I’d like to share an excerpt from my book, Enlightenment to Go, which deals with exactly this question. How better than to illustrate with the example of an Englishwoman who spent twelve years meditating alone in a cave in the Himalayas? A concern I’ve heard expressed is that too much time spent meditating, or developing...
I’d like to share a chapter from my book Hurry Up and Meditate which explores this intriguing question. I hope you find it useful! Since ancient times, the wisdom of self-knowledge has been held above all other. Some believe that it is the real purpose of our life’s journey. In ancient Greece, when seekers visited the Temple at...
Resonance is a fascinating concept, especially for those who practise meditation–mantra recitation in particular. The term offers a possible explanation for how memory and habit become engrained in nature. It has been shown that actions undertaken in the past become easier and more effective for different living beings to carry out in the future. For...
In the Epilogue of my book, Why Mindfulness is Better than Chocolate, I reprise a few insights about the benefits of living more mindfully. I hope you find these useful! Epilogue There’s a story I like about a New York merchant banker who goes on vacation to an idyllic seaside village in the Caribbean. After...
Whether we are aware of it or not, we are all Thought Managers. Whatever other job title we may temporarily have – Fire Station Superintendent, Chief Executive Officer, mother – our permanent job, the one we’ve had since birth and will have till the day we die, is Thought Manager. The job of any manager...
Every one of us will experience hurt, betrayal and disappointment. What matters is how we deal with these feelings. As the Dalai Lama says, ‘Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.’ What he means is that although it’s impossible to avoid upsetting experiences, we do have a say about whether negative events or people continue to...
Why is the experience of practising mindfulness in nature so effortless, so wonderful and so powerful in helping us develop insights? I’d like to thank Dr Shelley Plumb of www.plumbtalkproductions.com for this short video which captures some of the main points in my article below. Shelley interviewed me when joined me for Mindful Safari back in...
I practice and teach meditation. I also enjoy wine. White in summer, red in winter is what floats my particular boat. I drink in moderation and only rarely over-indulge. I have no doubt at all that mindfulness makes drinking wine very much more enjoyable. When we are being mindful – ‘paying attention to the present moment...
Most of us can remember a few words that were spoken to us at a pivotal moment in our life which had a powerful impact. The person saying the words may – or may not – have been important to us. But whatever they communicated struck us with such compelling clarity that it made us...
As every creative person knows, coming up with fresh ideas is often not the challenge. The challenge is coming up with fresh ideas that resonate. Whether you wish to be taken seriously by the literary elite, sell truckloads of paintings to hotel decorators, or have your sculpture find a permanent home on a municipal plinth,...
