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Click the image below to see the video message: https://share.descript.com/view/YQUpfRabq7B Hello. Just a quick note to you lovely members of the Mindsprings community. I am going away next week to Barcelona with Daniel for his 40th birthday. And I will be back the following week. So that is the 28th so we'll start, live sessions again on this Monday, the 28th. And on the 31st, we're going to start a new cycle of Buddhist teaching: We're looking at the four immeasurables, which will be at the later time of 8:00 AM UK time. So we're doing this seasonal switch. So slightly later on a Thursday morning. So the Monday session and that Thursday session, the morning sessions are both at 8:00 AM UK time. Slightly complicated, I think because the clocks go back. So if you're in a different time zone, you need to just be mindful of that. And also to let you know that, Let's just check the date. we're starting our book club. Looking at Mingyur Rinpoche's wonderful "In Love With the World" on the 6th of November. So this is in just in a few weeks time, and that's free, if you're a Baobab member, so many of you have that. Do come along. It's I think it's seven o'clock on Wednesday evenings for, I think we're taking six weeks up until Christmas. So I will send out an email and that'd be a page with some reading instructions for that. coming in the next few days. Anyway, just thought, I'd say hello. And, let you know, what's coming up in the next few weeks. And I hope you're very well. I've got a little bit of a cold, I think I might have had COVID actually, cause I can't smell anything. . Curious. Never had that before. But I hope you're well and healthy. And, enjoying the fall slash spring. If you're in Australia.

I would like to wish all you lovely mindspringers a very happy Christmas and an enlightened new year.

Here's a clip from this morning session, the first in our 8-week series looking at the Four Foundations of Mindfulness one of the most famous and influential meditation discourses of the Buddha. Please join us for the rest of the funfair ride - we're meeting every Thursday morning at 8am UK but if you can't make that, sign up anyway and we will send you a recording. It's an amazing text and I'm looking forward to unpacking it together. https://www.mind-springs.org/online-live

https://share.descript.com/view/D3qLygV66gS

We were exploring the importance of 'emotional concepts' this morning. Emotions depend on a conceptual framework in the brain to have meaning. This is why it's so useful to have a richer vocabulary regarding our feelings. For example, the widespread experience of waking up in an inexplicably bad mood. It would be easy to pathologise this and see it as a personal failing or a terrible injustice. But when we know there is a word for it, then our emotional experience is validated and given meaning: MATUTOLYPEA (pronounced: mah-tu-toh-leh-PEE-a) “Dejection of the Dawn” Waking up in misery or a bad temper. From the Roman goddess of the dawn, Mater Matuta, and the Greek word for dejection, lype,

This is an excerpt from our Thursday teaching, emphasising the Buddhist emphasis on recognising how we fundamentally misperceive reality. First, we only partially perceive and then we hazily generalise by conceptualizing. https://share.descript.com/view/Za1S2xSEBL2

Good morning, I have loved your 'presence' for many years Alistair (on escape to the country etc! Always finding you so calming! I have followed you on Instagram for ages, and now found your website. I have struggled for years with anxiety, worse since menopause, and then 2 years ago, I sadly, suddenly lost my husband...the worst night of my life..... I relived that night over and over for about a year. Last year I had an anxiety breakdown, which (no help from the GP apart from Diazapam which I quickly got off) I dipped my toes into yoga, and mindfulness which helped a little (I had trouble keeping it going) 6 months ago I went to a meditation retreat day, which led to classes of mindfulness/meditation/Buddhism teachings, which is helping my thoughts and breathing (I've not been able to breathe properly for years). I love Buddhist/contemplative/meditation teacher! Like you, he's so calming...... My husband was a therapist, he used to keep me going and hold me together in mind and body, so I lost more than just my best friend..... He used to do a lot of EFT too, which again I need to do more of, so, joining your site/group can only add to my box of tools, and I hope give me a bit more strength. I am planning to move house this year too, which has so many mixed emotions and is quite scary for me. Looking forward to seeing more of your teachings and guidance, thank you, Jayne xxx

Dear all, I gifted myself the beingfulness course today. I just finshed chemotherapy for lymphonic cancer. During my treatment I have spend a lot of time walking in nature, listening to the 'nothing much happens podcast' and living hour by hour day by day. Embracing life fully. And actually I felt happier than before I was ill. I still need a scan to confirm that the cancer is gone, but I also looking at how during my recovery I can continue to take care of myself physically, emotionally snd spiritually. This course looked like an easy and fun way to do and matches good with my worldview and most "sacred" experiences of feeling deeply connected. I am nowaydays on sick leave but work as a spiritual counselor ( e.g. like a chaplain but without being sent by a religious insitute,my most important source is being in nature) and reseacher in an university hospital. I will take what l learn with me in my wotk both with patients and collegues. Hope to meet many of you here online!

Here's an excerpt from last nights Fighting Festive Frazzle session, outlining some Dos and Don'ts for your mental health this Christmas: https://share.descript.com/view/4QirAOwFBDS

I like it when a very simple diagram communicates something very complex. Thought some of you might like this too.... PS. Can Alistair come back from holiday now, please? 😉