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  • Gift Card | Mindsprings

    eGift Card £25 You can't go wrong with a gift card. Choose an amount and write a personalized message to make this gift your own. Betrag £25 £50 £100 £150 £200 Menge Kostenpflichtig bestellen

  • Press Kit | Mindsprings

    Press Kit Please use Nick Ford's lovely images if you need pictures of me. But please credit him accordingly. Download ZIP Press Photos Short Bio Alistair Appleton & Mindsprings Alistair Appleton is a therapeutic meditation teacher and well-known television presenter in the The UK. As a much-loved host of the BBC show ‘Escape to the Country.’ for more than 14 years, Alistair is a household name for the two million people who tune in every week. Alistair is the founder of Mindsprings, which he set up in 2005 to explore the therapeutic uses and benefits of meditation in the modern world. As well as running in-person retreats and courses, Alistair leads a series of therapeutic meditation courses online. These have been especially popular during the pandemic and include ‘Mastering the Monsters of Anxiety’, ‘Transforming the Trigger Thought’. And ‘Beingfulness’ a learn to meditate course. His lively and non-dogmatic courses and workshops appeal to a broad audience, including those not usually attracted to spiritual practice. Alistair brings meditation techniques alive for those suffering from anxiety, dissociation, and other issues that arise in living in today’s world. He’s been a UKCP accredited psychotherapist with a practice in Brighton since 2013. And he has more than 20 years of dedicated experience in meditation. Alistair has trained in the Buddhist tradition with various masters. In 2000, he took his Buddhist vows with Lama Yeshe Rinpoche, the abbot of Samye Ling Monastery in Scotland. They later asked him to teach a meditation course for beginners, the start of the teaching journey he continues to this day. Alistair is happily married to Daniel Martin. They live together in Sussex with their beloved dog Ben. To play, press and hold the enter key. To stop, release the enter key.

  • Beingfulness | Mindsprings

    Stilling the Mind with Shamata and Shinay Start learning here Write a title here. Click to edit and add your own. This is a paragraph area where you can add your own text. Just click “Edit Text” or double click here to add your own content and make changes to the font. It's a great place to tell a story about your business and let users know more about you. Eco-Friendly Design 24/7 Support Multilingual Functionality Advanced Tech Join the course right away A title goes here. Click to edit and add your own. This is a paragraph. Use this area to add any information you want to share with users. Just click "Edit Text" or double click here to change the text and make it your own. You can also adjust the paragraph's font, size and color so it fits your website’s theme. This is a great place to tell users a story about your website and let them know more about what you offer. You may want to share information about your company's background, your team, or the services you provide. Be sure to keep the tone and voice consistent throughout the site so users become familiar with your brand. “Testimonials provide a sense of what it's like to work with you or use your products. Change the text and add your own." Alexa Young, CA Special Deals Add information about the sale and encourage users to take advantage of the promotion. Be sure to include any relevant details you want shoppers to know about the sale or your store. Click to edit the text. Shop Now Our Story Read More Get to Know Us This is a paragraph about your business. Let your visitors know who you are, what you do and what your website is all about. Double click on the text box to edit the text and add all the information you want to share. - Final Sale - Get 30% Off Shop Now This is a title. This is a paragraph area where you can add your own text. Just click “Edit Text” or double click here to add your own content and make changes to the font. It's a great place to tell a story about your business and let users know more about you. FAQ Online Courses Dundreggan Cabilla Holy Island General Gayles Sitting Out Gayles Beingfulness FAQs einrichten Allgemein Noch keine FAQs Für diese Kategorie gibt es momentan keine FAQs. Bitte später zurückkehren oder andere Kategorien ansehen. Call 123-456-7890 Email info@mysite.com Follow

  • Landing Page | Mindsprings

    New Mindsprings Coming Soon Please bear with us as we finesse things. All your courses and retreats can temporarily be found here for the next few days. Join our mailer to find out when we go live! Notify Me Thanks for submitting!

