 A mother's question?
Ping! Last week I received this message from a mum, “I’d love to come and do your (adults MBSR) course one day, it would be so good for me, but do you have a course for my 9-year-old?
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 The challenge in defining mindfulness?
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been trying to locate a light-hearted mindfulness questionnaire so that you can pop on my website and quickly assess how mindful you are. Most questionnaires have been designed for research purposes and they are all a bit different. The differences depend on their answer to the question, “what is mindfulness?”.  Sometimes, I am flabbergasted when people in the public eye who should know better, cannot emotionally regulate and spit the dummy. Roseanne tweeted a racist rant and caused offence. The ABC cancelled her show and as a result many people lost at least part of their livelihood. Yes, she apologised, but the damage had been done. Sometimes, mindfulness goes out the window and mindlessness walks in the door.
 Is mindfulness a cure all? Are you a ‘cure all’ sceptic?
Do you feel scepticism or even a sense of outrage, when something is presented as a cure for everything? If so you are a bit like me. I’m not so good at taking things at face value. I like them to make sense. I first dabbled with a mindfulness practice 30 years ago. I attended long meditation retreats and loved them but often switched off when it came to the “dharma talk”, the talk that engaged with the psychology  My first experience of guiding meditation
I discovered MBSR in an unusual way. It all began 6 years ago, when my work place, the counselling unit in a Sydney university, asked me to run some lunchtime meditations for students. There was one hitch. I was to guide the meditation in a public space where students slept, hung out, and studied. Weird heh? I knew that my voice would be needed to keep the space quiet, so I started looking for guided meditation practices.  It’s winter, it’s cold. It’s time for all things nurturing. Attending an MBSR class is a treat, an exercise in self-care. We turn the heaters on, wrap blankets around ourselves and plunge in. Here are a few composite anecdotes showing what MBSR can offer you.
1. Show up fully for life. Gary led a busy life. He spent hours planning and ticking things off his to-do list. At the end of the day, he was exhausted and still ... Fun Fact
Did you know that 140 UK parliamentarians practice mindfulness meditation together on a weekly basis? And that a 2015 cross parlaimentary report recommended introducing mindfulness programs into schools, health, education and prisons. You could ask why? |
AuthorTienne Simons is a therapist and the founder of HeadRest Mindfulness training. She did her training in MBSR when she became convinced that the program was not only a useful add on to therapy for many but sometimes a more appropriate way to support people than counselling. She has had a mindfulness practice for about 30 years- well nearly! Archives
April 2019
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