What’s the mindful response to coronavirus? Amid the turmoil, is it possible to create peace? Is it all just a horror show, or may it be that somewhere in the experience we can find a silver lining? Mindfulness of hand washing I must begin with a confession. I recently read an article offering medical advice on...
If you had to choose the single quality most closely associated with Tibetan Buddhism, it would probably be compassion. In the words of my precious teacher, Geshe Acharya Thubten Loden: ‘If you were to ask: “What is the essence of the Buddha’s teachings?” the answer must be great compassion, because that is the foundation of...
How important is willpower to your happiness? And does food have anything to do with it? Most of us would agree that it requires willpower to graduate from school, learn a skill, or practice anything till you get really good at it. Self-fulfilment is unlikely to just happen spontaneously. It is more likely to...
Every day when I go online I find myself facing a barrage of emails, Facebook messages and blogs, with many of them urging me to do something. No doubt you have the same experience. Whether it’s Amazon prompting you to buy a new book, a thought leadership coach urging you to monetize your ideas, or...
A while back I had one of those ‘catching up on the last ten years’ phone calls with a friend who lives in Germany. Jacqui is amazing, amusing and vivacious, a woman of great inner and outer beauty. She had a successful modelling career in South Africa, where we met, as well as in Europe after...
As we approach that time of the year when New Year Resolutions are talked about, I’d like to share an insight from one of my favourite books, Willpower, Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, by Roy Baumeister and John Tierney. To summarise, while willpower is a quality we can – and arguably should – all develop...
This is a time of year when stress levels peak. Yes, we have parties, holidays and festivities to look forward to. But there are all those other things we need to get done before year end. Project deadlines, work assignments, and around the home perhaps, all sorts of jobs to complete in readiness for Christmas...
I had the very good fortune of hearing Professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi deliver a presentation at a Happiness & Its Causes conference on one of the concepts for which he is world-famous: flow. ‘Flow’ is the state of being we all experience – however briefly or infrequently – when we become completely immersed in whatever it is...
When we set out on our first Mindful Safari it was with a sense of curiosity: what would a week of twice daily meditation sessions, combined with twice daily game drives, feel like? What changes might we sense by the end of it? Since then, the experience of dozens in the ever-extending Mindful Safari family...
Tibetan Buddhism contains a wonderful array of practices to suit many different people, across a variety of circumstances. But at the centre of all these practices, you might say at the heart of Tibetan Buddhism itself, is the cultivation of bodhichitta. What is bodhichitta, and why is it so important? The following extract from my...
