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Summer Newsletter 2021
SUMMER ARRIVES
Dear Friends
Welcome to Summer!
The Season of Summer is special around the world. For those in the Northern Hemisphere, Summer brings a Mid-Year welcome relief from the grey clouded sky and stark cold that is Autumn and Winter.
Here in the Southern Hemisphere, Summer is the Season that connects the Old Year to the New Year. It is the reward of having got through the year and then venturing forth into the New Year with warmth and light.
The ending of...
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UNBINDING AND UNWINDING
Dear Friends
As we move towards the end of the year, we often feel that we are getting busier and busier, rushing to fit so much in before the year ends. Whilst the year is winding up – we feel that we are winding up and getting wound up!
The end of the year ideally is a winding down and slowing down into a time of relaxation and holiday from the year of work.
Much of the stress we experience is self-created...
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LET MINDFULNESS BECOME YOU
Dear Friends
So often our mind becomes identified with and then identified as – our limitations, stress and suffering.
The ‘Mental Self-Talk’ so easily gets caught in a neural loop of the ‘Negativity Bias’. Through not understanding the mental activity of the ‘Identification Process’; the mind identifies some Mental, Emotional or Physical State; then becomes Identified with this; then becomes Identified As This!
I am Angry, I am Anxious, I am Distressed, I am Depressed, I am a Less-Than, I am a...
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LET MINDFULNESS REMIND US
Dear Friends
It can be helpful to remind ourselves that there is never not a moment that Mindfulness cannot be helpful for us. There is never not an experience that cannot be enhanced by being Mindful. There is never not something to do, as we can always be practicing and developing our Mindfulness with whatever is happening.
Mindfulness collects Mind Energy and connects us with our ongoing experience with Clarity and Care.
In times of challenge and change it is imperative to...
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Spring Newsletter 2021
SPRING COMES
Dear Friends
The beginning of a new Season reminds us that time is passing.
This is particularly so for the Season of Spring, especially here in the Southern Hemisphere, reminding us that the year is now half over.
Spring is a beautiful Season with the warmth that it brings after the cold of Winter, and the great flush of colour and fragrance, calling us to our senses.
Spring is a hopeful Season, reminding us to connect with Nature and that which is...
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MEASURE MEANING AND MAKE
Dear Friends
Our life certainly can feel more worthwhile when it has meaning.
Difficult situations and difficult times can be more easily dealt with and got through if they have a particular worth and meaning to us.
Whether there is any implicit meaning in Life, in events in things certainly can be questioned.
However, for the most part we do know that we ourselves can give meaning and make meaning of things. As humans we are meaning making creatures and this fact does...
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TROUBLING TIMES
Dear Friends
We live in troubling times, but how frequently do we feel troubled?
Sometimes the ways of the World and the lessons of Life can be quite tiresome and troubling.
The Challenge here is to appreciate that while things can be troubling, we don’t necessarily need to become troubled!
Life is what we make it, for better or for worse and for the most part, Peace of Mind is an inside job!
This is the work of our ongoing Mindfulness and Daily Meditation...
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NEVER A MOMENT NOT HAPPENING
Dear Friends
We now find our selves Mid-Winter and Mid-Way through this year.
Whilst Winter might feel like a slow season to while our way through, it is still happening!
In fact there is never not a moment that is not happening!
Please stay well and warm and give some thought to my reflections below.
Kind Regards
John B.
NEVER A MOMENT NOT HAPPENING
There is never not a moment that is not happening.
These moments move into minutes and minutes move into hours.
These hours move into a...
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MAKE GOOD THIS DAY
Dear Friends
Trusting this note finds you well and warm as Winter makes her way into our lives and routines.
This week we are being reminded to not take certain freedoms potentials and possibilities for granted, as the COVID-19 Pandemic increases its presence here in Australia. This has resulted in again restrictions and limitations on where we can go, what we can do and how many people we can have in our home and work-place.
Having led and taught a Long Weekend...
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Winter Newsletter 2021
‘A healthy mind is the greatest gain.
Contentment is the greatest wealth.
A trust-worth friend is the best of kin.
Unconditional Freedom is the highest bliss.’
The Buddha: DHAMMAPADA, V.204
Dear Friends
As we move further into Winter, I trust this note finds you well and warm.
Winter in Australia and certainly in other countries has that special feel and mood of calming and quietening down – a going into ‘Retreat’!
Far from the warmth and vibrancy of Spring and Summer, Winter beckons us to spend more...
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