  • ABOUT | Mindsprings

    Mindsprings is a project set up by Alistair Appleton in 2005 to explore the uses and benefits of meditation in the modern world. Mindspring’s vision Mindsprings is a project set up by Alistair Appleton in 2005 to explore the uses and benefits of meditation in the modern world. Much clinical research around meditation these days concentrates on working with addiction and depression. But at Mindsprings we’re just as interested in working with wellness and the promotion of mental health before the “illness” and pathology set in. Reduce stress by understanding how the brain works Alistair combines his training as a psychotherapist with more than a decade’s study and practice in the Buddhist meditation tradition, in order to maximise the way meditation practice can really help. Not only by reducing stress or taking us to altered states but also by understanding how the human brain works in the world. How we relate to one another and how problematic patterns get entrenched. Mindsprings courses are often different from traditional meditation retreats. We don’t sit on the floor, or in total silence or utter stillness. There is space for discussion, feedback, one-on-one support. There’s often quite a lot of laughter as well as the chance for emotional work. How can we stop suffering and maximise happiness? We’re also interested in tailoring mindfulness to different experiences and finding new ways of approaching the age-old quesion: “how can we stop suffering and maximise happiness?” Often the courses will be addressing a particular theme – for example, anxiety or relationships or sexuality. And we’re always looking to explore new areas, collaborate and work with different groups. So please communicate with us about this site or any questions you have about mindfulness or the work we’re doing. A safe and progressive space for people to share People of any religious belief or none, any political stripe or none are very welcome to our courses. However, we pride ourselves on being a safe and progressive space for people to share their experiences. We welcome gay, lesbian, trans people and people with disabilities. We make a special place for refugees, the elderly and those of us suffering from mental health difficulties. Anyone who struggles financially can write to get some assistance to attend. We will never condone xenophobia, racism or sexism. Why learn online? Alistair has been teaching a big array of different courses over the last 15 years. He’s taught on anxiety, stress, time terror, LGBT shame and trauma. Mindfulness, ‘beingfulness’, embodied meditation, tapping and energy psychology. Internal family systems, Buddhist compassion, concentration and sitting practices. Earthing and courses on dissociation. It’s hard for people around the world to access these various courses, so they are becoming available at The Mindsprings school. Check out a course to work with your anxiety, to use tapping to remove blocks in your meditation practice and much more. Email mail@mind-springs.org Follow

  • CONTACT | Mindsprings

    How you can contact Alistair Appleton and the Mindsprings team. Please drop us a line! CONTACT Contact I so love to hear from you! Don't hesitate to share how you are doing with your meditation practice or pose any head-scratching questions you've been pondering on the cushion. Or just say hello! Drop me a line! First Name Last Name Email Message Send Thanks for submitting!

  • CALENDAR | Mindsprings

    Alistair Appletons Mindsprings calendar of events CALENDAR

  • Live Video | Mindsprings

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  • OPEN LIBRARY | Mindsprings

