My Story
The beginning
My meditation journey began in North Eastern Thailand in 2009, when I spent 3 years living and working within the Burmese Migrant community there. With my team from the UK we were offering a teacher training programme, some Buddhist monks from the local temple caught wind of this and approached me as they were desperate to learn English.
I was keen to learn some meditation techniques so we struck up a deal! We would meet each week and exchange an hour of English, for an hour of meditation and Buddhist teachings.
The monks taught me how to sit in silence, about the qualities of mindful acceptance and impermanence and most importantly how to BREATHE!
I was fascinated by the monks' wisdom, their humour, their way of being in the midst of great adversity. This drove me to want to delve deeper. So I ventured off into the mountains to find Wat Tam Wua where I would do my first vipassana mediation retreat.
I stayed 5 days and nights in a very basic wooden hut with a huge spider as a roommate, hard wooden floor to sleep on and no blanket provided, when I mentioned this to the head monk he told me ‘this time is not about your slendor’!
The regime was brutal up at 5am, meditations til around 8.30pm, no food (fasting) after 11.30am the whole experience was a great lesson in letting go and being pushed way outside of my comfort zone. When we realise we can do this within the relms of meditation practice we realise we are more resilient than we imagined when dealing with the physical and emotional stresses of life . I can say this with a 100% confidence as I have experienced it first-hand.
From Thailand to Bournemouth
When my young, outgoing mum had a severe stroke in 2014 I returned back to the UK from my work overseas to become her carer.
I turned to my practice, sitting in stillness learning to hold difficult emotions in a compassionate awareness. My mum gradually regained some movement and independence and I was left with an overwhelming desire to share the skills that got me through this challenging chapter of my life. I wanted to share it in a secular way, so it would be accessible to EVERYBODY!
My Qualifications & Experience
I am a Bangor CMRP (Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice) trained mindfulness teacher with a postgraduate level teaching qualification. I also hold an intensive online ‘Teach Mindfulness’ qualification from the inspirational author Shamash Alidina (The Mindful Way through Stress, Mindfulness for Dummies).
I have over 10 years personal mindfulness meditation experience and 5 years experience in guiding groups, corporate classes and 1-to-1s. I have had the joy of sharing the benefits of mindfulness with hundreds of people!
