Tag Archives: mindfulness

Meditation Workshop at Waverley Dowsers November 2019

I will be providing a two hour meditation workshop at the Unitarian Hall, Meadrow, Godalming, Surrey,  GU7 3JB on the 8th November 2019. We will be exploring how to feel the love within our hearts and relieving ourselves of any hurt that the heart may have collected over our lifetimes. This will be followed by an exploration of how we can find the Spiritual love in the universe and connecting to and bring that love in to ourselves through a unique meditation. The workshop will start at 7.30pm on the 8th November.

Sun and Moon Festival in Guildford 4th – 11th August

The Sun and Monn festival will be held this summer at Merrist Wood college, see the website for details of courses and fees. I will be teaching some beautiful Bhuddist and Wizard meditations designed to heal. I will also be providing a lecture complete with some photos of Dragons (provided by NASA) as well as introducing students of my class to the actual Dragons themselves.

The full descriptions of each class are below:

1. Connecting to the Love Within and Without.
Meditation coach Ken collinson will guide you, using two unique meditation’s that will connect to the love within your heart with a beautiful Bhuddists meta meditation which will open up your heart to the frequencys of love and cleansing away any hurt that resides within, this will be followed after a short discussion and break with the wonderful Yogic style meditation that will connect your heart energies to the love of heaven and earth while providing the opportunity to share that love to people or to Gaia in a transformational act of giving.

2. Dragons, can we see them and where can we find them.
Master wizard Ken Collinson will share with you the Cosmology of the ancients and the role that Dragons have had throughout the history of the Universe with a unique talk and sharing of Dragons, there will be a Q & A session at the end of the projector and photographic slideshow with real images and photos of Dragons captured by NASA and the ESA, whilst discussing the role of Dragons in all the major religions since ancient Egypt.

3. Meeting the Dragons.
   If you have never met a Dragon and felt the love of the One great spirit resonating within, then this is the time for you, ken will introduce you to the Dragons that he has called to visit us at the Sun and Moon festival and where you will be able to bathe in their healing and transformational energies. You will be able to take away with you the knowledge and vibrational connection to the Dragons and call upon them for help and healing at anytime in the future.

Visit the Sun and Moon Festival

Meditation at the One World Festival

I am honoured to be teaching Mindfulness meditation at the One World Festival again this year starting the 30th July for the week, so if you can come, please do.

I am told if you mention my name when booking they will provide a discount to the price.

Visit the OWF website to gather further news.

I will also be teaching spiritual dowsing as well as Spiritual wizardry, so something for everyone, I hope.

Love and Light to you

http://oneworldcamp.com/

 

Meditation for School Children

It has often been said that if you learn habits especially good habits at a young age or before puberty then those habits stay with you for life. In Buddhist country’s mindfulness meditation is taught to children of primary school age and there is growing evidence that it enhances children’s learning in other subjects.

Below are two articles from the BBC on mindfulness meditation which I hope you find interesting.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35688048 – can mindfulness improve children’s concentration?

and another BBC article, about how meditation can, or may be able to slow down the effects of ageing.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35688048 – slowing down ageing with mindfulness meditation

Brain Changes with Meditation

Over the last 15 years there has been a lot of studies and scientific investigation on the effect that meditation has the brain because this also strongly influences the way our mind works and how we perform. The studies have been carried out on both Mindfulness meditation as well as visualisation meditation (think Buddhist and Yoga meditations) although both meditations are ‘focused’ meditations in that the person actively guides or trains themselves in a technique of thinking by focusing on a task or multiple tasks. This is different than listening to relaxing music although some guided meditation CD’s can provide the instruction to do a focused meditation.

Below are some links which provide the results of those scientific studies and how meditation can change the physical structure of our brains.

Brain changes with mindfulness mediation click here

Seven changes to the brain with meditations click here

Specific studies done on Yoga mediators (visualisation meditation) provide similar changes in the brain structure which you can read here in Scientific America

There is a slight different in focus on the type of meditations in Yoga and Mindfulness meditations but both are involved an active participation and both require 30 minutes or more per day to trigger the brain to begin growing and making the physical changes which result in the increases performances measured.

In my Meditation workshops we learn and practise the aspects of both Mindfulness and visualisation meditations for enhanced improvements to our well-being.

Mindfulness Meditation in Guildford

Fresh dates for mindfulness meditation class in Guildford can be found below as all the dates for the March class’s are now full. To book, please ring – 0300 200 1044

The mindfulness meditation course will be run at the Guildford adult education centre.

Summer Term
Saturday 23/4/2016 – One off taster/Intro session, 10.30am-12.30pm
Saturdays 30/4/2016 to 21/5/2016 – 4 week course, 10.30am-12.30pm

The taster/intro session is a stand alone meditation course where I teach the technique of breathing to calm the body and then the technique of clearing the ‘monkey mind’  which so many people get stuck on, we shall also start to discuss the principles of ‘awareness’ of which there are many and how to start implementing them in your life. This is a must if you intend to also do the weekly course as it would be unfair to make those who have completed to wait for you to catch up.

In the follow up weeks of the meditation class proper, we shall practise all these techniques, we will also consider the mind images that some people can get and their meanings. I will outline the differences between various Meditation techniques and we shall also practise walking or open eye meditation alongside our sitting meditations. Each class shall finish with a guided healing meditation. I will provide handout sheets for the guided meditations so that you can also begin to practise these at home yourself. All lessons will have time for a question and answer between our meditations as well so that we can all learn together.