    Alistair Appletons Mindsprings Videos VIDEOS Tauchen Sie ein in diese kostenlose Bibliothek mit Videounterricht von Alistair. Diese Videos stammen aus Live-Sessions und beinhalten: geführte Meditationen (normalerweise ca. 30-40 Minuten) Lehre zu verschiedenen Themen: Körperbasierte Meditation, Mitgefühl, innere Familiensysteme und vieles mehr.. Alistairs Antworten an Studenten Wir haben die über 150 Videos in verschiedenen Kanälen und Kategorien organisiert. Klicken Sie unten, um ein Thema zu erkunden, das Sie interessiert. Films and Fun Things Good for Beginners Tips and Talks on How to Meditate Bringing the Body Online Buddhist Dharma Soothing & Centring the Body-MInd Maitri: Loving Your Inner Parts Community Favorites Opening the Heart to Others All the Guided Meditations All the Teaching Untangling Thoughts & Thinking Films and Fun Stuff This is a collection of some short films and documentaries Alistair has made: An Introduction to Holy Island Green Tara Island Thoughts on the Sea Sitting the Downs Video abspielen Video abspielen Kapalabati unpacked Another nuts and bolts explanation of a practice we often do in Mindsprings sessions, Skull Brightening Breath (Kapalabati). This is potential energy clearing breath practice #pranayama #explanation #kapalabti #meditation #short Video abspielen Video abspielen Is meditation in the real world better than meditation at home? Is meditation another thing you do or is it part of your everyday life? From the car park of M25 Services at Cobham, whilst away filming for Escape to the Country, .From the carpark of M25 Services at Cobham, I answer Jane's question about the benefit of formal practice vs. everyday practice. #short #meditation #practice #dzogchen #shamata Video abspielen Video abspielen Images for suffusing awareness As we practice the rising-descending torus meditation, the question of how to describe the process of 'suffusion' in energy leads to discussion of various images #short #imagery #awareness #meditation #suffusion #Pali #Tripitika Video abspielen Video abspielen The purpose is not to be calm Jane speaks about John Kabat-Zinn's refutation of meditation as a 'calming' thing. And I agree... It's much more powerful than that. Video abspielen Video abspielen Intro to the Practice of Five The introduction to my shamata-vipassana meditation called 'The Practice of Five'. This involves an alternating practice of calm abiding and beingful awareness, measured out by the fingers of each hand #explanation #practiceoffive #shamata #vipassana #meditation #teaching Video abspielen Video abspielen Practice of Fives unpacked From the car in Pembrokeshire, I unpack the practice of fives, which combines shamata and vipassana in an alternating sequence. #teaching #shamata #vipassana #explanation #meditation #guide Video abspielen Video abspielen The aerated sense of self Following on from Valerie's description of her experience in the four fields practice, I talk about the 'aerated' sense of self which comes when we learn to see our self as constructed of discrete phenomena. #fourfields #beingfulness #noself #self #teaching Video abspielen Video abspielen The Three Stages of Shamata Following Dameon's question about the shamata / self-soothing practice (without mantra) I go through the three stages of the practice and outline some of the benefits. #teaching #meditation # shamata #soothing Films & Fun Stuff Video abspielen Video abspielen 01:55 Without string a violin is just a box A snippet from our Tuesday evening live sessions where the focus is on stress-reduction and anxiety. This was a wonderful exploration of grief. Come and join us - the first month is completely free : https://www.mind-springs.org/online-live Video abspielen Video abspielen 06:55 The Island For those who have never been to Holy Island, Alistair gives some introductory pointers and a little taste of why it's so magical... Video abspielen Video abspielen 07:32 Green Tara Island Alistair speaks from Holy Island about the need for clean, compassionate action in the world, represented by the Tibetan figure of Green Tara. Video abspielen Video abspielen 07:23 Caves Alistair continues his exploration of Holy Island. In this video he ponders the magic of meditating in caves. Video abspielen Video abspielen 05:40 The Sea! The Sea! Alistair ponders the role of the sea in spiritual practice Video abspielen Video abspielen 23:12 Mindsprings - Sit the Downs Alistair Appleton teaches us how to open to the landscape below us using somatic meditation Video abspielen Video abspielen 07:49 Head-in-the-Sand