The modern life has become an infinite merry-go-round of tasks, work and activities where the goal or destination stays permanently out of reach.Our culture creates an illusion that the only way to stop this is to somehow physically remove yourself from it. This isn’t the case.in this session, recorded at The Mansion, Robert outlines an alternative with an example and appropriate meditations which are:Four-Six Breaths, Character Counting, the Meditation of No Meditation for sound and for the bre...
May 11, 2019•55 min
In this podcast, Robert explains why he teaches the meditations he does teach and why he teaches how he teaches. There are three key elements of teaching meditation: the teaching methodology, the meditations and the way that new meditators are encouraged to meditate. In this Podcast, Robert provides some insight into his training methodology, how he uses Kaizen, a process of continuous improvement to improve the training and to introduce new practices. He then explains how meditators can do the ...
May 04, 2019•59 min
In this episode, Robert deconstructs the modern mind meditation and uses it to explain the nature of the mind.The modern mind is ‘the content’ and unfortunately out society confuses this content with the mind itself. Because of this confusion, the focus of science and philosophy remains on trying to work with the thoughts themselves and fails to spend time understanding the nature of the mind itself.This is the reason that meditation is so new in the West, despite being consistently practiced in...
Apr 26, 2019•55 min
Subtitle, the Design, History and Original Purpose of Meditation.The content of our modern minds becomes overwhelming for us. There is so much messaging from so many sources, television, work, the media, advertising, the news, the internet, our devices, our family, our friends, partners and peers.In the modern world, we make a critical, yet understandable error. We confuse the contents of the mind with the mind itself.Thoughts are messages from our mind as it tries to interpret this incessant de...
Apr 17, 2019•54 min
The Modern Mind is a collection of lists. A list of lists. Each list consists of tasks, priorities, values, desires, jobs, people, memories and so-on. The lists continually revolve in our minds leading to the overload that is all part of the modern life.Imagine what life would be like without this constantly overflowing stream of wants, needs, fears, worries, doubts and other emotionally charged thoughts.Mindfulness is the undistracted awareness of the experience of the present moment. The prese...
Apr 02, 2019•44 min
For many in the Modern World, there is an abiding sense that something is wrong with the world. It is difficult to put it into words but it is always there. Any one problem is only ever replaced by the next in the seemingly endless succession of problems to solve, difficulties that may lie ahead, uncertainties, worries, doubts and fears.This intervention of the modern world into what would otherwise be the serenity of our minds is the source of our suffering.Meditation and Mindfulness can help u...
Mar 23, 2019•1 hr 5 min
Gratitude in the context of meditation is the word that is used to describe a collection of practices that use positive emotions to help us understand our relationship to the world, and to ourselves and which help us balance our lives in a way that is more helpful for our happiness.In this episode, Robert describes how these practices work and introduces them fully explained as a set of practices that produce great results for the students that practice them.Meditations are: the meditation of no...
Mar 20, 2019•58 min
In this episode Robert condenses the key elements of the Mastering Meditation series into a one hour session.Robert explains why we meditate, what meditation is, what mindfulness is and guides you into a meditation that gives you a frictionless introduction to meditation, the present moment, your mind, thoughts and how our inner and outer experience can pass calmly through our awareness.This experience softens thoughts and the usual focus of the mind on the past and future bringing it into a cal...
Mar 14, 2019•1 hr
Listen to this podcast to learn how you can effortlessly begin a simple and sustainable meditation practice without struggling against your busy mind, and without needing to find the time in your busy life.Meditation teachers have historically given new meditators the opposite of what they want.You want a calm mind but you soon become keenly aware of the frantic nature of your mind as you try to learn the strange new practice of meditation.You are already overwhelmed with tasks, appointments, pr...
Mar 07, 2019•50 min
Focused Attention meditation is at the heart of every useful mediation practice.Before we can positively affect our lives, we need to be present to do so. While our minds wander, they leave us incapable of addressing our real lives which are a collection of present moments.To train this we need to practice noticing that our minds have wandered and train ourselves to be present.MeditationsRobert guides four familiar practices from the perspective of focus on the present moment: The meditation of ...
