New: half hour class from 12.40pm:
30 minute guided meditation class: inspired by Jon Kabat Zinn:
Thursdays 12.40,
Classes at Friends Meeting House, Worthing Road. Beginners welcome: please contact me if you’re interested

In our Qigong class recently we listened to a short extract from the book Full Catastrophe Living (a reference from Zorba the Greek) by John Kabatt Zinn. The book amongst other things explains the benefits of and how to meditate.  Audio book link  Paperback link.

I have meditated since my 20’s.  It all began when I was in British Columbia, Canada, and a friend gave me a book called “Be Here Now” by Ram Das.  It contained some yoga poses, and some hints on how to meditate.  I began an exciting journey that I know will continue my whole life.

At the beginning of 2014, I had been under a lot of stress; coming from various different areas of my life and I decided to start a daily practise of  Qi Gong, and meditation.  I have to say that I consider these 2 actions in tandem to have had a profoundly positive effect on my energy levels and my ability to withstand the stresses of daily life, and I would now not consider staring each day without first meditiating for 20 minutes, followed by Qi Gong exercises.

Of course being a healer I am now keen to teach others to do something that I have benefitted greatly from myself.  It reminds me a lot of my story with Homeopathy.  In 1984 I got a remedy that helped me enormously with my energy levels, which at the time I was struggling with.  Having previously consulted everybody and his dog over an extended period of time, by September 1985 I had enrolled on a 3 year practitioner course, re-mortgaged the house to pay for it, and have practised ever since.  Qi Gong and meditation is the next step on my journey, and I know the time is right for me to do it.

Talking to many people as I do, I know that it is a common theme for people to feel that there is something missing in their life.  Carl Jung said that he never met anyone who had  not benefitted from some form of spiritual practise (1).  Qi Gong and or Mindful meditation can fill that gap.

Meditation is something that you can do for yourself.  Here is a 5 minute breathing space meditation I recorded recently.  You do not really need a teacher.  However the big benefits of meditation are when you make it a daily practise, and being human, we all respond togroup activity and peer pressure, so learning to meditate with someone else, even in a small group helps the practise.

1 Minute meditation

7 Minute mountain meditation for inner strength and resilence

14 Minute body scan

We are currently doing a 3 minute breathing space meditation to start and finish, with a 20 minute main meditation in the middle.  The course encourages participants to have a daily meditation practice if possible, and participants are so far have been successful in at least increasing the frequency of their meditations.  We are also influenced by the teachings of Jon Kabat Zinn and Eckhart Tolle, and the book Mindfulness: How to find peace in a frantic world, by Mark Williams and Danny Penman.  You may want to buy the book, or get it from the library.

Fundamental to all the above teachers is that idea that we should try and live are lives as much as possible in the present moment.  So much of our lives are normally spent either in the past (worrying that we have made some horrible mistake) or in the future (hoping that someday it will all come good).  The reality of course if we could just wake up to it, is that it is always now, there is no future, except as an invention in our minds.  Even the past that we remember is not actually what happened, but only our version of it, from our perspective, inevitable flawed and biased, and probably not all in our favour.

Mindful meditation is a proven course that is designed to help us be more present in the now.

1) Jung’s views on spirituality