Land Alistair speaks to the psychological underpinnings of climate change denial. We can find a way of empathising with that desire to dissociate the unthinkable. Beginners Good for Beginners Here are a dozen practices that give you a good taste of embodied meditation. Many of them done standing up: Starting with a lovely set of energy practices, bring energy into the standing body Then moving into the classic Mindsprings relaxation, Polyvagal Tuning . Then a brace of practice looking at tracking the energy around the somatic circuit And three practices working with awareness and stillness: 3 Objects , Mantra and the Practice of Fives Then there are two tasters of Beingfulness and Tonglen Finishing with a recap of the energy workout with my dog, Ben. Video abspielen Video abspielen 39:39 Windhorse Practice I During the Summer 2025 retreat on Holy Island, Alistair introduced a new, short meditation practice that is based on the Tibetan Windhorse practice. This was the first time he taught it to the Zoom community. #windhorse #guided Video abspielen Video abspielen 36:07 GM Windhorse III Video abspielen Video abspielen 36:03 Windhorse Standing and Sitting A 40' guided version of the Windhorse practice - both standing and sitting. A great everyday practice that uses 7x7 breaths. #windhorse #guided Video abspielen Video abspielen 32:06 Fighting Festive Frazzle The Annual Mindsprings session giving some tips and tricks from the world of therapy and meditation to navigate the ups and downs of Christmas #fightingfestivefrazzle #XmasFirstAid #holidaystress Video abspielen Video abspielen 22:09 Festive Do's and Don'ts A list of 10 Dos and Don'ts for getting through Xmas in one piece #FightingFestiveFrazzle Video abspielen Video abspielen 39:37 GM Kaleidoscope Returning to a classic Beingfulness practice, in this Monday session from Spring 2024, we enjoy sitting in the four fields like a child playing with a kaleidoscope. #kaleidoscope #beingfulness #guided Video abspielen Video abspielen 42:23 GM Expanding Through the Senses Video abspielen Video abspielen 39:38 Three Objects 2024 Starting 2024 with the classic meditation for sharpening our experience of awareness and how we have the power to move it at will. A wonderful practice for any occasion. #threeobjects #Beingfulness #Monday #awareness Tips and Talks on How to Meditate After and during many of the live Mindsprings sessions, Alistair talks about some of the misconceptions and common questions arising for meditators. These 13 short talks address a potpourri of subjects: Eyes shut or open during meditation? Not identifying with our thoughts The goal of the 'aerated' self Meditation on the cushion vs. meditation in the 'real' world Not falling into the pitfall of looking for calm Some practical unpacking of practices like kapalabati and the practice of fives How to Meditate Video abspielen Video abspielen Kapalabati unpacked Another nuts and bolts explanation of a practice we often do in Mindsprings sessions, Skull Brightening Breath (Kapalabati). This is potential energy clearing breath practice #pranayama #explanation #kapalabti #meditation #short Video abspielen Video abspielen Is meditation in the real world better than meditation at home? Is meditation another thing you do or is it part of your everyday life? From the car park of M25 Services at Cobham, whilst away filming for Escape to the Country, .From the carpark of M25 Services at Cobham, I answer Jane's question about the benefit of formal practice vs. everyday practice. #short #meditation #practice #dzogchen #shamata Video abspielen Video abspielen Images for suffusing awareness As we practice the rising-descending torus meditation, the question of how to describe the process of 'suffusion' in energy leads to discussion of various images #short #imagery #awareness #meditation #suffusion #Pali #Tripitika Video abspielen Video abspielen The purpose is not to be calm Jane speaks about John Kabat-Zinn's refutation of meditation as a 'calming' thing. And I agree... It's much more powerful than that. Video abspielen Video abspielen Intro to the Practice of Five The introduction to my shamata-vipassana meditation called 'The Practice of Five'. This involves an alternating practice of calm abiding and beingful awareness, measured out by the fingers of each hand #explanation #practiceoffive #shamata #vipassana #meditation #teaching Video abspielen Video abspielen Practice of Fives unpacked From the car in Pembrokeshire, I unpack the practice of fives, which combines shamata and vipassana in an alternating