Online Self-Kindness Meditations

Kindness, compassion and acceptance can be difficult to give to others, especially in challenging situations. But it is often even more difficult to give kindness, compassion and acceptance to ourselves. For many of us, myself included, it is like an ability we didn’t get a chance to learn at school, or even at home, because our parents may have been too critical or distant or too focused on themselves. But regardless of what we missed out on earlier in life, we are now capable adults who can learn new skills.

Motivated by the pandemic lockdown, I am now offering online sessions focused on what is probably the most essential life skill during difficult times – self-kindness. In these sessions I take participants on an inner journey with guided meditations that help you to: Continue reading

Sat 23rd March – Meditation Workshop: Cultivating Inner Peace

These days it’s easy to get caught up in external pursuits – education, career, money, family, beauty, possessions, admiration – when we are bombarded with countless messages of “buy this or attain that and it will make you happy”. Even when the pursuits are noble – helping others, protecting the environment, bettering society – one’s happiness can still depend on succeeding in changing the world. Could the pursuit of happiness itself be robbing us of something more fundamental? Continue reading

Sat 15th December – Meditation & Personal Growth Workshop

Let’s gather for the last workshop of 2018 to practice meditation, enjoy like-minded company and work on whatever unresolved questions and inner challenges remain at the end of the year. This will be the first L11 workshop without a set theme – the themes we engage with will be determined on the day by the needs of the group. You can either bring a question or inner dilemma to work on, or come with an open mind and see what emerges for you on the day.

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Sat 27th October – Meditation Workshop – Relaxing Deeply

The pace of modern life is becoming more stressful – more projects to do in less time, more people to keep in touch with via more communication mediums, more choices to consider, more activities to do… and less rest.

Having lots of things on the go can make our minds very busy – constantly solving problems, evaluating options, trying to predict the future. This results in stress, which in turn causes the body to tense up and enter the physiological state of “fight or flight”. Being in this state for too long can cause irritability, exhaustion, low moods and negative outlook on life.

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Sat 8th September – Meditation Workshop – Rolling With Reality

A great deal of life’s upsets have to do with things not going how we want them to go. It is common to have a desire for control – desire to influence reality to be the way that we think is best. This involves many positive and fruitful aspirations. But things don’t always go our way and some aspects of our reality are very difficult if not impossible to change. In this workshop we will explore ways of using meditation and movement to peel one layer of our suffering – the inner resistance to parts of our reality that we want to change but can’t. Continue reading

Sat 12th March – Meditation Workshop – Being There For Yourself

Every life has its share of challenges accompanied by difficult emotions – fear, anger and sadness. Most of us were never taught how to be with and move through these difficult emotions and how to embrace their gifts. The common approach is to “toughen up”, avoid unpleasant feelings and distract ourselves with work, entertainment, shopping, drugs or chocolate. If we use this approach and accumulate internal emotional baggage, is it any surprise that we find it difficult to be alone with ourselves, to open emotionally to another person and to feel love?

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Sat 18th July – Meditation Workshop – Moving Into Your Inner Dance

In this 3-hour experiential workshop we will step beyond the dominance of our thinking mind and re-connect with the fluid intelligence of our physical body. We will focus on getting in touch with our inner movement impulse and learning to follow it, releasing the weight of the physical tension that no longer serves us, and exploring the natural rhythm of circular movement in our body.

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Sat 2nd May – Meditation Workshop – Being in the Present Moment

In this 3-hour experiential workshop we will focus on bringing our attention into the present moment and learning to just “be” – without having to do, fix or change anything. The participants will be guided through a series of meditation techniques that help to overcome the mind’s constant need to solve problems, worry, dream and be entertained, uncovering the state of conscious presence underneath. There will be multiple opportunities to ask questions that come up during the practice. This workshop is not religious and is not centered around any specific tradition or guru.

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Sat 28th March – Meditation Workshop – Going Beyond the Rational Mind

In this 3-hour experiential workshop we will focus on bringing our attention into the present moment, accessing the healing intelligence of our body and experiencing awareness that is beyond our thinking mind. The participants will be guided through a mixture of sitting and movement-based (body-based) meditation techniques and there will be multiple opportunities to ask questions that come up during the practice. This workshop is not religious and is not centered around any specific tradition or guru.

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