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March 2018
PUBLIC TALK: GREYING OUT THE WORLD
This is a public talk at the Scarborough Samye Dzong given by Alistair ahead of his weekend retreat 'Tender is the Heart'. We start at 7.30 pm and will be all done by 9pm... Speaking partly with his therapist hat on, Alistair will be exploring the fascinating subject of dissociation and how this also impacts our ability to love, relate and connect to the World around us. The notion 'greying-out' life experience that clashes with our image of our self,…
Find out more »Tender is the Heart
THIS COURSE IS NOW FULLY BOOKED. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE ON THE WAIT LIST THEN PLEASE EMAIL US AT mail@mind-springs.org. Alistair is back in Scarborough to teach a weekend course exploring the Buddhist practices around 'awakening the heart'. Traditionally these "bodhicitta" practices can be a little head-based and Alistair approaches them in a more somatic way, using the body as the gateway to interpersonal relationships. Taking a good look at how we really feel in our bodies when we…
Find out more »May 2018
INTRODUCTION TO BODY-BASED MEDITATION
In this weekend, Alistair is exploring practices of somatic or body-based meditation which gives us tools to release tension and learn to trust the inner wisdom of our bodies. Modern life and psychological stress leaves our corporeal selves locked in near-constant patterns of holding, contraction and defence. And tackling this with the thinking mind, scrunches things further. Drawing on his experience as a therapist and long-term meditator, Alistair welcomes meditators of any level to experience their practice in a more…
Find out more »June 2018
BEING STILL – STILL BEING: Mindsprings Summer Retreat
Our annual Mindsprings Summer retreat: The practice of peaceful sitting For the summer retreat, Alistair Appleton and Kirsty Davidson are guiding the practice of silent sitting, so beloved by so many traditions but so often plagued with obsessive thinking and physical pain. Drawing on the somatic teachings of Reggie Ray, Alistair will be leading us to find a way to sit within the "field of the body" and let troublesome thoughts float away. In this easy and open way of…
Find out more »August 2018
Free Event: August Bank Holiday Morning Meditation
What is the August Bank Holiday Morning Meditation? As part of the brand-new Newhaven Festival in Sussex, Alistair is hosting a number of free activities, including a August Bank Holiday Morning Meditation. It's a reprise of his popular "Sit the Downs" practice on the chalky hills of his home town. Why "Sit the Downs"? The chalk-hills of the South Downs stretch from Winchester in the West to Eastbourne in the East. And since he grew up, Alistair has realised that…
Find out more »September 2018
SITTING WITH THE FEELING: Exploring emotions in meditation
Drawing on his experience as a long-term practitioner, therapist and Buddhist, Alistair Appleton is leading a 2-day workshop for those interested in working more skilfully with their emotions. Many of us have the tendency to pathologise what we feel and beat ourselves up for the negative emotions that can spring up from nowhere. Working with the body as the safe container for our practice, Alistair is looking at ways of cultivating a more curious, compassionate and embodied dance with the…
Find out more »October 2018
THE BEATING HEART OF COMPASSION
Our annual Compassion retreat on Holy Island This autumn’s Mindsprings retreat is again looking at the subject of compassion. Taught by Alistair Appletono with yoga taught by Kirsty Davidson. Right at the heart of Buddhist practice is the quality of warm connection that is called the “awakening heart”. Often we can get caught up into concept and ideas about how this compassionate heart "should" be. But Mindsprings teaches these bodhicitta practices from an embodied, here-and-now place. Doing them this way…
Find out more »THE TOPSY-TURVEY LOGIC OF TONGLEN
In this 2-day workshops, Alistair Appleton leads us through a very embodied engagement with this classic Buddhist practice. Most of us live by grabbing hold of what we want and pushing away the nasty bits of life, but tonglen turns this completely on its head: what happens if we welcome the negative and give away the good? Crazy as it sounds, practicing this from a strongly embodied and open-hearted place leads to long-lasting shifts in our experience of the world.…
Find out more »November 2018
A Meditative Approach to Anxiety in Edinburgh
What this course is about This November we're exploring the meditative approach to anxiety in Edinburgh. Anxiety is a ubiquitous human experience. And part of the reason it's so problematic is that we demonise it and don't know what to do with it. It helps if we understand how anxiety works in our bodies and develop embodied tools to tolerate it. And embodied meditation gives us exactly that framework. We can learn to have a different relationship with anxiety. The…
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