sequence. #teaching #shamata #vipassana #explanation #meditation #guide Video abspielen Video abspielen The aerated sense of self Following on from Valerie's description of her experience in the four fields practice, I talk about the 'aerated' sense of self which comes when we learn to see our self as constructed of discrete phenomena. #fourfields #beingfulness #noself #self #teaching Video abspielen Video abspielen The Three Stages of Shamata Following Dameon's question about the shamata / self-soothing practice (without mantra) I go through the three stages of the practice and outline some of the benefits. #teaching #meditation # shamata #soothing Maitri How to Meditate Buddhist Dharma Every Thursday, Alistair lets his 'dharma flag fly' and leads the Mindspringers in an exploration of Buddhist teaching (known as dharma). How do the 2,500 years of Buddhist practice and teaching help us suffer less, and how can we apply these amazingly useful skills in our meditation and in our everyday life? Some teachings are arranged in series (Karama, Atisha etc) and some are more diffuse. Please explore! Video abspielen Video abspielen 40:55 Karma 7- The Gap between Affect and Interpretation is the Point of Liberation Still exploring the theme of karma. And the ultimate karmic 'mistake' which is Selfing. Alistair unpacks this and leads us in a meditation to experience it. #karma #discussion #dharma #vipaka #imprint Video abspielen Video abspielen 21:31 Karma 7 Discussion: No-Self is just Chuckling The puzzle of pratitya samutpada or interdependent co-arising. How does that apply to pleasure for example? How pleasure tips into grasping and thence suffering. #karma #discussion #dharma #selfing Video abspielen Video abspielen 40:01 Karma 1 - The Buddha's Radicalism Following Alistair's course in Scarborough in 2025, this is the first of short group of sessions unpacking this central Buddhist theme, and dispelling some of the misconceptions about it. #karma #dharma Video abspielen Video abspielen 41:19 Karma 8 Finale - Don't Take Things So Personally This is the last part of our 8-week series on Karma, ending 2025. We look at the Vajrayana understanding of Karma and the ultimate view of karmic conditioning. Alistair unpacks this and leads us in a meditation to experience it. #karma #discussion #dharma #vajrayana #vajrasattva #tantra Video abspielen Video abspielen 12:41 Karma 2 Discussion: You Can't Control Karma but you Can Influence it Intentionality is central to the Buddhist idea of karma. Meeting the circumstances of life through the framework of intention or cetana. The basic flavour of this framework might be kindness. #karma #discussion #dharma #intentions Video abspielen Video abspielen 14:37 Karma 3 Discussion: Guilt in Buddhism and Dante's Inferno Going deeper into the notions of vipaka and imprints. How does Buddhism think about guilt or shame? If Lucifer is at the bottom of the pit in Christianity, what is at the bottom of Buddhism? We shouldn't be ashamed of correcting our vipakas. #karma #discussion #dharma #intentions Video abspielen Video abspielen 14:06 Karma 8 Discussion: The Vajrasattva Waterfall It's not your fault. The only thing you can do is tend your mind now. You can let go of guilt. Don't take it so personally. Alistair recites the Vajrasattva mantra #karma #discussion #dharma #vajrayana #vajrasattva Video abspielen Video abspielen 10:53 Karma 5 Discussion: The difference between asavas and sankharas Exploring the subtle difference between outflows and constructs. Our intentions are on the same trampoline as all other intentions. #karma #discussion #dharma #intentions Bringing the Body Online Bringing the Body Online Mindsprings grounds a lot of the meditation we do in the body and this is a great selection of somatic practices: We start with two simple energy exercises which you can use before any practice session. Then there's little talk on the specific nature of somatic practice. Two practices introduce Alistair's Polyvagal Tuning which is a great somatic practice for bringing us into a positive body-mind state. Then there is a suite of practices introducing the Somatic Circuit - a great way to find your way back into the body. Next, are practices opening up this space: the Somatic Tent . Followed by a more advanced energy practice known as the Torus . Finally, there is the classic practice of Earth Breathing and some somatic practices opening the heart for Compassion work. Video abspielen Video abspielen 39:29 GM Energy Workout & Tune Ups Starting a new sequence of Tuesday teachings looking at energy