Explore your inner world
Explore your inner world
In today’s busy world, there is an increasing desire to take time out, to find some stillness or what you could call mind space. The settling grounding resting mindfulness practice can help us in cultivating such mind space. Join us for a live guided sitting mindfulness practice this coming Sunday, 30th May at 18:30 CET […]
Settling Grounding Resting – Live Guided Mindfulness Practice Read More »
There are times when we might feel disconnected or dispersed from the body. In such instances, the bodyscan Practice can help in reconnecting and regrounding ourselves in the body. Join us for a live guided bodyscan practice this coming Friday 21st May at 18:10 CET on the Insight-Timer app. The event is free you can
Going Deep Into The Body – Live Guided BodyScan Practice Read More »
Following is the podcast of the conversation between Spiritual Blogger and Author Vasundhra Gupta and Clayton Micallef discussing the questions; What is and is not meditation? Is meditation suitable for everyone, and if in certain situations or for certain people meditation might not work and practising it might result in adverse experiences? Is Meditation Suitable
Meditation Conversations: Is Meditation Suitable for Everyone Read More »
Our sense of self refers to a set of characteristic and personal attributes that we feel define us. It is made up of what we see as those set of characteristics that distinguishes us from others. Our personality traits, physical qualities and abilities, personal likes and dislikes (preferences), beliefs, and moral codes and motivations all
Anatta Understanding the Fluid Nature of Self Read More »
We breathe in and breath out, but there lay a subtle pause between the in-breath and out-breath. Our breath is made of three parts our in-breath, the pause between the in-breath and out-breath and the out-breath itself. These together form the breath in a cyclical manner that is ever-changing as no in-breath and out-breath is
Noticing the Pause Between In-breath and Out-breath Guided Meditation Read More »
Our mind has an innate tendency to wander off, incessantly into thinking. At any one moment as if on impulse, we might find ourselves either thinking about worrying or mulling over the past or trying to anticipate the future or just daydreaming in the present. Such a state of mind detracts us from our present
Investigating The Living Present Read More »
In this sitting guided meditation practice, we go through the basic pedagogy for the cultivation of mindfulness. By first choosing a point of focus of our choosing as an anchor for our meditation practice. Then whenever we notice our mind wandering away losing focus of the anchor gently returning our attention to it no matter
Mindful Mornings Guided Meditation: Resting On Our Anchor Read More »
To fully understand what is the difference between Samatha and Vipassana meditation. It is crucial to distinguish that meditation practices lay on a continuum. From those that use concentrating on a single object to steady the mind to reach a state of absorption called calm-abiding. To those who employ concentration and calm-abiding to look into
What Is The Difference Between Samatha And Vipassana Meditation Read More »
When it comes to teaching mindfulness the memories of kindness meditation practice is one of the introductory techniques we use to explore and cultivate kindness in our lives. This post will give a general overview of why we do the memories of kindness meditation, the stages we go through in the memories of kindness practice
Memories of Kindness Meditation Practice Read More »
We can all agree that pain is an unpleasant feeling. Because of this, researchers are on a constant search for pharmaceuticals or psychological behavioural intervention to help with the symptoms of pain. Meditation is one such psychological intervention, and meditation teachers have long time argued that meditation might help with the symptoms of pain by
Does Meditation Change How We Perceive Pain Read More »
Mindfulness has been extensively used as a psychotherapeutic intervention for persons facing emotional distress because of a medical condition, and a recent literature review on mindfulness and infertility problems published in the journal of Human Reproductive Sciences by Patel et al. (2020) asked can mindfulness help increase coping with infertility problems. Coping with infertility problems
Can Mindfulness Help Increase Coping With Infertility Problems Read More »
The word gratitude comes from the Latin term “gratus”, which means “thankful, pleasing.” Therefore, in its simplest form, to be grateful is to have an appreciation and express thankfulness and moral philosophers have throughout the ages asked the question is gratitude a virtue? However, when we approach gratitude as a virtue, there is more to gratitude
Understanding Gratitude As A Virtue Read More »
Stress can drain our mental resources, and during challenging times we can end up stuck in our habitual patterns of reacting. Because of such repeated patterns of responding, we might, at times, react mindlessly to situations presenting themselves. This might not be a skilful way to deal with situations that require us to stop and
Taking a Mindful STOP Practice Read More »
The United Nation urges us that we need to – fight climate change like coronavirus – with the same resolve and determination we are showing in the fight against this imminent threat the new coronavirus. Unfortunately, although both COVID-19 and climate change are an existential threat to humanity, it seems that we are reacting slowly
UN Urges Us To Fight Climate Change Like Coronavirus Read More »
With the WHO finally calling the spread of the coronavirus COVID-19 a global pandemic, we find ourselves in an unprecedented situation and tiring times. As suddenly with such statement, the coronavirus COVID-19 became an issue affecting the whole world and every one of us as individuals in one way or another. So what can we
