By Gaynor 

The Second most popular recipe on our meditation retreats is Spicy Sweet Potato Soup. I love the coulor of this and with a little bread and cheese is just so yummy.  

 

 

Chop 2 onions and Heat a splash of olive oil. gentle cook for about 10 minutes or until the onions are beautifully golden. 

By Gaynor 

Over the many years of cooking for meditation retreats, people keep asking for my recipes. After 40 years of being a vegetarian most are adaptations of ones I have tried on my meat eating family and are now favourites with them. 

 

As an adult I know that the most important thing about food for me has always been the colour. 

So my working title is “The Colourful Retreat Cookbook” 

Panic Disorder and Mindfulness Meditation – A Story by Roger Woolman 

 

I have come to learn that everybody has a story and often a desire to tell it. I have always been reluctant to tell this part of my story. 

I started to suffer from panic attacks around 23 or 24 years ago. At that time, and for two or three years after they started, I didn't know what a panic attack was; I hadn't heard of nor come across them in my life. This may have allowed the problem to embed, to become the norm; either way, they were a significant problem for me by the end of the 1990s. 

By Dr Liz Sparkes 

 

Transforming the critical voice 

 

‘Don’t turn away. Keep your gaze on the bandaged place. That’s where the light enters you’, Rumi knew that pretending that certain aspects of ourselves don’t exist wasn’t the way to transformation. 

The critic, the voice within that holds us back, tells us that we are not good enough, that we shouldn’t speak up; that is what keeps us stuck. These unacknowledged parts of ourselves are often close to fear. Fear of what might happen if we acknowledge them , fear of the truth of who we are. However, as Gene Gendlin describes, we come to know through awareness that, that which appears negative does actually contain trapped suppressed positive life energy. The energy is twisted and blocked and gentle mindfulness or awareness is often all that is needed to allow the release and transformation. 

 

We place parts of ourselves in exile...  

Mindfully teaching yoga by Naomi Kent 

 

Why the mindfulness facilitation course will not only equip you to be a better guide to others but will enhance who you are as a person. 

 

I completed Suryacitta’s Mindfulness Facilitation Training Weekend as I felt it could be an added string to my bow as a yoga teacher, with the bonus of getting to spend a couple of days in the comforting Kuti. If you’ve done any type of mindfulness or meditation in that little garden hut in Newtown Linford, you’ll know how much of a safe place it is to feel any or all of your own emotions. And despite this course taking on a different type of learning approach as this is you taking the meditative baton in order to pass it to others, you learn about yourself inadvertently the whole time which can only be a good thing. If you’ve never done any type of course there, you’ll have to take my word for it. It’s a wonderful place. 

Silent meditation retreats - Never miss a chance to shut up by Suryacitta 

 

It is so very easy to live our lives in a haze of activity. The busier we become the more we contract into the mind and our world becomes smaller and smaller. The more we are locked into the mind the less time we seem to have and we tighten ourselves like a coiled spring, trying to fit everything in. At some point, the merest of incidents can set us off into irritability and anger. We are caught in the busy-trap. 

 

We need to be able to step out of the busy-trap, and to  

Healing the Heart by Dr Liz Sparkes 

 

This is from my experience, I prefer not to tell others anything that I haven’t experienced myself. Also, don’t think for one minute that I have completed my healing journey. Once you start healing the heart, your life will change, I can promise you that. Relationships will shift, pain of all kinds will change, you will find the truth of who you are a little more, and also find yourself diving a bit deeper into what you love.  

Nature - the gift that keeps on giving by Gaynor Quilter 

 

This is not a political statement about the environment, although my Christmas “hope” would be that we all set an intention to care more for The Earth in what ever way we can. 

 

At this time of year most of us are thinking about gifts for loved ones. I love Christmas time, but there is always a shadow over my heart as I no longer have to look for presents for my Mum.  

Overcoming Insomnia with Mindfulness by Mauricio Senger 

 

I started having sleep difficulties in 2006 after a serious motorbike accident. The back pain that I began to experience after that event would wake me up every night at around 4am and it would be very difficult for me to get back to sleep once I was awake. 

THE THREE PILLARS OF EXCELLENT MINDFULNESS TEACHING 

 

Not just what you teach, but how you teach. 

 

Over the years I have been training people to teach mindfulness I have noticed some common mistakes. Firstly, I think most of us over complicate mindfulness for our students. Secondly, I thing we tend to give too much information. On seeing these tendencies I developed what I call the three pillars of excellent mindfulness teaching. These pillars are keeping mindfulness teaching simple, elegant and practical. 

 

“It is easy to pile up a load of facts, but true wisdom knows how to simplify.” Martin H Fisher 

The Menopause - where's my fan? - and what it has taught me - by Gaynor 

 

My rude awakening to the menopause came when I was sitting in a meeting in February 2014 - with a whoosh of energy and a total saturation of my favourite blue shirt. I was mortified, as I was sitting with three men who were either polite or totally oblivious. I was so distracted by my body - and this has been the theme of the last five years. 

Response to a Keyboard Warrior: by Gaynor 

I took this picture at the Chiang Mai Festival of Lights. It’s a picture of four generations of Thai people writing their wishes for the future on sky lanterns, then launching them up alongside many other families into the sky, symbolising their collective hope for the future. I felt very privileged to be there. There was a palpable sense of love and connection. This is why we chose the picture to launch our Awakening Heart program.