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

Hello everyone I know that I don't normally write two blogs so close together but I have been inspired by two things: 1) an interesting blog by Parker Palmer that addressed questions that I didn't know I had about responding  to world events that leave me feeling perplexed and fearful. 2) whilst writing a commissioned … Continue reading Silence as a response

I hope this finds you all well. I thought I would just share some thoughts on a recent conference in Germany. It was my great pleasure to be invited by Prof. Karla Jensen to speak at the Mindfulness in Education conference at University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt last week. The event was organised by Prof. Heiner Boettger … Continue reading A visit to Eichstätt

Sorry for the delay in getting to this blog it has been rather hectic since returning from a  'Growing Contemplative Practices in HE?' at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh on 22nd April but I did want to share some thoughts on it. Iddo Oberski let me know a few months before the event that he … Continue reading Reflections on Contemplative Pedagogy and Open Space Technology at Queen Margaret University

I'd like to thank Jan Sellers for taking the time to contribute this blog about Labyrinths. I hope you will all find it thought provoking. Do get in touch with Jan if you'd like more details (her website details are below). Warm wishes, Caroline. I spent last Friday evening crawling around on a church roof … Continue reading Exploring Labyrinths

I hope that this finds you all well. I wanted to share some thoughts on my visit to Warwick Medical School a few weeks ago. I was invited to go and speak at Warwick Medical School's Mindfulness Society by Dr Majid Kahn (who was kind enough to write a blog about teaching mindfulness on here … Continue reading Telling students to be compassionate isn’t enough…

Hi everyone Happy new year to you all. I hope the festive period offered at least some respite from work and that you found time to do things that brought you joy and peace. In preparing for a presentation next week I came across a You Tube video of a presentation by Arthur Zajonc entitled … Continue reading Mind and morality: insight into the work of Arthur Zajonc

Hello I am really excited to post this guest blog. I was put in touch with the author, Majid Khan, by a friend who, having read my previous blogs, thought we would benefit from being in touch. Majid is a GP in Birmingham, a Breathworks teacher and tutor at Warwick Medical School. His blog is … Continue reading Allowing students to meet themselves: Mindfulness teacher as matchmaker