We often read that mindfulness interventions are ‘evidence-based’ approaches. What does that mean? What's the evidence? The American Mindfulness Research Association (AMRA) shows 1,153 research articles were written in 2020, a slight increase from the 1,092 papers in 2019. However, this is a massive exponential jump from the 10 papers or less published between 1990 and 2000. Do we believe every one of them? Do we discard those not meeting rigorous standards, say there's too little a sample in a study or the design is poor? Or do we hope that although not all are class A papers, they still give ..read more

Special thanks to XPAN's Brian Ng, and Jerome and Joy Gonzalez who helped make the session happen. It was also good to meet Assistant Principal Frederick Perez. The Happy Warrior reached a milestone by holding its first mindfulness session in Asia. Over a hundred parents of schoolchildren from Xavier Nuvali, Philippines experienced an interactive introduction to mindfulness as a means towards strengthening resilience, focus and wellbeing in general. Claire Robinson Gonzalez heads the project to bring mindfulness to Philippine schools while Jason Gonzalez leads the initiative to bring mindfuln ..read more

It's an honour to work alongside the Southern Health and Social Care Trust. Here's a glimpse of our work as featured in the papers... The Southern Health & Social Care Trust has hosted a first of its kind ‘Mindfulness Programme’ specifically tailored to the needs of parents and carers of children with disabilities. Lesley Waugh, Locality Head Specialist Child Health & Disability Wraparound Services for the Southern Trust, said: “We were delighted to host a Mindfulness Programme for parents and carers of children with disabilities in partnership with ‘The Happy Warrior’, and are very p ..read more

This is such a lovely week to celebrate our founding--4 October 2013! We are blessed to run three simultaneous 8-week Mindfulness courses and a couple of Mindfulness classes in the workplace. To top it all, coming soon is our Online 8-Week Course in a Virtual Classroom format. That will make a total of four 8-week courses delivered in the same months. Claire at the Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy 8-week course with the Southern Trust (Craigavon) Thanks to BT General Manager Paul Murnaghan, we're back home at BT, running an 8-week Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy & Stress Reduction ..read more

"Mindfulness only works when it's agenda-less. Mindfulness is a way of being, not a collection of techniques" Jon Kabat-Zinn reiterates. The huge potential of Mindfulness to improve individual and organisational well-being is threatened by its misunderstanding. The 'McMindfulness' hype, as Kabat-Zinn puts it, seems to permeate because of agenda. Jason Gonzalez with Jon Kabat-Zinn, Nobel Laureate and Father of Modern Mindfulness Why Agenda and Mindfulness Don't Mix Having an agenda is tantamount to having goals, targets or any type of 'end' state that requires a dualistic mindset. There's a be ..read more

Mindfulness in the workplace is still in its infancy stage in the whole of the UK. Northern Ireland, being geographically detached to GB, is a bit slower to catch up. With Jason of The Happy Warrior serving the working group for Mindfulness in the Workplace and leading the efforts to involve Northern Ireland executives with nationwide initiatives, we are very hopeful in speeding up progress in this area. (Jason Gonzalez) We're happy to have been given permission by our friend, Dr. Silke Rupprecht from Oxford Mindfulness Centre to re-post her article on Mindfulness in the Workplace. Mindfulnes ..read more

The Happy Warrior's Jason Gonzalez with the fathers of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT): Zindel Seagal, Mark Williams and John Teasdale. MBCT is known internationally to cut the relapse of chronic depression by up to 50%. It was in October 2015 that the Mindful Nation UK report was published. Yesterday, the 23rd of October, The Guardian reports that 4,000 teachers are now qualified in teaching meditation to combat stress among students. We're seeing the effects. Hopefully, the impact reaches Northern Ireland soon. What is the Mindful Nation UK Report? The Mindful Nation UK report is ..read more

Are we equipped to handle tech well? There's a growing concern about technology addiction among children and young people. We adults tend to react to the situation by treating people who are younger than us as problems to be solved. But the reality is that we first need to mind our own business because we ourselves are part of the society that is massively impacted by the continuous and rapid evolution of tech. If values are really caught (not taught), then we'll consequently impact children and young people if we ourselves are able to mindfully handle our own relationship with smartphones, t ..read more

What's Your Relationship with Technology? Is technology really addictive? What do you think? Honestly... I've been asked this question a number of times by our Mindfulness clients. My usual answer is, "You tell me..." Then I continue with a couple of questions. "When you're on a date in a restaurant, and your date leaves for the toilet, do you bring out your phone automatically... without thinking? Do you find yourself almost needing to text or call or check your email? Do you go to your social network mindlessly? Or probably a better question is, are you aware at all of what you do when your ..read more

We often read that mindfulness interventions are ‘evidence-based’ approaches. What does that mean? What's the evidence? The American Mindfulness Research Association (AMRA) shows 692 research articles were written in 2017, a slight increase from the 690 papers in 2016. However, this is a massive exponential jump from the 10 papers or less published between 1990 and 2000. Do we believe every one of them? Do we discard those not meeting rigorous standards, say there's too little a sample in a study or the design is poor? Or do we hope that although not all are class A papers, they still give hop ..read more