I'm Ondi Wilson and I'm a mindfulness mentor.
So what is mindfulness?
Well,
My definition is being fully aware of the present without the filters and shadows of conditioning.
It's the skill not to be influenced by anxieties stemming from our past and worries and concerns about the future.
And mindfulness meditation is key in that it develops this skill.
Mindfulness is for anyone and everyone.
When we practice meditation and mindfulness we become aware of our inner worlds.
It's like the discovery that what we thought we were is literally just the tip of the iceberg.
The mindfulness training that I do utilizes mindfulness to develop all the inner qualities that we have like self-awareness and self-esteem.
Ultimately this leads us to develop qualities such as empathy and compassion to a degree that it really affects our lives and changes the way we are with others.
So one client I worked with had trouble sleeping.
She had a very busy schedule,
She had a family and when she went to bed at night her mind was hyperactive.
She was thinking about everything she'd said and done and what people thought about her and she was worrying about the day tomorrow and how she would cope and manage her schedule.
And as a result of doing this training she was able to sleep much better and it really improved the quality of her daily life.
So the actual skills I teach are always focused around meditation.
So I've been teaching meditation for over 30 years now and a variety of different meditations.
Mindfulness meditation is the key practice which is simply following the breath.
It does sound very simple but actually when you try to do it,
It's not easy.
So when we develop that skill we are able to start to see aspects of our mind like our emotional habits,
Our tendencies,
The way we think and we can recognize whether they're constructive or actually destructive.
So the beauty of mindfulness is actually recognizing that the brain or the mind can change.
So we think we are the way we are and we're stuck with it or we think well that's the way I am and I'm going to stay that way forever and we justify it.
When you practice mindfulness you need an open mind because you can genuinely start to see what's useful and what's actually sabotaging yourself.
So the attitude to meditation has changed a great deal.
When I started teaching it 15 odd years ago when I first became self-employed people were very suspicious,
They thought it was a bit hippie,
Perhaps it was religious and really what people need to know is that the practice of meditation is a psychological technique and it's there in all religions actually,
Reflection and contemplation,
But the way that we use meditation now in mindfulness training is completely secular and that is why you're finding mindfulness used in the NHS and corporate organizations,
Lots of different public services are using mindfulness because the research has been done and the scientific evidence is there now to show that it really does make a difference.
Quite a few people I've had in organizations are very resistant to it.
They come to mindfulness with a set view of its airy-fairy nonsense and of course what they're presenting there is actually quite a hard bit in ego.
I know what's what and I don't need anything.
So you do need an open mind.
Mindfulness is usually non-mandatory because if you come to it with a closed mind you're not going to benefit.
The people who benefit are open-minded and it doesn't matter whether they're a chief executive of a large corporation or somebody working from home and juggling their lives with children and work.
Everybody benefits from mindfulness because it's human-centered.
It starts from where you are.
The level to which you'll be able to develop mindfulness is dependent on your attitude.
So people who want it for stress management,
That's fine.
People who want to develop themselves,
Their emotional intelligence,
Their ethical behavior,
That's fine too.
So you can take it as much as it suits you.
So it's not something that is an external skill that you're being taught but something you find from within.
So what I do is help you find that.
One of the things I can offer are retreats held in the beautiful Lake District which is very conducive to reflection and contemplation.
The content of the retreats is very much aimed at the pace of the group.
So there will be guided meditations,
Workshop style discussion,
Pair discussion,
Walks,
Opportunities for reflection and the whole purpose is for people to discover for themselves what they are capable of developing in terms of their personal skills.
So as a mindfulness mentor,
I will be there to support you to develop the skills to take away with you.
And in my experience,
People who learn mindfulness find a skill for life.
It supports them through everything.
It's not a miracle cure.
It's not going to stop problems arising but you will have the tools to manage them so that you learn from problems rather than becoming a victim of them.
