Day Retreat 27th March

Ian Holder and I are holding a day retreat on Saturday March 27th 10.30-4.30 at Langdale House.
A retreat is an ideal way to deepen and develop or learn about meditation. A chance to take time out and experience yourself more fully, to uncover the true wealth of the heart-mind connection and to take new insights and methods back into your business and home life.

The theme is mindfulness and will include short talks, meditation and reflection practises.
you are welcome to join us whether you are new to meditation or more experienced.

The day costs £75 per person for more info or to book e-mail Wendy, wendy@padmayogini.co.uk or Ian, ian@3cpartners.com

Working with the seasons in our practise.

It seems as though the first signs of spring are appearing around us in London, the daffodils are finally coming into flower, with grape hyacinth and crocus and buds swelling and opening on some of the dormant plants and shrubs.

It is a time of year traditionally and spiritually for re-birth and renewal and I find that spring gives me renewed energy for tackling new things.
We can use the benefits that the seasons give us for our practise of meditation by tuning in to the world around us, whether that is our garden or parks, woods or other wild places.

Bringing our mind imaginatively to these signs of spring around us in nature, before we meditate or practise can imbue our practise with more energy, optimism and and joyfulness. We are all connected to this world of ours and being more consciously connected this spring can be of real benefit.

Creativity and Meditation

One of the things I've found in my practice of mediation is how it has benefited my creativity. One of the things I first noticed when I learnt to meditate was how similar the feeling of concentration, of being absorbed in the practice of mediation, were to being in the flow of creative work like drawing and painting, in my case.

Meditation also brought to mind many creative ideas. Our minds are clearer and accessing deeper levels of our consciousness when we meditate and by clearing a bit of the every day chatter and clutter of our mind new projects and creative ideas can often surface when we practice,I usually say to people who find that they have creative ideas, or find themselves planning creative projects in their meditation, that they have a couple of choices, either they can decide to think about the new idea after they have finished meditating or if they know it will be too distracting, write down a few notes about their ideas and get back to their practice.

I have taken both approaches and find that taking a few moments to note down ideas need not disturb my practice very much, and because my mind is clearer meditation can become more settled and deeper as a result.

Working with Stress in our Lives.

Coming up to the festive season we can find ourselves becoming anxious about all sorts of things, from issues with money, family relationships and planning the festivities. It may feel particularly stressful because we all want others and ourselves to enjoy the days we have planned, and somehow we feel we should be happy and jolly.

Stress can also be triggered through workplace situations, dealing with difficult people and an overwhelming workload. We all have our own version of stress, different things will cause stress reactions for different people, but what is important is how we deal with these stress reactors.



This is where meditation and mindfulness comes in, we are learning to sit with our thoughts, feelings and emotions as they arise and fall away again. We are trying to bring our wise attention to the experiences in our mind and body and to do this in a kindly way, without harsh judgement.
But because our everyday mind is conditioned by the past and has developed habits, we can find ourselves drawn back to replay familiar roles or behavior, particularly at holiday times with our family.

What we need to do if we can, is remember the changes we have already made through meditation the success's we have already had. This is useful in stressful times because we often add problems to our experience by adding negative judgements about our abilities to change.Thinking such things as why am I always like this? Why can't I........ ? or I will never get this right, for instance.

If we can keep up practice too, just the 3 minute breathing space during busy times, it will make a real difference to our experience

Gradually we will find ourselves understanding more clearly and quickly the stress triggers in our experience through paying attention with mindfulness, the first aspect in dealing with stress. Then we can put our mindfulness into the practice of watching our experience without getting caught up in our thoughts and feelings. This allows us the peace of not automatically reacting to people and situations and reduces the levels of stress in our life.

Mindfulness and Coaching Workshop this Sunday

On Sunday 11th October Ian Holder and I will be running one of our Mindfulness and Coaching workshops.at Langdale house 11, Marshalsea road, London SE1 1EN 9.30 for a 10am start till 1pm.

I very much enjoyed co-leading the last workshop with Ian. The combination of mindfulness methods and coaching methods went well together and the participants said they gained a lot from taking part. I think there is room for a lot more development using mindfulness and other meditation methods combined with coaching and other areas of well being.

We still have some places see the main site www.calmcreate.co.uk for more info and comments from past participants. Or contact me for more details.

We are all connected

One of the most important realizations that came to me after starting to meditate ( and is still developing) was a more conscious understanding of one of the central Buddhist teachings, that of interconnectedness. I have naturally it seems had a sense of community since a child, and a desire to act in the world in some positive way. Meditation on the Dharma, the teachings of interconnectedness and the practise of Metta Bhavana have all returned me to the world with a clearer sense on a literal practical level of how much we depend on each other for our daily existence. The Metta Bhavana, a practise of developing and understanding positive communication, emotions and relationship with ourselves and others, breaks down the isolation we can feel in this world. The experience of metta is an opening of the heart to self and other in a radical way, a knowing of this truth that we are in all this together.

Our modern western world teaches us the opposite, that we are individuals, that there is no natural society , that we need to look out for our self, but this way of thinking and acting does not lead to happiness or contentment or peace.

Just a short reflection on how many people in the world are involved in the production of your tea or coffee is quite staggering. We rely on so many people to do their jobs in order for us to live.

And any of those beautiful images of the earth from space shows us that we are all living on the same planet.

Meditating and reflecting on this for ourselves allows us to be in the world with a much greater sense of harmony and gratitude. we feel more connected to the world and others and this experience of gratitude and being connected research now shows, makes us happier and healthier.

Reflections near the sea

It's not that often that I get to the sea now, but recently I spent a day walking, sitting and reflecting by the sea. watching the waves coming up and down the beach was really relaxing, taking me out of my usual frame of mind and filling my mind with a more natural and rhythmic motion.
The very vastness of the sea or ocean with the distant merging of sea and sky brings qualities of infinite space to my mind, somehow restoring a perspective on life.

The sound of the sea, the waves breaking on the shore and the rush of the waves against the pebbles as the wave recedes also seems to calm the mind in a natural way. The element water has this aspect of motion to it and by reflecting on or near the sea or water our mind can take on some of the flexible qualities and fluidity of water.