Mindful matters.

So its been a while and I am glad to say its been a positive time. I have found the practice of mindfulness very interesting and also useful. It is strange to think that long journeys commuting to London from here in South Wales can be a place to practice, but they can. With a CD of meditation practices on my IPad, I can use the time to practice my practice!I guess that means so can you if you decide to follow this way of developing mindfulness/awareness.
What though are the tangible benefits? Like many people I find that the practice of "bare attention" can reveal not only much about myself but also much about what surrounds me. Perhaps an example will help.
I undertook my practice as usual in the time between Newport and Bristol on the train. Its a handy 20 minute space where I can close my eyes and practice the breathing exercises that help develop practice.
It was a rather uneventful  journey, and a very grey and drizzly early morning as we approached Didcot on the journey to London. Yet I noticed that looking at the grey skies of Berkshire just how many textures and shades of grey there were in that early morning sky. It was a really positive moment of awareness. It didn't make my journey any quicker , but strangely pleasant.
So there is much to be seen and more to experience if we truly are aware of where and importantly who we are.

It's been a while.

In my last post, I was saying that I had adopted the practice of Mindfulness. I used the Williams and Penman book "Finding peace in a frantic world", it was clear , easy to read and the audio material very helpful. However, I found I needed to really get to grips with this in a more structured way. I enrolled on an 8 week course here in sunny Bridgend for the bargain price of £120!
I think my motivation was to get more information but really I felt the need to be back in a group. I find I spend much of my time working alone and I missed the experience of learning in the company of others. So I enrolled and managed to clear seven out of eight evenings needed to attend.
No surprises in that it entailed practice of mindfulness, reflection on progress and homework. it was great to be back in a group and even nicer not to have to facilitate it but just enjoy it. My fellow students were a mixed bunch of people, many had health problems and real issues of stress and anxiety. I felt a bit of an interloper really as I was not in a similar place, but in the course of the programme I had a bereavement and a health scare that tested my practice.
The course ended and we were invited to attend a full day of practice at a local Friends House (Quakers). that was really enjoyable and required lots of attention. So what now?
I continue with a daily practice of meditation and find it remains beneficial. It seems preferable to be trying to be in a mindful place rather than a mindless one!
I have now offered to facilitate a Mindful Pause at the RCN HQ on world mental health day, and though I cannot teach the practice of Mindfulness I think a taster session will be fine.
I am now considering further training and possibly another formal course and perhaps a direction to consider is becoming a teacher of Mindfulness. there is a path here that could be taken and which I believe could be fruitful.
So sorry for the gap in postings, but I have been busy.