After practising mindfulness for three years I am starting to share it, individually and in groups. For me it has been such a powerful tool to keep me sane and able to cope with pain that I wanted to learn how to share it, so I started the path towards becoming a mindfulness teacher.
It's VERY different from my day job as an academic. Instead of imparting knowledge, I am trying to support people on their own journey. I don't have the answers, but I have to training to help people find their own answers. People often come to mindfulness when they are in a difficult period of their lives, and for someone who is fairly empathetic like me, it involves a big emotional investment in reading people's feelings rather than reading their understanding. It means I need to go to sleep after each teaching session because I am emotionally exhausted. But it also means it is an immense privilege to be sharing this with people. I love taking part in the journey everyone takes in each session: each person, each group and each occasion is unique. What unites us is a desire to practice mindfulness, to learn, and to engage with ourselves and others. Every time I teach and share mindfulness I re-examine my own practice and learn something new. In that respect it is EXACTLY like my academic teaching: my students always teach me far more than I teach them. I am just starting teaching mindfulness and I certainly couldn't do it full-time, I would have to sleep for a year :) But it is an exciting part of my life and I am immensely grateful to those who are sharing this journey with me. I would strongly encourage anyone who is practising mindfulness to share it with people: to support drop-in groups, to evangelise about it, and to introduce new people to it. You will get back tenfold what you give out.
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AuthorI came to mindfulness through trying to find a way to be sane and compassionate in an insane and harsh world. Archives
October 2017
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