'Practising Mindfulness' Forum Section

[Gareth]

I am really glad that we are starting to get some traffic in the forum.

This is probably going to look a much different place in the months to come; I can't wait to see Fiona's work. Whatever happens, there will be a section called 'Practising Mindfulness' or similar, much as there is now. This section is aimed at helping people with their practice and providing encouragement to keep it up.

I currently have it divided up into 4 sub-sections based upon length of time practising. I'm not 100% sure that this is the correct way to go forward. What do you all think?

I want to attract some mindfulness teachers to the forum to be able to dispense some quality advice to posters. I thought it might be a good idea to show anybody that is trained in mindfulness as a different colour, so that people have some idea as to the reliability of the advice that they are being given.

Each section has got a small amount of text describing what it is. If you have any suggestions regarding this text then that would be greatly appreciated too.

Have a mindful day everyone!

Gareth

[JonW]

About the four sub-sections...interesting question.
I can see the dilemma.
In one way it makes sense in that our posts will generally reflects what stage we are at with mindfulness.
The only possible hazard that I can see is that it might limit what people want to post or reply to. eg. If I see a topic highlighted in the "experienced meditators" section that interests me, I'd probably think twice before replying as, technically, it's not a section that's relevant to me - though the subject matter of the post might be relevant. Hope that makes sense. I'd be interested to hear what others think.
Anyway, I'm loving the forum. It's great to be able to communicate with others of a mindful bent. Makes a change from explaining to friends what mindfulness is and hearing back, "So...you're into chanting, is that it?"
Have a good day y'all, Jon

[FeeHutch]

Hi everyone
I am working on introducing some new forums to hopefully broaden the range of topics we can talk about together.

I think maybe if we encourage the idea that members are free to comment in any board is the way forward Jon, I have felt the way you describe Jon. However I still post a lot in the 0 - 6 months board despite being more experienced now. Does that make sense?

[JonW]

Sounds good to me, Fiona. Thanks.

[larorra]

sounds good to me too Fiona, I was still posting in the 0-6 months and Gareth moved one of my posts up to the next level.

[JonW]

Just a thought...
Maybe it would be useful to have a section entitled "How mindfulness has helped me".
Reading posts on the forum I'm seeing that people on here came to mindfulness for all kinds of different reasons - dealing with all kinds of different problems/scenarios in their lives. It might be useful for people coming to the site to see how people's lives have been transformed with regular mindfulness practice.
I, for one, would be only too happy to write about my struggles with anxiety and depression over the years and how mindfulness has, in a very short space of time (10 weeks and counting), made an enormous difference to my life.
Just an idea...
Cheers, Jon

[larorra]

Thats a really good idea Jon and i would like to write about that too.

[Gareth]

I do want posters to be able to reply to any topic they like in the forum, and I would actively encourage that. 'Beginning The Practice' is doing quite well at the moment, but the other sections really need a bit more traffic.

It will possibly be the job of moderators to ensure that topics end up in the correct section. I'm not sure this place is busy enough for moderators yet. Fiona and I have the priviliges required to ensure that topics are in the right place.

I am going to make some small changes to this section soon. You'll have to let me know what you think.

Gareth

[Gareth]

I've made some small changes. I have removed the timeframes from the forum names. Hopefully that will get people to post more in whatever section they feel appropriate.

[FeeHutch]

Good call.
I know that sometimes I feel more experienced and others like a total newbie