You might be wondering, “this seems like an awful lot of work to do for free – what’s the catch?” I am, of course, hoping that some people will be interested in having one-to-one sessions with me, either in person or online – that's how I pay my bills! But why produce all these guides for free, you ask? When I started out with meditation and mindfulness, I went all over the place, back and forth, round and round, to try and build up a clear idea of what it was all about and the things I needed to practise. My go-to became Headspace, but, whilst I think it’s excellent (I still use it every day), I think there are two issues: it costs money, and it doesn’t provide a clear roadmap of when and why to practise the different techniques. I’m not saying that I think it’s wrong to charge for the app, I think it’s fantastic and well worth the price, but I don’t like the idea of money being a barrier to anyone who wants to learn about meditation and mindfulness.
My recommendation is to begin with getting started, even if you’ve got some experience already; the reason I say this is because I believe there’s a lot of nonsense out there and some downright harmful advice. For example, we’ve got “experts” on extremely popular podcasts saying things like, “beginners should just relax and spend long periods in silence to get to know their minds”. I think that’s like saying, “for your first maths lesson, I’m going to give you a blank piece of paper and then come back in two hours to see what you’ve learned”; this approach will likely result in an incredibly frustrated learner with no desire to come back. I’m all for blank pieces of paper and investigation, but I think there’s got to be at least some kind of direction and purpose, especially for beginners. If someone who really struggles with anxiety tries to spend long periods in silence with no instruction or guidance, they’re probably going to get lost in how anxious they are, adding more and more layers of anxiety until they have some kind of breakdown. My guides tend to follow a similar framework: start small, learn a technique with guidance, gain confidence, choose your own level of difficulty, and then learn another technique when you feel ready.
Please feel free to get in touch if you have any questions, worries, or simply want to chat about meditation and mindfulness with someone. I’d also love to hear from you if you disagree with, or have a slightly different take on, anything I’ve said.
Happy practising!
Tom