psychology, Alistair explains the concepts of online/offline and guides us through Donna Eden's energy workout #energypsychology #tapping #online #tuneups #guided Video abspielen Video abspielen 42:07 GM Being with the Body Following the May Cliffhouse retreat with the subject of "Sitting with the Body", this Monday morning session took up the same theme. #4fields #7cycles #body #beingfulness Video abspielen Video abspielen 39:18 GM Earth Breathing & Ego Loop From our Tuesday evening session in late March 2024. Combining the classic earth breathing practice with an exploration of the source of our anxiety - the ego loop. #earthbreathing #egoloop #tuesday #meditation Video abspielen Video abspielen 34:56 GM Voo & The Jellyfish From our Tuesday session in April 2024. This was in 2 parts. The first using the VOO breath to calm the nervous system and then a lying-down practice exploring the vagus nerve. #vagus #nervoussystem #calming #guided #breathing Video abspielen Video abspielen 42:43 GM Shamata on Sounds From our 2024 season looking at Shamata - Vipashyna. This Shamata practice uses sound as the anchor. #shamata #sounds #guided Video abspielen Video abspielen 33:15 GM Polyvagal Tuning The classic stress busting exercise from Mindsprings. Lie down and let the ventral vagal tone take over. #PVT #Stress #guided Video abspielen Video abspielen 33:36 GM The Blind Body From our Monday session in mid June 2023, where we were exploring the body-from-within. #beingfulness #body #somatic #guided Video abspielen Video abspielen 43:12 GM 8 Cycles of the Body From our Monday session on 3rd July 2023, looking at the body field in our exploration of Beingfulness. This is a lying down practice exploring the 8 interlocking and inter-nested cycles of somatic phenomena. #beingfulness #somatic #cycles #guided Thoughts & Thinking Untangling Thoughts & Thinking After and during many of the live Mindsprings sessions, Alistair talks about some of the misconceptions and common questions arising for meditators. These 13 short talks address a potpourri of subjects: Eyes shut or open during meditation? Not identifying with our thoughts The goal of the 'aerated' self Meditation on the cushion vs. meditation in the 'real' world Not falling into the pitfall of looking for calm Some practical unpacking of practices like kapalabati and the practice of fives Soothing & Centring the Body-Mind Central to all meditation is the ability to calm and soothe the body-mind. Without this, all further therapeutic elaborations tend to disappear in a morass of fizzy distraction: The soothing practice of Earth Breathing Shamata or calming practice: the practice of Fives Working with mantra Frond breathing Tonglen and compassion for our own experience Soothing & Centring Maitri: Loving Your Inner Parts Before we can love others we have to be aware of and love the multiplicity of parts within our own psyche. The practice of maitri (of self-compassion) explores this with the help of Richard Schwartz' Internal Family Systems. Beginning with a short overview, we dive into the crucial experience of the 'backspace which gives us the somatic field of loving-kindness into which our parts can peep. we can explore the parts that Schwartz identifies as firefighters, managers and exiles in our practice and bring some kindness and clarity to them. These parts often manifest in specific somatic ways as explored in the teaching around cylinders Two more talks about the wider ramifications of this work in our lives. Maitri Opening the Heart to Others Ultimately all our practice comes back to how we relate to others. The cast-iron patterns of selfishness are hard to soften. But therapeutic meditation turns a lot to Buddhist practice here: Guided practices to feel the embodied 'backspace' essential for compassion practice Embodied versions of the Buddhist practice of tonglen Explorations of the awakened heart or bodhicitta Discussing the practical challenges of loving others Compassion All the Guided Practices The Mindsprings Video library contains more than 50 guided meditations ranging from 10 to 50 minutes. Please use the search function to pinpoint the practice you want or look through the categories to find inspiration. All GMs All the Teaching The Mindsprings Video library contains more than 100 recorded teachings. Some are short answers to questions Alistair gave during sessions. Some are longer teaching on meditation, therapy or Buddhism. Please use the search function to pinpoint the practice you want or look through the categories to find inspiration. All Teaching

