The Zen Room

03/10/2022

With so much craziness going on in the world over the last few years, and in my own life, I'm finding this kind of self care more important than ever...

Hope everyone's doing OK ❤

16/01/2022

"We learn to move and breathe in a new way, until we realise one day how much stronger we are."

Love Sharon Salzberg! She somehow manages to encapsulate my feelings about meditation perfectly! ❤

The Loving Kindness meditation helps us practice compassion towards ourselves (often surpringly difficult!) and also towards others... even those we have difficulties with.

It's a true mental & emotional exercise, and can be quite a challenge, but it can also help to develop an overall sense of peace, love and oneness with time and patience.

If you would like to learn more about Loving Kindness meditation, or meditation in general and how it can benefit you, feel free to drop me a DM ☺

The first step toward feeling compassion for others is to set the intention to try it out. Regardless of whether we have certain fears or feelings of aversion when considering this idea, we can relish the experience of exercising our minds and hearts. While we may be biologically wired to look for differences between ourselves and others, we can also accept that there is validity in experimenting with new habits, wisdom that results from encouraging ourselves to learn and expand.

This works for groups we may harbor resentment toward, as well as individuals. The process requires patience, though; opening our shuttered hearts has its own timetable. Often we may spend a while just going through the motions, feeling as if we’re getting nowhere fast. Yet with a clear intention and a willing spirit, sooner or later we experience the joy and freedom that arises when we recognize our common humanity with others and see that real love excludes no one.

There’s no need to begin this process with judgment or a harsh sense of discipline. I’ve had students tell me that they feel bad or inadequate upon realizing that love for others doesn’t spring forth from their hearts like water in a babbling brook. Finding this boundless love isn’t the result of a goal-oriented search, but a practice. We experiment with what it feels like to treat ourselves with kindness when we “succeed” as much as when we “fail.” We open our eyes to the suffering and joy of those we see in line for security in the airport as much as we do to our family members. We challenge ourselves to see that kindness is really at the core of what it means to be and feel alive.

None of this is easy. As I said, learning the practice of loving- kindness meditation for the first time challenged my emotional fabric in ways I didn’t expect. As I practiced offering phrases of lovingkindness to myself, then to benefactors and to acquaintances, to difficult people, and—finally—all beings, I began noticing just how much I was conditioned to entangle myself in judgments, assumptions, fears, and stories. This act of noticing itself is part of real love. We see that we can set the intention to stretch past these habits we’ve gotten used to—both internally and as the result of familial, circumstantial, and overarching societal factors. Not because we are doing something phony or because we are trying to force ourselves to be hypocritical or pretentious. We stretch because, as human beings with capacity for real love, we can. We learn to move and breathe in a new way, until we realize one day how much stronger we are.

Excerpt from Real Love: The Art of Mindful Connection

06/01/2022

Love these happiness calendars!! 🥰

I'm starting late this month on Day 6, so I'm going to double up for a few days to include days 1-5 too 😄👌

Today:
Day 6: 5 minutes of meditation ✔🧘‍♀️ ...plus
Day 3: bought a coffee for the car behind ✔ ☕

Wishing you a wonderful day! ✨

05/01/2022

"I JUST WANT TO BE HAPPY!" 😊
..A popular New Year's resolution for many as we enter 2022.

If you'd like to learn science-based skills to boost your wellbeing, you might want to check out this hour long event, hosted by Action for Happiness (...and it's free! 😉)

Join us for an inspiring event with neuroscientist Professor Richard Davidson to learn science-based skills to boost your wellbeing.

05/01/2022

Distress is an inevitable part of life.

Learning how to cope with distress can be an incredible way to empower ourselves to more comfortably manage life's ups and downs.

The article below shares some useful strategies that may help us to cope when we're feeling overwhelmed.

Please feel free to use the comments box to share any strategies you find useful 😊



https://cbtpsychology.com/tolerate-distress/

We all experience emotional and physical distress. Distress Tolerance Techniques teach us how to cope with high levels of distress

27/12/2021

In honoring his passing, may we be guided by Desmond Tutu’s wise, loving heart…

"God’s dream is that you and I and all of us will realize that we are family, that we are made for togetherness, for goodness, and for compassion.”

❤️

Photo: Tenzin Choejor

09/11/2021

💕

02/11/2021

✨ YOUR ENERGY ✨ is precious!
..Use it wisely 🙏

13/10/2021

THE POWER OF COMPASSION

Compassion is one of the important pillars of Mindfulness.

This online event features some well known, esteemed international speakers as well as a few less familiar but equally interesting artists, authors, activists and academics.

It is a 4 day event, beginning on Oct 14th. The registration page shows all the speakers and their topics, and if they appeal to you, please register and listen to what they have to say.

Feel free to share this with anyone you think might be interested! 🙏

https://is.gd/3wR66z

A FREE global online event, October 14-18

07/10/2021

When we become the observer, we create the gap needed to look AT our thoughts & emotions, rather than FROM them.

This way, we stay centred & more able to resist getting involved with feelings & thoughts that very often don't serve us.

06/10/2021

October's New Moon is here! 🌙 🌔🌛

Marking the first phase of the new lunar cycle, a new moon symbolises new beginnings.

It's a time to let go of all the things in your past that don't have a place in your future.

This might be people, certain emotions, bad habits, ongoing pain - anything that no longer serves you.

It's also a time to focus on attracting new things into your life that you want to come to fruition.

Finding a new way forward can begin today ✨ 🙏

02/09/2021

HAPPY SEPTEMBER!!

Self Care September from Action for Happiness

Little reminders to look after yourself as you would a loved one ❤

30/07/2021

These Action For Happiness calendars are a great way to get the whole family involved in meaningful activities over the summer hols! 🎉

29/07/2021

A celebration of 10 years of Action For Happiness! 😊🥳

Here's the video of the event...

This unique online event features exclusive highlights from Dalai Lama in conversation with Richard Layard, co-founder of Action for Happiness - plus Andy Pu...

17/07/2021

A beautiful way to explain meditation, by the wonderful Thich Nhat Hanh 🧘‍♀️

https://m.facebook.com/thichnhathanh/photos/a.136121339634/10158505054374635/?type=3

"Meditation is to be aware of what is going on - in our bodies, in our feelings, in our minds, and in the world. Each day 40,000 children die of hunger. The superpowers now have more than 50,000 nuclear warheads, enough to destroy our planet many times. Yet the sunrise is beautiful, and the rose that bloomed this morning along the wall is a miracle. Life is both dreadful and wonderful. To practice meditation is to be in touch with both aspects. Please do not think we must be solemn in order to meditate. In fact, to meditate well, we have to smile a lot.”

Thich Nhat Hanh in "Being Peace" (Parallax Press 2020, first published 1987)

01/04/2021

I try never to miss Russell's Brand's Zoom chats, and today's didn't disappoint!

You meet some incredible people on there and the meditation he lead today was really interesting 🧘‍♀️

Such a fab community and a great way to connect in these strange times 🙏