Hello there if you’re looking at the site for the first time as a participant on the Mindfulness Course at Kensal Rise.

As promised here is a copy of the course notes – just in case you mislaid them – and a link to the on-line recording of the Monday evening class. Please subscribe to this feed so you don’t miss any.

If you have any questions about the week’s practice don’t hesitate to contact me at .

Alistair

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Mindsprings Worksheet 1

Basic commitment for the course:

“I’m going to commit to following this practice for 8 weeks and see what happens.

I appreciate that without actually doing the excercises very little will happen – so, just as an experiment, I’m going to commit to doing the meditations twice a day every day.

I’m going to experiment with the idea of living more and more mindfully and keep tabs on the benefits and difficulties over the next eight weeks.

I’m also going to be kind to myself and not beat myself up about ‘doing it wrong’ or when I really can’t do a session.”

Signed:

Week one home practice:

2 x 15 minutes a day: standing practice.

As much mindful eating as you can remember – at least 3 or 4 meals in the week without music or reading.

Buy and start writing a mindfulness journal. Keep notes of each of your meditations and how they went; any awareness of the four fields throughout the week; fill in the diary.

Main Practice: Standing in the Four Fields

The four fields of awareness are: the body, the senses, the emotions and thoughts.

Spend quarter of a hour every morning and evening just standing, relaxed and flexible and take time to rest the awareness in each of these four fields. Set a timer and go!

Take time to feel out your body from within – explore any aches or pains, any numbness, move around on the spot and be aware of your body as a field of experience. Try and avoid thinking about your body – just experience as it is, no attempts to improve it. Use your breath to explore the field of physical sensations.

Be aware of what’s coming in through your senses. Rest your awareness on the sound of your breathing, of people or traffic or birdsong outside; be aware of the colours, brightness, dullness, shapes around you; be aware of any strongs smells, tastes. Tune into your senses. Again don’t worry if you start thinking about what you’re seeing, smelling etc. just bring your awareness to pure experience.

Be aware of your emotional state: stressed, tired, angry, frustrated; happy, relaxed, inspired. It doesn’t matter what is happening just be aware – notice that these things happen in the background mostly. Foreground your feelings and rest your awareness there. Try not to start to think about them – just notice them. Gentle curiosity.

Also be aware of your thoughts: are they strong and strident or a mushy mess? Notice what you’re thinking about and begin to be curious about how your thoughts arise and proliferate. Be aware of how you’re thinking rather than what you’re thinking. Don’t be angry or worried about your thoughts – just take some time to be curious about them.

Move sequentially through all four fields until the 15 minutes is up. Notice if you can bring this fourfold attention into the day as well.

You can follow the course by podcast, get some of this material and ask any questions during the week at the Mindsprings Website:

www.mind-springs.org

Please use this resource.