your sleep. In this episode, I talk through how you can can use mindfulness to release tension within the body. Enjoy!

Join the Facebook group for a chance to win a free place on the Plum Village mindfulness course:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/999461463825856/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mindfulness_for

[email protected]

Meditation can be used to reduce stress / anxiety, improve your mood and live a  more peaceful, fulfilled life. If you find it helpful, I invite you to share on Facebook and say hello! If you're on itunes / Apple Podcasts, you may wish to leave a review. May you be happy, may you be peaceful, may you be healthy and live a long life.

If you suffer from social anxiety then you might stress in advance about meeting up with people, feel anxiety about going out in public, have regular thoughts that you’ve said the wrong thing or worry what people think of you. This anxiety is common and can helped by practicing mindfulness. You can smile to your anxiety, unlock the door, invite them in, sit at the table and listen. Shutting difficult feelings out doesn’t work - accepting your feelings will reduce the impact on your wellbeing.

Join the Facebook group for a chance to win a free place on my mindfulness course:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/999461463825856/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mindfulness_for

[email protected]

Meditation can be used to reduce stress / anxiety, improve your mood and live a  more peaceful, fulfilled life. If you find it helpful, I invite you to share on Facebook and say hello! If you're on itunes / Apple Podcasts, you may wish to leave a review. May you be happy, may you be peaceful, may you be healthy and live a long life.