The Golden Rule and the Coronavirus COVID-19: Compassion is the Key Read More »
While researching online, I came across research articles arguing how meditation can help in ending “the cycle of violence” and help achieve world peace through the cultivation of mindful awareness (Brantmeier, 2007; Tanabe, 2016). Although going through some social media posts on meditation, you might also get the perception of meditation being like “some kind
Ending The Cycle of Violence: Can Meditation Help World Peace? Read More »
Frequently I think of world peace as the absence of war. But is it? Let’s consider the prospect that all the countries in the word agree to reduce their armies and weapons arsenals to the bare minimum. You might argue that we could have peace. However, what stops anyone of those countries from breaking the
Is World Peace The Absence Of War? Read More »
In our previous post on being “non-judgemental”, we looked at the workings of the “judging mind” and how an overtly judgemental mind can be very taxing and controlling and can leave you feeling stuck in life. Meditation, through the cultivation of mindfulness, presents an alternative to such a mode of existence through the application of an
Non-Judgemental (Part 2): What Does It Mean To Be Non-Judgemental? Read More »
Is this good bad or neutral? Most of the time, we go through our days judging our life experiences, the people we encounter, ourselves and our actions. So I asked myself this question – “Am I judgemental?” – “Could it be that being judgemental is our default setting?” Personally, in today’s connected world many times
Non-Judgemental (Part 1): Is Being judgemental our default setting? Read More »
Impermanence is also known as the philosophical problem of constant change. Reflect nothing remains the same and everything is in continuous flux, even your breath from moment to moment is different so much so that your next breath can be your last. The paradox with impermanence is that although we know change happens, we still
Thanks to Impermanence, Everything is Possible Read More »
It’s not the first time that thousands of academics united to urge people to take action on climate change. Personally, I agree with the scientists. I don’t think that at present we are talking about climate change but about a climate crisis an emergency that is endangering every one of us — even you who
Climate Change? Wake Up It’s a Climate Crisis an Emergency Scientists Warn Read More »
Image credit to BD Hypno Plus Mindfulness is the first step the vehicle through which we become mindful. Mindfulness is like a light that shines out in the dark, allowing us to become mindfully aware of our thoughts and feelings. How these affect our behaviour towards ourselves, other people and our surroundings. Mindfulness and being
STOP – What does mindfulness and being mindful mean? Read More »
“A human mind is a wandering mind, and a wandering mind is an unhappy mind” (Killingworth & Gilbert, 2010, p. 932). This was the concluding statement of a study on mind wondering which found that we spend as much as 50% of our lives lost in thinking. This can have negative effects on our mental,
Finding a Suitable Anchor of Attention in Meditation Read More »
When someone does you wrong in life, do you keep holding onto it or try to forgive. But what is forgiveness? Is forgiveness an exercise which benefits are for the other person or yourself? Let’s reflect on these. Forgiveness, in reality, isn’t “really” about someone else’s harmful behaviour but how you keep relating to it. It’s a reflection
Forgiveness: Making Our Own Peace in Life Read More »
Have you ever heard the story of the lotus flower growing out of the mud in the lake? It is a myth about the seed of compassion which lies dormant buried in the mud at the bottom of the lake and inside each one of us. It might lay there for a whole lifespan, totally
The Lotus Flower and the Painful Mud of Life Read More »
In the first and second article of this three-part series, we looked at what might be the cognitive processes at work in attentional and constructive meditation practices. We saw that attentional meditation practices help us cultivate a degree of emotional regulation. With constructive meditation practices using the cultivated emotional regulation to build onto and change
The nurturing of virtuous qualities has been a common endeavour of various philosophical and contemplative traditions (Eifring, 2015; Gethin, 1998). Constructive meditation practices were one of the methods developed and used by these traditions to foster the cultivation of a virtuous ethic. As with attentional meditation practices, constructive practices, need meta-awareness but they also serve
Constructive Meditation practices: The Fascinating cognitive processes at work (Part 2) Read More »
Meditation and mindfulness practices have been a subject of research for both cognitive and neuroscientists. In recent years research in such area has gained traction towards trying to understand the possible cognitive processes involved in meditation practices. This to attempt to classify them into a basic taxonomy according to the cognitive processes in common between
Meditation attentional practices: The Fascinating cognitive processes at work (Part 1) Read More »
Have you ever gone through a situation in your life and thought what if I could turn back the clock of time? This question of turning back the clock of time came to my mind after reading Didi’s blog post. Didi’s article reflects on how the experiences we have and share shape us and make
What If I Could Turn Back The Clock Of Time? Read More »
Why is “The Middle Way” important in meditation? In a recent blog post, we looked at the possibility that mindfulness practice follows an inverted U-shaped curve. This means that there could be an “optimal” point of meditation practice after which, the resulting mindfulness-related processes can turn “sour”. This could actually be seen as a reflection
Is The Middle Way Important In Meditation? Read More »