Weekend Workshops:
In just two days, you will discover the root cause of any unhappiness, sadness, guilt and negativity: believing your thoughts.
Our Weekend Workshops offer:
- Freedom from the painful past
- Simple skills to deal with life’s difficulties
You will learn how to:
- Bring your attention into the now, freeing you from pain and problems
- Skilfully deal with painful emotions so they no longer rule your life
- Let go of painful thoughts and beliefs, leading to more joy and peace right now Read more »
Last night, before I got into bed, I was distractedly wandering around the house getting everything ready for bed. I must have wandered in and out of the lounge room three times, each time forgetting something I needed and on the second last trip, going in to get my water bottle (one of those re-usable ones), getting distracted and coming back to the bedroom with something else in hand, only to return again to get the water bottle. Have you ever had a similar experience? Do you live life like this sometimes? Are you always thinking about something else, about what you have to do later, about tomorrow and yesterday? Most of us are, so don’t feel bad if the answer is yes, just keep reading, because mindfulness provides a simple, powerful antidote to this distracted, partly engaged way of living. But what is mindfulness?
Mindfulness means being aware of your present moment experience without getting lost in the thoughts that drift through your mind. It means deliberately paying attention to what is happening now, rather than Read more »
Catching up with friends last weekend, I noticed how many silent spaces there were in our conversations, and I notice the noise my mind started making whenever these spaces arose.
“Say something!” It screamed.
“They’ll think you’re boring!” it goaded. Read more »
“Practice not-doing, and everything will fall into place.” Lao Tzu
When we are present, there is no thought of a “me” who is “doing” things, we are just engaged in the dance of life. This is “not-doing” and it allows everything to happen without resistance.
The following is an excerpt from the soon to be released “Mindfulness Plain and Simple”, By Oli Doyle. Feedback and comments welcome…
The human world is filled with pain, confusion and suffering on an individual and collective level to the point where it almost seems normal, even inevitable. Humans become more miserable as a species every year, while the self-help shelves proliferate with books promising the answer, the miracle cure, like the snake oil sellers of old. In the West, we have more psychologists, counsellors, social workers and mental health professionals than ever before, but the amount of people suffering from depression, anxiety and other mental illnesses continues to rise. In the midst of all this, more and more people are seeking a way out of pain and suffering as it becomes more unbearable. However, as you may have already discovered, changing your diet, your job, your partner, your appearance, or some other external thing does not bring peace. On the other hand, efforts at changing your thinking, improving your self-esteem, or altering your patterns of behaviour still leave you feeling empty, wanting more change, needing ever more improvement.
So what’s going on here? What is it about humans that makes happiness seem so difficult to attain? The rest of nature co-exists in balance and harmony, why are we so different? The answer, in short, is this: humans listen to, believe and follow the instructions of their thoughts. We are lost in our thoughts, they consume our attention most of the time, and they are made up of scary stories about what will happen in the future, or pain and guilt about what happened in the past. Listening to and believing these stories is the source of our pain, whatever your mind may say. The rest of this chapter will explore what this means and look more deeply at the problems it causes. As we do this, see if you can spot these patterns in yourself as well as in others. Seeing the confusing mess your mind creates is the first step towards untangling the confusion. Read more »
Mindfulness is difficult to practice consistently when our lives are busy, but it is simply a case of remembering. Try doing some of these simple activities each day, even for 30 seconds, and see what happens. Please let me know what you find.
1) Each time you walk through a doorway, take a moment to notice a breath or two as you listen and look around.
2) Notice the feel of your feet against the floor as you read this.
3) Take a minute to observe your thoughts carefully. Watch them closely and if you get lost, come back to the process of observing.
4) Breathe mindfully while your computer is starting up and shutting down.
5) Each time you get in the car or onto the train or bus, stop for a few seconds, breathe mindfully and take in your surroundings.
Enjoy your practice,
Oli
What does it mean that success is as dangerous as failure? Whether you go up the ladder or down it, your position is shaky. When you stand with your two feet on the ground, you always keep your balance.” Lao Tzu.
What does Lao Tzu mean? Being obsessed with “success” is draining, tiring and consuming. It also creates anxiety because we get lost in the imaginary future. “Failure” is another way of saying that we don’t like the result, we don’t like reality and this is painful, because, as much as we complain, reality refuses to change. Hope, fear, success and failure are all thoughts, judgements about reality. Standing with two feet on the ground means being present, in the moment. The key to peace is standing with both feet on the ground as you travel the world of success, failure, hope and fear.
This text is from a version of Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching by Stephen Mitchell.
Today marks an important day in the evolution of Peace Through Mindfulness, which is nearing its one-year anniversary. From today Peace Through Mindfulness will shift its approach to one that maximises access to mindfulness teachings for everyone. The approach has two key components:
- Reduced cost – courses will be offered at further reduced costs – basically $10 per hour, with travel costs factored in if necessary. This will mean that courses will no longer be catered, as using commercial catering does not provide students with value for money.
- Scholarships – the maximum number of students for Mindful Living Weekends will be expanded to 25, to allow five people to access each workshop free of charge on an application basis. Priority will be given to people experiencing genuine hardship and those in positions of leadership within vulnerable communities. Please contact me for more details or to apply.
There will also be a focus on access to mindfulness for people living in regional Victoria. If you wish to help organise a workshop in your city or town, please contact me via the above link to discuss the possibilities.
Mindfulness is for everyone, so please contact me if you have an idea that may help spread these teachings in a wider circle.
Yours mindfully,
Oli Doyle
It is Saturday in Melbourne and a wonderful day is coming to an end, or so it seems. In truth, every day is wonderful, but you have to notice. This is your only job in this life, to notice how wonderful each moment is. Actually, there is only one moment, NOW, which continually changes and moves, giving the impression of a stream of time. But where is the past? Where is the future? Look hard and please comment if you find them! I have only ever found the past and the future in my head, maybe you have had the same experience? So, if now is all there is, then why do we get so lost in time? Why is not so important, but let’s look at how we can stop getting lost…
When you get lost, bring your attention back to now, to this moment! This is the key to happiness, the only true happiness. But how do we do that?
We can use some anchors to drag us back, like awareness of breath and of the physical sensations happening in the body. We can learn to observe our thoughts without getting so lost in them and we can use our senses to bring our attention back to the present. Over time, this practice becomes easier, more natural, until it feels more normal than being lost in thought.
The only truly meaningful thing you can do in life is to be here now, to be present and aware. Anything else you do (in the past and future) happens only in your mind and is nothing more than mental noise.
Living through the mind is painful.
Living in this moment is free and easy.
Enjoy your weekend,
Oli.