Feb 17, 2019•49 min
What is Mindfulness? What is the relationship between meditation and mindfulness? How does mindfulness meditation work? How can we do mindfulness meditation with a busy mind? How can learn mindfulness with a busy life and a busy mind?In this session, taught at The Mansion in Beckenham Place Park on the 9th of February 2019, Robert answers these questions and guides the key meditations that will help you to develop your personal mindfulness.Practices are: at 15 minutes - the meditation of no medi...
Feb 09, 2019•53 min
For session 3 of the mastering #meditation series, the topic is meditation and stress.Learn what stress is, why we experience it and how we can manage it.The guided meditations are: the 4-6 breaths, the four tens meditation and the compassion meditation. This is a recording of a live-streamed class from The Loving Awareness Meditation Course -Three live-streamed classes each week. You can subscribe to The Loving Awareness Meditation Course website for free to be updatedwith new podcast episodes,...
Jan 31, 2019•1 hr 1 min
There is a Catch-22 of Meditation. The same thing that causes students to want to learn to meditate - the busy mind - is what makes it difficult to meditate.Our busy minds can work against us to make mediation unsatisfactory and even stressful as sitting quietly allows us to discover exactly how busy our minds are.in this episode, Robert explains the nature of the busy mind and teaches some of the most useful meditations for working with a busy mind.The episode includes the following meditations...
Jan 27, 2019•55 min
Meditation, what is it, why would I want it and how do I get it?In this important first session of the Mastering Meditation series, Robert explains some of the history of meditation, what the purpose of meditation is, why most people wish to learn to meditate and how we can learn to meditate.Robert explains how there is a frictionless way to learn to meditate and to build a minimal meditation practice.There is also homework that will be picked up on and extended next week.Meditations are the 'me...
Jan 19, 2019•56 min
Acceptance is much misunderstood. It is often defined as accepting our circumstances. That is just plain wrong. We can’t just allow ourselves to suffer circumstances that are intolerable or unacceptable if we can change them. Acceptance is actually allowing ourselves to feel how experiences *make us feel*. Robert explains how meditation helps to allow uncomfortable experiences into our lives and how we can, over time, learn to become more comfortable with being uncomfortable.The meditations are ...
Dec 26, 2018•54 min
On the 19th of December I ran a webinar for an international organisation.The goal was, in the course of 45 minutes, to introduce and explain some meditation, mindfulness, stress management and emotional regulation techniques that the delegates could learn from and use in their stressful day-to-day professional work.I briefly explained mindfulness and taught the following practices: The meditation of no meditation of sound, the meditation of no meditation of the breath, the 4-6 breaths and the d...
Dec 19, 2018•44 min
This week at The Mansion, a student asked: "What to do when nothing else works?"At some point in our modern lives, we will either feel overwhelmed or close to it. We feel our emotions and mood driving us in a way that is clearly unhelpful for our happiness or the happiness of those we care about. this can be anything from uncontrolled angry responses to depressed mood, anxiety, unhelpful or inappropriate behaviour or whatever response that we engage in when it all gets too much.Motivation is a c...
Dec 08, 2018•42 min
What is Happiness? Ask a thousand people and you'll get a thousand answers.In this episode, recorded at the mansion on Saturday 1 December, Robert explains a scientific and spiritual perspective on Happiness and how we can experience it in a practical way through mindfulness and gratitude practices.Robert explains how these work together to enable us to experience happiness.Meditations: the meditation of no meditation for sound and the breath and a simple mantra for following the breath, followi...
Dec 02, 2018•53 min
Session 9 of the ‘modern life’ mini-series is on sleep.Most of us are sleep deprived at least some of the time.80% of our #mindfulness course participants sleep better.Listen to this podcast to hear how meditation practices can help you get to sleep or get back to sleep if you wake up at night.Meditations: The meditation of no meditation for the breath at 19 minutes, following the breath at 21:30, noting the breath at 28:30, counting the breaths at 33:00, four tens meditation for sleep at 43:00 ...
Nov 28, 2018•57 min
When I teach, it is spontaneous. I never know exactly what I'm going to say. I also rely on feedback from my students on the usefulness of what I teach.This is the talk from a session that I taught last Saturday at Beckenham Place mansion. I was asked by a couple of students if I could make it available to them online and as the simplest way for me to do that is by adding it to the podcast, here it is:. Why are our minds so busy and what can we do about it? This is a recording of a live-streamed...
