"He who has a Why? in life can tolerate almost any How? "


Posts tagged with 'meditation'

Going back for a university reunion: self-esteem, hallucinogens, wonder & the transpersonal (4th post)

14th September 2012

"Who will prefer the jingle of jade pendants if he once has heard stone growing in a cliff?" Lao Tzu "To stand and stare, to watch the rising sun, fills me with such calm happiness, I am sure I have dwindled away too much time on inessentials." Diana Gault (when …

Using Williams & Penman's book "Mindfulness: a practical guide" as a self-help resource - overview of 10 supporting blog posts

14th August 2012

Earlier this year I wrote a sequence of ten blog posts to support people working their way through Mark Williams & Danny Penman's fine book "Mindfulness: a practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world" as a self-help training in mindfulness practice. I've referred lots of people to these …

Leeds BABCP conference: compassion focused therapy & CBT, John Vlaeyen & treating chronic pain problems (8th post)

2nd August 2012

In June I wrote a series of five posts reporting on a pre-conference workshop (about treating chronic fatigue) and the first day of the British Association for Behavioural & Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP) main annual conference, held this year in Leeds. Then last month I wrote a further couple of posts. …

Personal directions in mindfulness teaching: should we really only be training mindfulness for diverse group populations?

6th July 2012

I wrote an initial blog post in May entitled "Personal directions in mindfulness teaching: an overview" where I said that I was "excited, stimulated, happy, frustrated, challenged, and hopeful" about the current surge of interest in mindfulness and introduced the following diagram: (This diagram is downloadable both as a PDF …

Jon Kabat-Zinn in Glasgow: honour, confusion, sadness, interest

21st June 2012

I wrote a blog post yesterday just before heading out to what was billed as an international conference on "Mindfulness, health and wellbeing" with Jon Kabat-Zinn. I described the structure of the day - with a variety of interesting speakers billed - and sounded a note of caution about possible …

Jon Kabat-Zinn in Glasgow: has mindfulness got too "sexy"?

20th June 2012

I'm off to Glasgow a little later this morning to what is billed as "Mindfulness, health and wellbeing" An international conference with Jon Kabat-Zinn, co-hosted by Mindfulness Scotland and University of Glasgow. The programme looks very interesting - Harry Burns, chief medical officer for Scotland, is scheduled to kick off …

Using Williams & Penman's book "Mindfulness: a practical guide" as a self-help resource (10th post) - eighth week's practice

9th March 2012

I wrote recently about the seventh week's practice in this eight week mindfulness course. In today's post I'll look at the final session of the Williams & Penman course, described in chapter twelve (pp. 236 to 249) - "Your wild and precious life". This phrase is taken from Mary Oliver's …

Using Williams & Penman's book "Mindfulness: a practical guide" as a self-help resource (9th post) - seventh week's practice

23rd February 2012

The seventh week's practice in the sequence described so well in Mark Williams & Danny Penman's book on mindfulness is covered in chapter eleven "When did you stop dancing?" (pp. 209 to 235). I have already discussed the sixth week's practice in another recent post. The week-by-week programme summary (p. …

Personal experience (3rd post): feedback as opportunity & as a way of getting back on track

9th February 2012

In the last couple of days I have written posts on "Personal experience: feedback, group work & learning from difficulties" and "Personal experience: caution over "goodwill" & "mindfulness" practice". I'm a great fan of both mindfulness training and of using goodwill or loving-kindness or compassion focused meditation practices. However in …

Personal experience (2nd post): caution over "goodwill " & "mindfulness" practice

8th February 2012

"No man was ever wise by chance." Lucius Seneca Yesterday I wrote a post about working with personally difficult information ... in this example, challenging group feedback. There are so many research teams and streams of fascinating information emerging that look at how to cope well in stressful situations. I …