Cultivate the skills of being present and responding wisely in daily life.

It’s normal to want to prolong our pleasant experiences and escape our unpleasant ones.  And, if that experience is in the outside world, such as delighting in our favorite food, often we can choose to have another portion or look forward to next time we’ll have some. And if we’re trying some food that we don’t like, we can easily escape the unpleasant experience by pushing the food away.

If the experience is based on our thoughts and feelings, we can’t easily discard it or produce more of it, so in mindfulness we learn to work with our experiences, exactly as they are. This allows us to uncover a paradox – the more we are able to work with our unpleasant experiences, the less they affect us; and the more we are able to simply enjoy rather than crave our pleasant experiences, the more impact they have when they are around.

The mindful meditation practices in this channel help us to work with reality rather than against it--training our mind to stay present while reducing unhelpful reactions, and increasing our insight and ability to respond wisely to whatever arises… and so enhancing our resilience and wellbeing.

Be with Open Awareness

Three-Step Being Space

Being with Sound

Be with Breath

Body Scan

Befriending and Self-Compassion

Savoring

Mark Quirk

Psychologist, Coach, Mindfulness Teacher

AFGHANISTAN

ALAND ISLANDS

ALBANIA

ALGERIA

AMERICAN SAMOA

ANDORRA

ANGOLA

ANGUILLA

ANTARCTICA

ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA

ARGENTINA

ARMENIA

ARUBA

AUSTRALIA

AUSTRIA

AZERBAIJAN

BAHAMAS

BAHRAIN

BANGLADESH

BARBADOS

BELARUS

BELGIUM

BELIZE

BENIN

BERMUDA

BHUTAN

BOLIVIA

BONAIRE, SINT EUSTATIUS AND SABA

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

BOTSWANA

BOUVET ISLAND

BRAZIL

BRITISH INDIAN OCEAN TERRITORY

BRUNEI DARUSSALAM

BULGARIA

BURKINA FASO

BURUNDI

CAMBODIA

CAMEROON

CANADA

CAPE VERDE

CAYMAN ISLANDS

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

CHAD

CHILE

CHINA

CHRISTMAS ISLAND

COCOS (KEELING) ISLANDS

COLOMBIA

COMOROS

CONGO

CONGO, THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE

COOK ISLANDS

COSTA RICA

COTE D'IVOIRE

CROATIA

CUBA

CURACAO

CYPRUS

CZECHIA

DENMARK

DJIBOUTI

DOMINICA

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

ECUADOR

EGYPT

EL SALVADOR

EQUATORIAL GUINEA

ERITREA

ESTONIA

ETHIOPIA

FALKLAND ISLANDS (MALVINAS)

FAROE ISLANDS

FIJI

FINLAND

FRANCE

FRENCH GUIANA

FRENCH POLYNESIA

FRENCH SOUTHERN TERRITORIES

GABON

GAMBIA

GEORGIA

GERMANY

GHANA

GIBRALTAR

GREECE

GREENLAND

GRENADA

GUADELOUPE

GUAM

GUATEMALA

GUERNSEY

GUINEA

GUINEA-BISSAU

GUYANA

HAITI

HEARD ISLAND AND MCDONALD ISLANDS

HOLY SEE (VATICAN CITY STATE)

HONDURAS

HONG KONG

Developing an attitude of friendliness towards ourselves can help us deal more effectively and realistically with the challenges of daily life.  And, if we are able to cultivate this attitude towards our self, we're much more likely to offer the same attitude to others, and in so doing improve our relationships. This practice is a great way to start the day.

A broad awareness practice, to help us be with the whole of our present moment experience.


Photo by Shea Rouda on Unsplash

Feeling a little overwhelmed, or stuck?  Use these three steps of awareness to create just enough space to make a decision about next steps

We don't need to do anything to sleep; our natural sleep drive does it for us.  But, sometimes, our busy minds interrupt the process, and this track, using the structure of a body scan meditation, can help us to let go, allow the mind and body to rest, and fall asleep.

It's Time To Sleep - Body Scan

Without awareness, it’s easy to spend quality time focused on the challenges of life, far more than what is good.  This meditation invites us spend a few minutes with something great in our lives!  In so doing, help us to improve our ability to pay attention to the pleasant moments in our day.

Photo by Khadeeja Yasser on Unsplash

This core practice helps us to use the flow of breath and the movement of the body as we breath to maintain present moment awareness.


Photo by Marcos Paulo Prado on Unsplash

This calming practice helps us connect with and build awareness of our body, as well as training our attention as we continually focus and re-focus throughout the scan.  This practice can be done lying down, as well as sitting or standing.

This calming practice helps us connect with and build awareness of our body, as well as training our attention as we continually focus and re-focus throughout the scan. This practice can be done lying down, as well as sitting or standing.

Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash

When we're in a calm state of mind, we're often much more able to respond to the challenges of daily life with some perspective, drawing on our wise selves rather than relying on automatic or reactively driven by the short-term emotion of a situation, which isn't always helpful.

By cultivating kindness towards ourselves, using the fundamental process of breathing, we are practicing the skill of broader awareness and calmness in daily life.

Breathing With Kindness

We don't often deliberately pay attention to the sounds around and within us, allowing ourselves to experience the full richness of our aural environment - and so, that is the invitation for this practice.

The hour before we go to bed is an ideal time to wind down, preparing for sleep. This meditation is intended to be used as a part of that wind-down routine, giving our minds some space to let out the thoughts of the day or preparation for tomorrow before we actually head to bed.

Preparing For Bed

Appreciation is a restorative emotional state that supports recovery, gratitude, and contentment.  Practicing appreciation can help make it more habitual, meaning that we are more likely to automatically appreciate the things in our life, and so leading to a more appreciative outlook in life.

This meditation is intended to help practice and cultivate appreciation in daily life.

Cultivating Appreciation