  • Copy of OPEN LIBRARY | Mindsprings

    Alistair Appletons Mindsprings Videos VIDEOS Tauchen Sie ein in diese kostenlose Bibliothek mit Videounterricht von Alistair. Diese Videos stammen aus Live-Sessions und beinhalten: geführte Meditationen (normalerweise ca. 30-40 Minuten) Lehre zu verschiedenen Themen: Körperbasierte Meditation, Mitgefühl, innere Familiensysteme und vieles mehr.. Alistairs Antworten an Studenten Wir haben die über 150 Videos in verschiedenen Kanälen und Kategorien organisiert. Klicken Sie unten, um ein Thema zu erkunden, das Sie interessiert. Good for Beginners Tips and Talks on How to Meditate Bringing the Body Online Untangling Thoughts & Thinking Soothing & Centring the Body-MInd Maitri: Loving Your Inner Parts Opening the Heart to Others All the Guided Meditations All the Teaching Community Favorites Beginners Good for Beginners Here are a dozen practices that give you a good taste of embodied meditation. Many of them done standing up: Starting with a lovely set of energy practices, bring energy into the standing body Then moving into the classic Mindsprings relaxation, Polyvagal Tuning . Then a brace of practice looking at tracking the energy around the somatic circuit And three practices working with awareness and stillness: 3 Objects , Mantra and the Practice of Fives Then there are two tasters of Beingfulness and Tonglen Finishing with a recap of the energy workout with my dog, Ben. Video abspielen Video abspielen 39:39 Windhorse Practice I During the Summer 2025 retreat on Holy Island, Alistair introduced a new, short meditation practice that is based on the Tibetan Windhorse practice. This was the first time he taught it to the Zoom community. #windhorse #guided Video abspielen Video abspielen 36:07 GM Windhorse III Video abspielen Video abspielen 36:03 Windhorse Standing and Sitting A 40' guided version of the Windhorse practice - both standing and sitting. A great everyday practice that uses 7x7 breaths. #windhorse #guided Video abspielen Video abspielen 32:06 Fighting Festive Frazzle The Annual Mindsprings session giving some tips and tricks from the world of therapy and meditation to navigate the ups and downs of Christmas #fightingfestivefrazzle #XmasFirstAid #holidaystress Video abspielen Video abspielen 22:09 Festive Do's and Don'ts A list of 10 Dos and Don'ts for getting through Xmas in one piece #FightingFestiveFrazzle Video abspielen Video abspielen 39:37 GM Kaleidoscope Returning to a classic Beingfulness practice, in this Monday session from Spring 2024, we enjoy sitting in the four fields like a child playing with a kaleidoscope. #kaleidoscope #beingfulness #guided Video abspielen Video abspielen 42:23 GM Expanding Through the Senses Video abspielen Video abspielen 39:38 Three Objects 2024 Starting 2024 with the classic meditation for sharpening our experience of awareness and how we have the power to move it at will. A wonderful practice for any occasion. #threeobjects #Beingfulness #Monday #awareness Tips and Talks on How to Meditate After and during many of the live Mindsprings sessions, Alistair talks about some of the misconceptions and common questions arising for meditators. These 13 short talks address a potpourri of subjects: Eyes shut or open during meditation? Not identifying with our thoughts The goal of the 'aerated' self Meditation on the cushion vs. meditation in the 'real' world Not falling into the pitfall of looking for calm Some practical unpacking of practices like kapalabati and the practice of fives How to Meditate Video abspielen Video abspielen Kapalabati unpacked Another nuts and bolts explanation of a practice we often do in Mindsprings sessions, Skull Brightening Breath (Kapalabati). This is potential energy clearing breath practice #pranayama #explanation #kapalabti #meditation #short Video abspielen Video abspielen Is meditation in the real world better than meditation at home? Is meditation another thing you do or is it part of your everyday life? From the car park of M25 Services at Cobham, whilst away filming for Escape to the Country, .From the carpark of M25 Services at Cobham, I answer Jane's question about the benefit of formal practice vs. everyday practice. #short #meditation #practice #dzogchen #shamata Video abspielen Video abspielen Images for suffusing awareness As we practice the rising-descending torus meditation, the question of how to describe the process of 'suffusion' in energy leads to discussion of various images #short #imagery #awareness #meditation #suffusion #Pali #Tripitika Video abspielen Video abspielen The purpose is not to be calm Jane speaks about John Kabat-Zinn's refutation of meditation as a 'calming' thing. And I agree... It's much more powerful than that. Video abspielen Video abspielen Intro to the Practice of Five The introduction to my shamata-vipassana meditation called 'The Practice of Five'. This involves an alternating practice of calm abiding and beingful awareness, measured out by the fingers of each hand #explanation #practiceoffive #shamata #vipassana #meditation #teaching Video abspielen Video abspielen Practice of Fives unpacked From the car in Pembrokeshire, I unpack the practice of fives, which combines shamata and vipassana in an alternating sequence. #teaching #shamata #vipassana #explanation #meditation #guide Video abspielen Video abspielen The aerated sense of self Following on from Valerie's description of her experience in the four fields practice, I talk about the 'aerated' sense of self which comes when we learn to see our self as constructed of discrete phenomena. #fourfields #beingfulness #noself #self #teaching Video abspielen Video abspielen The Three Stages of Shamata Following Dameon's question about the shamata / self-soothing practice (without mantra) I go through the three stages of the practice and outline some of the benefits. #teaching #meditation # shamata #soothing Bringing the Body Online Bringing the Body Online Mindsprings grounds a lot of the meditation we do in the body and this is a great selection of somatic practices: We start with two simple energy exercises which you can use before any practice session. Then there's little talk on the specific nature of somatic practice. Two practices introduce Alistair's Polyvagal Tuning which is a great somatic practice for bringing us into a positive body-mind state. Then there is a suite of practices introducing the Somatic Circuit - a great way to find your way back into the body. Next, are practices opening up this space: the Somatic Tent . Followed by a more advanced energy practice known as the Torus . Finally, there is the classic practice of Earth Breathing and some somatic practices opening the heart for Compassion work. Video abspielen Video abspielen 39:29 GM Energy Workout & Tune Ups Starting a new sequence of Tuesday teachings looking at energy psychology, Alistair explains the concepts of online/offline and guides us through Donna Eden's energy workout #energypsychology #tapping #online #tuneups #guided Video abspielen Video abspielen 42:07 GM Being with the Body Following the May Cliffhouse retreat with the subject of "Sitting with the Body", this Monday morning session took up the same theme. #4fields #7cycles #body #beingfulness Video abspielen Video abspielen 39:18 GM Earth Breathing & Ego Loop From our Tuesday evening session in late March 2024. Combining the classic earth breathing practice with an exploration of the source of our anxiety - the ego loop. #earthbreathing #egoloop #tuesday #meditation Video abspielen Video abspielen 34:56 GM Voo & The Jellyfish From our Tuesday session in April 2024. This was in 2 parts. The first using the VOO breath to calm the nervous system and then a lying-down practice exploring the vagus nerve. #vagus #nervoussystem #calming #guided #breathing Video abspielen Video abspielen 42:43 GM Shamata on Sounds From our 2024 season looking at Shamata - Vipashyna. This Shamata practice uses sound as the anchor. #shamata #sounds #guided Video abspielen Video abspielen 33:15 GM Polyvagal Tuning The classic stress busting exercise from Mindsprings. Lie down and let the ventral vagal tone take over. #PVT #Stress #guided Video abspielen Video abspielen 33:36 GM The Blind Body From our Monday session in mid June 2023, where we were exploring the body-from-within. #beingfulness #body #somatic #guided Video abspielen Video abspielen 43:12 GM 8 Cycles of the Body From our Monday session on 3rd July 2023, looking at the body field in our exploration of Beingfulness. This is a lying down practice exploring the 8 interlocking and inter-nested cycles of somatic phenomena. #beingfulness #somatic #cycles #guided Thoughts & Thinking Untangling Thoughts & Thinking After and during many of the live Mindsprings sessions, Alistair talks about some of the misconceptions and common questions arising for meditators. These 13 short talks address a potpourri of subjects: Eyes shut or open during meditation? Not identifying with our thoughts The goal of the 'aerated' self Meditation on the cushion vs. meditation in the 'real' world Not falling into the pitfall of looking for calm Some practical unpacking of practices like kapalabati and the practice of fives Soothing & Centring the Body-Mind Central to all meditation is the ability to calm and soothe the body-mind. Without this, all further therapeutic elaborations tend to disappear in a morass of fizzy distraction: The soothing practice of Earth Breathing Shamata or calming practice: the practice of Fives Working with mantra Frond breathing Tonglen and compassion for our own experience Soothing & Centring Maitri: Loving Your Inner Parts Before we can love others we have to be aware of and love the multiplicity of parts within our own psyche. The practice of maitri (of self-compassion) explores this with the help of Richard Schwartz' Internal Family Systems. Beginning with a short overview, we dive into the crucial experience of the 'backspace which gives us the somatic field of loving-kindness into which our parts can peep. we can explore the parts that Schwartz identifies as firefighters, managers and exiles in our practice and bring some kindness and clarity to them. These parts often manifest in specific somatic ways as explored in the teaching around cylinders Two more talks about the wider ramifications of this work in our lives. Maitri Opening the Heart to Others Ultimately all our practice comes back to how we relate to others. The cast-iron patterns of selfishness are hard to soften. But therapeutic meditation turns a lot to Buddhist practice here: Guided practices to feel the embodied 'backspace' essential for compassion practice Embodied versions of the Buddhist practice of tonglen Explorations of the awakened heart or bodhicitta Discussing the practical challenges of loving others Compassion All the Guided Practices The Mindsprings Video library contains more than 50 guided meditations ranging from 10 to 50 minutes. Please use the search function to pinpoint the practice you want or look through the categories to find inspiration. All GMs All the Teaching The Mindsprings Video library contains more than 100 recorded teachings. Some are short answers to questions Alistair gave during sessions. Some are longer teaching on meditation, therapy or Buddhism. Please use the search function to pinpoint the practice you want or look through the categories to find inspiration. All Teaching

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