Nov 22, 2018•16 min
In which Robert explains how to be aware of our minds and how to calm our busy minds by intervening at the level of our physiology, the emotions and the mind.Meditations include: the meditation of no meditation for sound and for the breathfollowing the breaththe destress meditationthe compassion and self-compassion meditations. This is a recording of a live-streamed class from The Loving Awareness Meditation Course -Three live-streamed classes each week. You can subscribe to The Loving Awareness...
Nov 18, 2018•58 min
In which we investigate the nature of thought, the nature of worry and how they relate.We learn some meditations developed by the great Buddhist Vipassana teacher Mahasi Sayadaw and learn how we can build practices that enable us to neutralise unhelpful thought patterns. Meditations and practices today are: labelling the breath, labelling our present moment experience, labelling the thoughts, labelling the unhelpful thought patterns. This is a recording of a live-streamed class from The Loving A...
Nov 11, 2018•57 min
In which Robert explains that meditation and mindfulness both consist of learning to focus our awareness. Essentially Presence (mindfulness) is focusing *on* the experience of the sensory present moment and practising certain meditation helps us to focus *within* the sensory present moment. We also learn to notice what is part of our common experience and what we personally bring to the present moment based on our individual experience. Meditations this week are: The meditation of no meditation ...
Nov 07, 2018•58 min
In which Robert explains what anxiety is, why we feel anxious and teaches some practices that help us regulate our anxiety, manage our stress and calm our mind. He explains how we can train ourselves to make these practices intuitive without the need to find the time in our busy lives. This is a recording of a live-streamed class from The Loving Awareness Meditation Course -Three live-streamed classes each week. You can subscribe to The Loving Awareness Meditation Course website for free to be u...
Oct 26, 2018•52 min
In which Robert meanders through the concept of connection through meditation while teaching at the mansion in Beckenham Place Park Practices train connection to the present moment, connection to the body and connection to others. The meditations are the meditation of no meditation for sound and for the breath, following the breath, the destress meditation and the connection meditation. This is a recording of a live-streamed class from The Loving Awareness Meditation Course -Three live-streamed ...
Oct 19, 2018•52 min
In which Robert explains about the recent science on loneliness and guides a key gratitude and compassion meditation that helps us to understand our emotional responses to Loneliness. Robert clarifies how mindfulness and meditation can help lonely people to reconnect to the present moment and find the goodness in both our neutral experiences and our interactions with others. Practices this week are: 'the meditation of no meditation', 'following the breath' and the key Metta Bhavana gratitude pra...
Oct 14, 2018•55 min
In which Robert explains why relaxing doesn't need deserted beaches, waving palm trees and hazy sunsets, teaches how to meditate without finding the time to meditate and how to relax by changing your posture. Including the counting the breaths meditation, following the breath, checking in, the destress meditation and the relaxation response. This is a recording of a live-streamed class from The Loving Awareness Meditation Course -Three live-streamed classes each week. You can subscribe to The Lo...
Oct 05, 2018•53 min
The first session of the ‘modern life' mini-series. In which the regular Saturday meditation session was cancelled in favour of a noisy event in The Mansion and so we meditated in Beckenham Place Park in the Indian summer sunshine. During the session, the noisy event could be heard in the background and we were visited by a dog adorned with many bells. Topic: Stress. Meditations: The meditation of no meditation, The Destress meditation, Pranayama (4-6 breaths), Labelling the thoughts, Labelling ...
Sep 30, 2018•53 min
This session is an introduction to thought and calming or silencing the mind Meditations are: - The meditation of no meditation for sound - The meditation of the next thought - Counting the breaths - The meditation of no meditation for the breath - Following the breath This is a recording of a live-streamed class from The Loving Awareness Meditation Course -Three live-streamed classes each week. You can subscribe to The Loving Awareness Meditation Course website for free to be updatedwith new po...
Sep 20, 2018•52 min
From a session taught at The Mansion in Beckenham Place Park. Mindfulness and Meditation is an introduction to both subjects and an explanation of how to use frictionless techniques to enable you to build a sustainable practice. Practices: - The meditations of no meditation. - Following the breath. - The Pyramid meditation. - Counting the breaths. This is a recording of a live-streamed class from The Loving Awareness Meditation Course -Three live-streamed classes each week. You can subscribe to ...
Sep 12, 2018•54 min
