WORLD KINDNESS DAY 13th November Today, 13th November is World Kindness Day and one of the most prominent advocates of kindness is Dr David Hamilton. David spoke over Zoom to the British Meditation School community last week and gave us a master class on the benefits of kindness. He has written extensively about the effects kindness has on us personally and on the world in general.   He posted this on Facebook this morning  ‘Today (13th Nov) is World Kindness Day. Let’s make a special effort to help each other, to support each other, to have compassion for those who are suffering. I ..read more

Anger in the class One of my favourite parts of the Meditation Teacher Training course is the discussion we have about the distractions which can happen during teaching meditation, by being aware of the distractions we are forewarned. Then, based on these we look at ground rules which might prevent some of the distractions from arising, and so we are forearmed.  Some of the ground rules might be addressed via an email prior to the course, such as what to do if you know you are going to be late, etc.  Whilst some are at the beginning of the first session, such as what to do if need to ..read more

Helen Galpin, co founder of the British School of Meditation talks about choosing music for meditation. In this video Helen talks about Music to aid your meditation practice, Helen includes three of her favourite pieces.  Music can really set the scene for your practice so it does need to be chosen with care, have fun finding your favourite piece of music to aid your meditation practice.   Zen and the art of Relaxation.  Touch of Silence, Tibetan Singing Bowls by Klaus Wiese Reiki Gold by Llewellyn ..read more

The 5 second rule by Mel Robbins A few years ago I came across a book by Mel Robbins which I found inspiring. Here is how her website describes her life before she discovered the 5 second rule: ‘At 41 years old Mel Robbins had hit rock bottom. Her husband’s restaurant business started off as a success but quickly collapsed leaving them with $800,0000 worth of debt. Facing bankruptcy, alcohol addiction, and a spiralling marriage, Mel felt like a complete failure. Every morning when the alarm went off, she knew she had to get up, but anxiety about her situation made her continuously hit the ..read more

Finding peace and calm in difficult times We are slowly coming out of lockdown (13/07/2020) and getting used to the ‘new normal’. Many people are still very anxious about the virus and are reluctant to come out of their homes and go to shops, cafes, and restaurants. How can meditation help us in these strange times? Meditation can help ease our anxious thoughts. When we meditate, we are focussing on something other than our thoughts: our breath, a mantra, an object such as a candle flame or a flower. As we bring our attention to focus we have chosen then both mind and body can start to relax ..read more

The power of Mantras This morning I meditated using my TM mantra. I have been practising TM for nearly 20 years now, and it has served me well. I am not alone in doing TM. Since it was introduced into the West by the Beatles in the 1960’s a great many people have adopted TM as their meditation practice. Some famous names include: Paul McCartney, Oprah Winfrey, Hugh Jackman, Goldie Hawn and Jennifer Aniston. Famous people who meditate When you learn TM, you are given a mantra to repeat silently twice a day for 15-20 minutes. Practising helps me to feel calm and centered and enables me to cope w ..read more

SPRING BLOG JENNIE HOLVEY Hello everyone.  For those of you who do not know me, I am Jennie Holvey and along with my partner I run Engra Holistics offering meditation classes and workshops as well as other holistic therapies.   It is very difficult to write a blog at the moment without mentioning in some shape or form the current very strange and challenging situation we all find ourselves in.  However, in my opinion if there is one thing that can take our mind off all this it is the wonderful season of Spring and particularly so at the moment as we are enjoying some beautiful s ..read more

Buddhist retreat   Last Saturday I did a mini Buddhist retreat via Zoom. It was run by the Buddhist centre in Cheltenham. The retreat consisted of two talks and four meditations. Gen Kelsang Opel, the Buddhist nun leading the retreat explained that the purpose of the retreat was to help us let go of fear and anxiety that we might be experiencing at the present time. We started with a powerful meditation where we imagined breathing out fears and anxieties as black smoke; and then breathing in happier thoughts in the form of white light. It was a reminder that we are not our thoughts. Our t ..read more

Blog post 16052020 This week the advice from the government changed from ‘Stay at home’ to ‘Be alert’. There was some confusion as to what this actually meant at first, but now it seems some restrictions have been lifted. I went out in my car earlier today and did notice there was a lot more traffic on the road and more people out and about. There was also some good news that a new antibody test looks promising and will be able to detect those of us who have had the virus. Slowly the lockdown is going to be lifted but we still need to be cautious, far too many people have died of Covid 19 for ..read more

Boosting your immune system In this blog we are going to look at ways in which you can boost your immune system and protect your health. Sleep – getting 7-9 hours sleep a night will help boost your immune system and also help reduce inflammation in your body. Exercise – a 30 minute walk every day can help the body fight infection. Healthy diet – a diet full of fruit and vegetables, vitamins, especially vitamins C and E, beta carotene and zinc. Also take probiotics to help you protect your gut health. Reduce stress- chronic stress exposes the body to stress hormones adrenaline and cortis ..read more