"If in your head you undertake hatha yoga as a form of exercise or body building, you will end up with just what you reached for ... a more beautiful body. On the other hand, if you undertake hatha yoga as a form of yoga then it will, in a relatively short time, bring about a profound metamorphosis in your body calmness, sensitivity, and lightness ... all of which will facilitate your sadhana. "


Posts tagged with 'compassion'

Do psychotherapists, doctors and leaders develop "emotional chainmail"? Two kinds of empathy.

27th February 2013

I wrote yesterday about how, at the weekend, I was involved in an hour and a half's deep emotional conflict resolution with an old friend that was witnessed in a group by another eight people. As pretty much always, in the feedback that emerged over the next twenty four hours, …

Do psychotherapists, doctors and leaders develop "emotional chainmail"? Description of a possible problem.

26th February 2013

I've been in a peer "psychotherapy group" residential retreat again recently and I was involved in an interaction that has crystalised a series of thoughts about potential "emotional armouring" in therapists that I've been aware of more vaguely for some time. And in fact these "suspicions" involve not just psychotherapists, …

Could increasing our compassion for others be even more "therapeutic" than increasing our self-compassion?

13th February 2013

"It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life, that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself." Ralph Waldo Emerson "We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They …

Recent research: articles from January journals

5th February 2013

I read a lot of research. When I find an article of particular interest I download it to my bibliographic database - EndNote - which currently contains over 19,000 abstracts. Every few weeks I scan through all the articles I've found interesting in the previous month (in the general areas …

Recent evidence highlights the value of monitoring practice quality during mindfulness training

13th January 2013

Is it helpful to monitor the quality of one's mindfulness practice ... and, if so, what should one be monitoring? I've raised this question with experienced mindfulness teachers before and been answered with the concern that monitoring practice quality might increase an "achievement orientation" state of mind that could actually …

Recent research: articles from December journals

3rd January 2013

I read a lot of research. When I find an article of particular interest I download it to my bibliographic database - EndNote - which currently contains over 18,900 abstracts. Every few weeks I scan through all the articles I've found interesting in the previous month (in the general areas …

"To reach the other shore with each step of the crossing": a brief embodied cognition meditation exercise (3rd post)

30th December 2012

(This blog post is downloadable as both a Word doc and a PDF file) When I get to heaven they will not ask me, “Why were you not Moses?” Instead they will ask “Why were you not Susya? Why did you not become what only you could come?” Susya, a …

Recent research: articles from November journals

10th December 2012

I read a lot of research. When I find an article of particular interest I download it to my bibliographic database - EndNote - which currently contains over 18,800 abstracts. Every few weeks I scan through all the articles I've found interesting in the previous month (in the general areas …

Arntz & Jacob's new book "Schema therapy in practice": links with attachment theory and with therapies for self-compassion

16th November 2012

Yesterday I wrote a post "Arntz & Jacob's new book 'Schema therapy in practice: some introductory comments" about the recently published and potentially broadly applicable extension of this Dutch team's previously successful treatment approach for borderline personality disorder. So the authors comment "While schema therapy was originally developed for clients …

Recent research: articles from October journals

8th November 2012

I read a lot of research. When I find an article of particular interest I download it to my bibliographic database - EndNote - which currently contains over 18,600 abstracts. Every few weeks I scan through all the articles I've found interesting in the previous month (in the general areas …