Different types of 8 week courses

[Gareth]

I actually had a very brief conversation with Andy Puddicombe on Twitter yesterday. I had initially been a little wary of Headspace because of the fact that you had to pay for it, and I really believe that mindfulness should be free of charge for any human being. I'm starting to change on that view though. Mindfulness teachers have to earn a living and the people designing apps have to be paid and so on. He seemed like a great guy on the TV, so I followed him and sent a message. He told me to get in touch with the Headspace team. I kinda get the feeling he's a busy guy.

I've not done it yet because I'm not sure what I would say. They seem to be very much course oriented i.e. if you want to practise mindfulness then come and follow our course. I think that I want EM to be broader than that i.e. if you want to practise mindfulness, then here are all the ways you can do it.

That said, I'm sure there are ways that we can help each other. I don't think I have an issue linking to them from EM, and they might be willing to give us some promotion too. Would you want to approach them Barbara? No problems if you don't. It's just that you have personal experience of Headspace, and it might be better coming from you.

[JonW]

About to head off on a Mindfulness Day In Nature on the South Downs. A day of "mindfulness, meditation, poetry and the beauty of the natural world" is promised, along with a slap-up lunch. Well worth looking out for similar events in your area.
I'll let you all know how it goes.
Cheers, Jon

[FeeHutch]

Looking forward to hearing how it went Jon
Gareth I think you are right to want to promote the many different ways people find mindfulness and continue to cultivate their own practice. We have already discussed many different experiences in the community and I hope we will continue too. Variety is the spice of life

[calm_one]

I like to have the book which offers much more than daily meditation, saying that I've never done head space so I stand corrected that its just 10 min of mindfulness a day.

Does it go into a mindfulness life though? Such as going for walks and brushing your teeth mindfully and so on?

Start week 2 tomorrow! Wish me luck!

[JonW]

Best of luck. Enjoy the adventure.
Jon

[FeeHutch]

Calm One is the 'How To Train A Wild Elephant' book one you might find useful? It has a different task for every week of the year to encourage taking mindfulness off the practice mat and into every part of your life. Steve and I started at the beginning of the year and have been discussing our experiences on a now very long thread.

There are indeed weeks with tasks around walking and brushing your teeth.

[JonW]

Fee's got the cleanest teeth in the whole of Sheffield.

[FeeHutch]

Fee's got the cleanest teeth in the whole of Sheffield.

< look!

[JonW]

Now that's what I call a Colgate smile.

[Gareth]

Also take a look at the thread dedicated to week 2 of the course and add your own experiences to it. We need to restructure the forum a bit to make these topics more obvious; they are kinda hidden away a bit at the moment. There is a topic for every week in fact; it will be great to have your experiences on here as you are going through the course. Please stick around.