Kathy White-Webster Mindfulness

30/03/2026

Acceptance is central to mindfulness practice. Without acceptance of the present moment you are, to some degree, resisting your experience and it is in this resistance that the seeds of frustration, fear, anger and other aversive emotions are sown.

One of the biggest challenges to acceptance in the western world is acceptance of ourselves, acceptance that we are all beautiful just as we are. So much emphasis is placed on beauty and "looking good" in our culture.

Our advertising is saturated with subtle and not-so-subtle messaging around the need to be perceived as "beautiful" by others. This feeds a narrow and superficial appreciation of worth through beauty in other's eyes. What this quote highlights is that each of us is a beautiful, unique collection of atoms passing through this moment in time. To bring acceptance to the messy self is the beginning of contentment and happiness. To accept ourselves is the work of mindfulness.

29/03/2026

We do have a sandy beach! Only visible at very low tides 🏝

29/03/2026

Global protests against Donald Trump took place on Saturday as millions of people vented fury over what they see as his authoritarian bent and cruel, law-trampling governance. It is the third time in less than a year that Americans will take to the streets as part of a grassroots movement called No ...

29/03/2026

Hours before the world learned that a US missile had hit Shajareh Tayyebeh school, parents were already searching the rubble for their sons and daughters.

In this exclusive report, four families describe the events of 28 February

21/03/2026

21/03/2026

‘What the theorems showed is that the unembodied symbols of mathematics don’t need to be mere representations of an already existing reality; they could in fact be the starting point for everything.’

Female and Jewish in a country and era that did not allow such bodies to exist, the mathematical world offered Emmy Noether an escape from the physical. Her now famous theorems on the timelessness of the laws of physics reflect her yearning for the abstract and unbound.
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Read more about this incredible woman’s life and mind here:
https://aeon.co/essays/she-freed-physics-but-emmy-noether-couldnt-escape-herself

21/03/2026

Last year there was a widespread revival of patronal festivals in Anglican parish churches in England and Wales centred on the service of choral evensong. Eighty churches celebrated the feast day of their patron saint with a renewed sense celebration and local community. I wrote about this project in a Substack essay: https://rupertsheldrake.substack.com/p/the-revival-of-patronal-festivals

This year the Choral Evensong Trust, of which I am a trustee, has had 45% more applications than last year, and is unable to fund them all from its limited resources. If you would like to support one or more of these village festivals, as I have done myself, you could make a big difference. It’s only £500 per village. You can donate through this portal using a credit or debit card, and also add 25% Gift Aid if you are a UK taxpayer:
https://donorbox.org/patronal-festival-grants

If there is any particular region of England in which you have ancestral roots, email me at sheldrake@sheldrake.org and I will try to find a village or villages in that area that would welcome your sponsorship - and invite you to the festival.

18/03/2026

Western thought often explains systems, from societies to ecosystems, by breaking them down into their parts: atoms, rocks, trees, individual people.

But many African philosophies like Ubuntu challenge the idea of pre-defined, isolated entities forming larger wholes.

Philosopher Elvis Imafidon argues relationships don’t connect pre-existing individuals; rather, all things become what they are through their relations with other things.

From this relational understanding of being, a dominant theme in African philosophy is that ethics must extend beyond humans to the whole of reality.

Tap the link to read more. https://iai.tv/articles/african-philosophys-challenge-to-western-reductionism-auid-3525

18/03/2026

Researcher Panu Pihkala explores eco-anxiety, ecological grief, and how community and contemplative practice can sustain us in a climate crisis.

17/03/2026

How you walk through the door matters more than you think

17/03/2026