Everyday Mindfulness

I can focus my attention and stop my mind wandering if I need, or want to but for me, the real benefit of meditation and mindfulness has been in developing the ability to be okay with whatever my mind is up to. That is a great position to have reached. Not being troubled by troubling thoughts. Not ...

You may find that your mind is settling down more, however, you're simply more aware of the thought stream than when you first started. The first I did a body scan, for example, I completely missed the part between the chest and the face, completely being lost in thought for about 5-10 minutes. I al...

Now into Week 3 of the 8-week course I'm following through the NHS. This week has been about mindful movement, and we've been given two guided meditations to assist us. One early observation - i am finding it very difficult to keep the breath smooth and flowing during the stretches. I'm reasonably f...

I echo the Mark Williams and Danny Penman book too. It's very readable and doesn't over-complicate anything. My breathing has calmed down over the last 24 hours. It *may* have been attributable to being aware from home at the weekend and in a house where there's a cat. I'm mildly allergic to cats, s...

I am having a similar problem, two weeks on to the 8 week programme. I feel a lot of the time as if I'm unable to not control the breath, as if I'm almost on the verge of hyperventilating and on the verge of a panic attack. This is especially the case when lying down and trying to get to sleep. Duri...

Chronic sleep problems have been a problem for me for many years now, and have at times reached fairly acute points e.g. 2-3 days of not sleeping for a single minute (and still trying to work full-time/commute etc.). Basically coping throughout the day with terrible physical and psychological sympto...

Gareth - the forum is great. As a newbie, reading through older threads has been both informative, relaxing and heartening

Jon - I don't have a kindle but do have the app on my iPad. I have some books on there, but they date from a few years ago. The books I've gotten recently were from either a bookshop, amazon or from the local library. In fact the library and bookshops are where I should spend more of my time because...

I think the idea of a no-screens Sabbath day is a good one. It will probably feel like torture though at first :-) My partner and I camp a lot, and unfortunately (so far) have succumbed to requiring wifi (or being concerned about lack of signal) - simply because there is a lot of "down time&quo...

Hi Joaquin - Welcome. I'm also new to mindfulness, and am following an 8-week course via the NHS. I also have read FPIAFW and have so far used tracks 1, 2 and 8, along with a body scan meditation (30 minutes long) given to me by my teachers. Your question is a good one, and has got me thinking that ...