Celebrating a decade of blogging (5410)

I chose five significant London places to visit to celebrate my ten years of blogging (5410). They were chosen to celebrate various ideas I have been exploring with my writing and creative work.

1. Covent Garden

Covent Garden is a vibrant and inspirational place. It features a handmade craft market, street entertainment and places to refresh yourself. It can be noisy and busy, but provides a rich and free London experience. 


2. Tate Modern



 

Tate Modern has been our favourite art gallery to visit over the past twenty years. It is superbly located by the Thames and the Millennium Bridge. Art and craft is very important to our lives and wellbeing. I particularly enjoy the surrealists.


3. Greenwich Observatory

 
Greenwich is quite a journey for us, so we don't go there very often. Even so we have seen some marvelous star shows in the observatory and also enjoy the time and space museum and the park and the river. It fits in well with our interest in stargazing, the planets and space therapy.


4. Kew Gardens

Me and my dad both worked in Kew Gardens and my dad's ashes are scattered here. It has featured in this blog on a number of occasions for a number of reasons and holds a special place in my heart.

5. Regent's Park





I have visited Regent's Park a number of times over the years, mostly to visit London Zoo. My daughter attended the Friendly Spider programme here in 2018 and we have since explored different areas of the park. There is a Japanese Garden in Regent's Park which is very handy for visualizations in our bed time meditations.

Everyday is a mindful ACT

2018 was such an unsettling year, my need to find sustainability and stability through mental health, healing and therapy went into overdrive. I read dozens of Buddhist psychology and third wave therapy books and tried many guided meditations. They did work and I felt much better in 2019, despite continuing problems at home and work and with my menopause. 'Everyday is a Mindful ACT' features a selection of thoughts and meditations for every month of the year, a book a fortnight and twelve mindful colouring sheets (below are eight of them).

Mindful doodling and colouring

When I was going through a very dark period in my life in 2018, I discovered new therapeutic ideas to hep me through my difficulties. I knew about mindful colouring, but didn't know how therapeutic it could be until 2018. Soon after mindful colouring I discovered mindful doodling. Sometimes I think I could spend my life mindfully doodling and colouring, but unfortunately I can't.

Loving Kindness

I started doing the Loving Kindness meditation with Amy in July 2018. These are the basic sentiments expressed in it.

May I be kind and patient with myself
May I love and accept myself for what I am
May I forgive myself my mistakes
May I be safe and free from suffering
May I feel happy and healthy
May I find peace, joy and ease of well-being

These feelings start in the heart, spread throughout the body, limbs and head, throughout the house and reach out to other people and beings, to family, friends, neighbours, the whole world, the solar system and all corners of the universe and then all the way back into the heart once more. This meditation also includes breath awareness, slow and calm, and a body scan.

The Loving Kindness meditation is used to help treat sufferers of PTSD. I have found it particularly helpful.

Moments to myself

I nearly forgot that I was trying to live more slowly and mindfully in the 1990s. In the 2000s and 2010s I have been busy rushing around as a working mum. In the 2020s I hope to make more time to just slow down a bit and smell the roses and the coffee, before they disappear. These two songs, I wrote in the 1990s, were unearthed when I was looking for more of my own material to perform with my daughter in public. I had forgotten how mindful they actually are.

Breath and Body

I did my first mindful meditation with my daughter in March 2018. It was the body scan from 'The beginners guide to mindfulness'. Since then I have been a regular meditator. The two basic meditations are breath awareness and the body scan; which really get you into the present moment. Acknowledging that you are essentially a living, breathing body, whatever else is going on in your life; it can keep you grounded in the now, aware of your life essence.

Pub mindfulness

Back in about 2015 I thought to myself I must spend more time in pubs, they are so cosy and attractive, inviting and relaxing. I like to sip my half a Guinness, take in the rustic surroundings and reflect on my life and how I'm getting on and coping with various struggles. The good thing about mindfulness is that it encourages you to stop ruminating on the past and worrying about the future and instead to concentrate on the present moment. The present moment in a pub usually involves me drinking Guinness and writing or at least reflecting and I am often on my own, so it is generally very pleasant.

Twelve years a gardener

 

I did a bit of gardening when we first moved into our house in 1996, but my main work came in 2009 when I got rid of the rose bed and started work on the herbaceous border. In the 2020 lockdown I had more time to create a retreat beneath the apple tree, introduce more roses and ornamental grass, sort out the garden studio and the patio and paint the garage. I now find the garden a very relaxing space in which to spend time.

Meditation music

My daughter has been listening to brainwave music for a few years to help her to get to sleep. As I got more and more into mental health, healing and therapy I began researching brainwave music and how it might help with creating calm and promoting mental and physical well-being. I have created play list CDs of guided meditation and brainwave music that I listen to in the morning and at bedtime and at other times too, I find it to be a very therapeutic and relaxing experience.

Comfort TV 2020

Films and TV have long been a comfort to me. I produced a list of film therapy films last year and thought I would attempt a similar list for TV programmes this year. I found my favourite TV shows fall into 10 categories.

1. Arts and Culture
2. Comedy
3. Drama
4. Gardens
5. History
6. Homes
7. Mindfulness
8. Sci-fi and Fantasy
9. Science and Nature
10. TV dinners

After a little thought I came up with 52 programmes, enough for contemplative TV shows for every week of the year.
 

   

A year of nature walking

  

My daughter and I discovered the walled garden a short bus ride from our house in August 2019. Since then I have been a regular nature walker. It was to be something we could do every week and sometimes daily; a New Year goal for 2020. During the Covid19 Lockdown, nature walking has been closer to home, but with lockdown easing we hope to get out and about more, visiting a glade near Uxbridge and other natural beauty spots. Nature walking is mindful, taking in trees, clouds and streams. Appreciating flowers and gardens has been good as has walking by rivers and through woods. Picnics in the park took over from cafes and pubs, however we have been really looking forward to the cafes and pubs reopening. August 2020 marks a year of mindful nature walking; I hope this relatively new activity will continue.
 

  

  

  

Small Joys

  

From April to July my daughter has been doing an online art portfolio course with the City Lit. The last project was a personal project that she entitled 'Petite Joyeaux'. Small Joys seem to be even more important at the moment. These are a few of the ideas and pictures from the project.