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Walking meditation

Walking meditation can be a helpful alternative to formal sitting practice and it enables you to experience mindfulness in a different way.

This practice guides you into connection with your body, with yourself, and with your wider environment.

Give it a go and let us know how you get on.

54321 practice

A 54321 practice to instigate a moment of calm, to ground you and to create mental and emotional space. It's a handy technique to have in your toolbox and through it we engage all of our senses.

We note 5 things we can see, 4 things you can feel/touch, 3 things you can hear, 2 you can smell and 1 you can taste.

Extended exhale

When we extend the exhale we can activate the bodies rest and digest system.

This technique can be helpful for when you want to calm down or when you find yourself in an anxious situation.

Give the meditation a try and let us know how you get on

Mindful commuting

A mindfulness practice for your commute. An invitation to use your experience to bring you into presence and to use the act of commuting as a mindful practice. The recording focuses on commuting via a train or bus but can be used with other forms. Please don't do this practice whilst driving. Have a listen and see how it works for you. Can you approach your commute more mindfully?

Short hot drink meditation

A hot drink meditation from the everyday mindfulness series, a collection of short guided practices to encourage mindfulness in your daily life. The invitation is to be curious, be an explorer and to see where the practice takes you. If you enjoy it, please share it with others.

Raisin practice

Often used during the first class of a mindfulness program, the raisn practice is an invitation to be mindful, to bring curiosity to an experience and to really investigate what is here, we look at sight, smell, touch, sound and taste within the practice. At the end of the practice the invitation is to contemplate where else in your life you could apply curiosity, some common responses are cleaning teeth, drinking a hot drink, washing up. Once you’ve done the practice see what you come up with and feel free to share it with us in the comments section. We use the practice in our MBSR and CMR courses to demonstrate what mindfulness is, if you’d like to discover more please get in touch.

Loving Kindness practice

Loving Kindness practice can help us cultivate and grow feelings of compassion, kindness, care and acceptance for others and ourselves. We do this by repeating certain phrases whilst we hold ourselves and others in our minds eye. We say each phrase wholeheartedly and authentically as we recognise our connection to others. Not trying to force a feeling or emotion just trying to set our intention to kindness. An authentic kindness that recognises and reflects our deep connection with others. By sending kindness to others you are also sending kindness to yourself. Remembering that what you do for others ripples back to you and what you do for yourself ripples out to others.

3 Step Breathing Space

This is a short quick practice which you can use anywhere and at any time in your day. It only takes a few minutes. The 3-step breathing space is a method for moving out of autopilot and into awareness, into the present moment. A way to move from doing mode into being mode. It can be helpful as a quick check in with yourself and a method of support throughout you to encourage mindfulness. It can also help you respond to stressful situations more skilfully by giving you the space to respond rather than react. The goal here isn’t to take away negative feelings but rather to create space in which to respond to them if and when they arise.

The meditation has 3 clear stages, an invitation to become aware of your experience in a broad, open sense, noting your emotions, thoughts, body and feelings. Holding it all in awareness. Then, narrowing our attention, becoming focused and aware of the breath, and finally, expanding our awareness once more to the whole body, emotions, thoughts and feelings. So we go from wide, to narrow, to wide again. Throughout the practice we can adopt the attitudes of acceptance, non-judgment, self-compassion and equanimity. Being ok with whatever is here and not trying to chase anything away or hold onto it. We are not trying to get rid of anything, negative or otherwise but rather investigate what is here and be with that experience. To hold it in awareness. Give it a try and let us know how you get on. We hope you find it helpful.

Body Scan

This week, we’re sharing with you a 10-minute body scan practice.

It’s a core, fundamental mindfulness practice that encourages us to move out of our heads (doing mode) and into our bodies (being mode), to sense how we are and to just be. Within the practice we can practice attitudes of acceptance, letting be, self-compassion, and non-judgment. Becoming aware of what is here and not trying to chase away unpleasant feelings or hold onto pleasant ones, rather just trying to be with whatever is here.

The practice is commonly done lying down but if that’s not possible can be done sitting up.

It teaches us to tune into our bodies, to sense the messages it has for us and can lead to greater awareness of our physical selves and how thoughts and emotions manifest themselves physically.

Give the practice a go and let us know what you think.

Noting practice

Noting is a tool we can use in meditation to help us create space between stimulus and how we respond. In this practice we use progress through various aspects of awareness and are guided into using noting to help us achieve that space. Give it a go and let me know how you get on.

Abdominal Breathing

Abdominal breathing has a number of health benefits. It activates your parasympathetic nervous system which encourages your relaxation response. It can improve your sleep and your body’s ability to handle stress as well as lower your heart rate and blood pressure. Give it a go and let me know what you think.

Sound Awareness

In this practice we use sound as an alternative anchor point to focus our attention on. Sound can be a powerful way to bring us into present moment awareness. Give it a try and let me know what you think.