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Anxiety - gangster compassion

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 A few years ago we were talking about anxiety on the MSc Mindfulness and Compassion course, and one of the students said gangster compassion was the answer. He was absolutely right, for me, overcoming anxiety has been a process of compassion, meditation, support and not giving in to it. Anxiety is so sneaky, it creeps in and before we know it, we feel at its mercy. There are many ways of overcoming patterns of thought but I have found compassion is like a key in the lock. Its no quick fix but produces long term benefits. When the thoughts start, take your attention to the felt sense, the sensations in the body. Immediately this releases you from the mind and takes you to the source of the tension in the body. By breathing into the sensations and placing a hand on the heart you are activating a soothing and reassuring response for the body. Out of the head and into the heart. Really pay attention to the warmth from your hand. There are many heart based practices and compassion medi...
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Lets talk about grief

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 I wouldn't profess to being an expert in grief, or in fact anything actually : ) but we are all experts of our own experience. Working with grief is something that I have come to know quite personally due to my father dying when I was 9 years old. This year has been one that has held a thread of grief for most people in some way. Whether it has been the loss of what was considered a normal life, a friend or relative, a job loss or loss of certain freedoms. Grief has been quite present for most of us. I experienced a cascade of grief in May, the loss seeped into every area of my life and was very overwhelming. The last few months have reminded me of the stages that we go through regarding loss and the powerful ways that we can support the process. One of the aspects of grief is the physicality of it. Often like a rising feeling in the heart and chest, and culminating in the throat, the physical feelings can be quite strong. If we can attend to the physical feelings its very helpful...
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The Highly Sensitive Person and Meditation

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So, you think you might be in Hufflepuff? Don’t worry, I’ll talk you through it.  I remember breathing a sigh of relief 8 years ago when the counsellor I was seeing told me that the way I experienced the world was quite normal, and actually being highly sensitive was a personality trait. Dr Elaine Aron describes this trait as a variation in the nervous system and brain, that allows subtleties and details to be processed at a very deep level. This can often feel like quite a burden in the modern fast paced world. Highly sensitive people will often be the first to shed a tear and emotional experiences can completely overwhelm and hang around for days.The highly sensitive person has a more active insula in the brain which leads to raised self-awareness. This can cause huge delays in decision making (yep) and an extreme sense of wanting to do the right thing. Being highly sensitive means that you notice the most subtle details, cues and changes to the environment, and easily this leads...
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