Mindfulness Meditation

Meditation with Wendy

The mind can be a busy monkey. How to find peace amongst the chatter?

John Kabat-Zinn, the founder of the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program defines mindfulness as

“awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgementally (in the service of self-understanding and wisdom)”

This way of being can be applied to walking, swimming, dancing, being in the garden, going for a walk in nature, playing with children, being with family, being on your own. It’s our capacity to notice the mind, doing what it does – thinking – thinking about the past, about the future and all the many things we tell ourselves…and invite our awareness to pay attention, on purpose, to the present moment.  Mindfulness practice supports us to be the witness to the flow of thoughts, to the body sensations – all things that come and go including the judgements, analysis, pain and challenges and invites us to lean into life, into love, into acceptance of what is and in doing so, step into…

‘the quiet immensity of your own presence.’  (John O’Donohue, A Blessing For Presence)

Taking time to stop and strengthen your focus, your awareness of this ‘peace within’ is a gift to one’s self and, in turn, to others. Let us ‘be the change we want to see in the world’.

With kindness and regular practice you can befriend the monkey mind and create new neural pathways that offer a greater capacity to access an inner source of peace, no matter where you are, who you are with or the stimulus you are presented with.

Wendy recorded many of the practices from the free online classes during the pandemic. You can find them in Soundcloud  The more we cultivate our mindfulness practice, when we have mountains to climb or valleys to traverse within the human story, our mindful presence can support and guide us.

Wendy is a qualified facilitator and practitioner of the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Program (MBSR)