I wanted to take this opportunity to send my good wishes to you all and thank you  for your on-going commitment and engagement to this blog and pursuit of contemplative pedagogy. This is a picture from the blog's stats page showing how the number of visitors (in dark blue) and views (mid blue) have increased … Continue reading Post-truth heartbreak and no hope!

In the midst of this rather hectic end to the term it is a real joy to take a few moments out to let you know that our plans for a summer school type event have come together. This is the blurb for the event: Coming to our senses: embedding contemplative pedagogy in higher education This four-day event … Continue reading Creating the time and space to learn together

This blog has generously been contributed by my colleague in the School of Health and Social Care at the University of Essex, Ness Woodcock-Dennis. Thanks Ness! I have just returned from International Health and Wellbeing week at Turku University of applied sciences in Finland after giving a workshop to Finnish nursing students based on the theme of health promotion. … Continue reading Resilience, narrative and common humanity in self-care

Compassion is a word that seems to be everywhere at the moment so I thought I'd kick off the first blog of the academic year with some reflections about it. I am reading about compassion, researching compassion, attempting to teach compassion…and it’s not just me! It is something of a buzzword. But amidst all the … Continue reading The deliberate cultivation of love

Earlier this month, I was asked by Dr Amy Armstrong to deliver teaching on self-compassion to her undergraduate business students at Ashridge Executive Education as part of a module on ethics and care, which had embedded contemplative practice from the outset. I am hoping that Amy might agree to share some more details about the … Continue reading Labyrinths, lads & letting go of how ‘learning’ looks

A huge thank you to Mariana Funes for writing this thought provoking blog, that really gets to the heart of what contemplative pedagogy is about. I have been reading the beautifully titled article by Sandra Braman 'When nightingales break the law: silence and the construction of reality' and it has made a big impact on … Continue reading Becoming a contemplation activist

When we are at our strongest and most resilient our sense of needing others diminishes. It feels, rather deceptively I have found out, as though we are the masters of our own destiny. As both an academic, and in the past as a student, I have had times when things just feel under my control, that … Continue reading The importance of community for balancing self-doubt and omnipotence

To be honest I have struggled to know what to write on this blog for a few weeks now. I am still waiting for some inspiring bolt of lightning. When I consider all the things I could write about, and look at the burgeoning resources on contemplative education, I just feel a bit bewildered and … Continue reading Confused? Bewildered? Teach!

This blog has been inspired by a paper by Kathryn Waddington called 'The compassion gap in UK universities' which was sent to me by my colleague Mary Kennedy. The paper was written in response to the author's unexpected experience of anger when she publicly drew attention to the disjuncture between the focus on compassion in … Continue reading The ‘compassion gap’ in higher education and the role of contemplative pedagogy

Hello everyone I have been working for several months now with a great group of colleagues on the organisation of a one day conference - Compassion, Organisational Change and the Future of Care that took place on Friday 2nd September at the University of Essex. Predominantly it was attended by employees of North Essex Partnership … Continue reading The value of space in the development of compassion