Part of our meditation course will consist of guided visualisation meditation which has also been shown (when practised regular) to increase parts of the brain, such as the  hippocampus, a region critical to dampening stress was also found enlarged after prolonged visualisation meditation by practitioners, as were the precuneus and the posterior cingulate cortex, areas key to our concept of self.  You can read the full article in the Scientific America where studies of Yoga mediation practitioners HERE

Mindfulness Meditation at One World Festival

I have been confirmed to provide a week long mindfulness meditation course at the One World Festival in Cannington, Somerset again for the first week in August this will also include some guided meditations as well. This will be the 11th year in the last 15 years I have been going to the One World Festival and I can’t sing it’s praise’s enough, if you can, get there 🙂

I will also try and arrange to provide some dowsing course’s while there so watch the One World Festival website for any changes.

http://oneworldcamp.com

This will be the third and final year at Cannington nr Bridgewater in Somerset the wellbeing festival for adults and children is held in the grounds of a private school and contains all the normal resources for sporty people as well as hundreds of unique workshops over the full week, you can follow the link below to see the flavour of course’s run on one day in 2015, the evening entertainment is also fab.
http://oneworldcamp.com/content/files/programme-edits-saturday.pdf

Mindfulness Meditation Studies

You can find a lot of scientific studies that have been done on people who do mindfulness meditation and they all present profound findings on how mindfulness meditation changes your perception on life and how this impacts on the level of your personal happiness. Below is another short video extolling the virtues of mindfulness meditation from the perspective of a Psychologist.

Mindfulness in Life

Being mindful is an attitude of mind, we can practise mindful meditation as well as mindful living. Mindful living refers to being aware of the sustainability of life and this idea cascades down through and covers everything on the planet. Mindful living could be as simple as sorting out the household rubbish so it is recycled correctly or it could be practising mindfulness in your garden and not using chemicals that indiscriminately kill ‘things’ that is likely food for other ‘things’, or in other words practise natural sustainability in as many things in your life as you can. Be mindful of others. (other creatures)

Another great method of mindfulness is to practise on your body, we may use breathing as an exercise for meditation but there are some great healing methods of body mindfulness. One I have come across these last few years and have tried from several practitioners is the popular continental method called Feldenkrais .

http://www.feldenkraisuk.co.uk/

Mindfulness needs awareness to be operating in your mind, setting goals to be mindful in your life needs you to be aware of all the NEW things that you will encounter while going about your normal day to day life. You can plan to be mindful in your behaviour but what can you do during the transitional stage from before and to ‘now’. Practise being aware of everything you say and do and consider if it is acceptable for your mindful living.

 

Meditation Course Guildford

I will be providing  Mindfulness Meditation courses in Guildford over the next year in Guildford, Surrey, the dates are below but you will need to book your position through the Guildford Surrey Adult Learning  system. (see website below) I Hope to see you there. 🙂
Or ring them on – 0300 200 1044
http://new.surreycc.gov.uk/schools-and-learning/adult-learning


Autumn Term

Saturday 7/11/2015 – One off taster/Intro session, 10.30am-12.30pm
Saturdays 14/11/2015 to 5/12/2015 – 4 week course, 10.30am-12.30pm
 
Spring Term
Saturday 27/2/2016 – One off taster/Intro session, 10.30am-12.30pm
Saturdays 5/3/2016 to 19/3/2016 – 3 week course, 10.30am-12.30pm
 
Summer Term
Saturday 23/4/2016 – One off taster/Intro session, 10.30am-12.30pm
Saturdays 30/4/2016 to 21/5/2016 – 4 week course, 10.30am-12.30pm

The taster/intro session is a stand alone meditation course where I teach the technique of breathing to calm the body and then the technique of clearing the ‘monkey mind’  which so many people get stuck on, we shall also start to discuss the principles of ‘awareness’ of which there are many and how to start implementing them in your life. This is a must if you intend to also do the weekly course as it would be unfair to make those who have completed to wait for you to catch up.

In the follow up weeks of the meditation class proper, we shall practise all these techniques, we will also consider the mind images that some people can get and their meanings. I will outline the differences between various Meditation techniques and we shall also practise walking meditation alongside our sitting meditations. Each class shall finish with a guided healing meditation. I will provide handout sheets for the guided meditations so that you can also begin to practise these at home yourself. All lessons will have time for a question and answer between our meditations as well so that we can all learn together.

Meditation and Dowsing Courses

I shall be providing a Dowsing course this year at the Sun and Moon Festival near Brighton, Sussex this will be a practical dowsing course and for those who are keen, we may do some serious stuff

http://sunandmoonfestival.com/

At the festival I shall also be giving one to one Mindfulness meditation teaching for those who contact me and we shall probably do it under a tree somewhere

Another Festival to look out for will be the One World Festival near Bridgewater, Somerset  which I shall be attending

http://oneworldcamp.com/

At this festival I will be assisting Master Wizard Stanley Stewart with some Wizardry talks and again I am offering one to one Mindfulness meditation teaching for those who contact me, probably under a Tree somewhere.

Meditation Resources

It is always good to find scientific research on the effectiveness of Mindfulness meditation although it is generally accepted that meditation is good for health getting the scientists advocating what was once seen as an ‘Alternative’ therapy is always good. So here are a couple of links to some great resources for meditation.

Bangor University for UK independent research.

Mindfulness Research Guide Independent organisation building an archive of scientific studies from around the world.

So enjoy your investigations!