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MINDFULNESS – SPIRITUALITY – BEING IN THE WORLD

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Welcome to this web-site.

This is my personal web-site through which I seek to share a way of being in the world which I am finding both deeply nourishing as well as profoundly challenging.

My three main concerns/interests are:

MINDFULNESS 

I am a trained mindfulness teacher but more importantly mindfulness is what I seek to practice in my life as a way of:

  • finding a sense of anchor and grounded-ness in the midst of inner and outer challenges
  • deepening my insight into what is going on both within me and in the world around
  • responding wisely to the circumstances of my life and in the world day by day

Mindfulness, for me, is much more than a meditation practice but is a way of being and a way of living. In this web-site you will find both information about my formal teaching and also reflections on what this kind of living feels like and looks like day by day.

SPIRITUALITY AND THE WAY OF WHOLENESS

I have had difficulty in recent years with some of the more ‘religious’ forms of spirituality but have become more settled with what is sometimes known as ‘non-dual’ spirituality.

Many forms of spirituality seem to try to break down human experience into the binary categories of good/bad, right/wrong, sacred/secular, spiritual/material. One of the problems with this approach is that one is always preferred over the other and we can end up rejecting or suppressing whole tranches of human experience as we find that reality just can’t be neatly divided up in this way.

A ‘non-dual’ approach would be to seek to welcome, without judgement all aspects of our experience and rather than judging one thing over the other – to seek the relationship between each and in this way to find the inherent unity in all of life.

This, then, is the way of wholeness – of integration of our fragmented selves.

I find this approach to spirituality both more satisfying  and more challenging and all my reflections on spirituality will assume this basic stance.

And so, naturally, I seek to find the non-dual strands within the various spiritual traditions.

BEING IN THE WORLD

It is not only ourselves that are fragmented but our whole culture. And there is, of course, a direct link between the two: our fragmented culture shapes us as individuals just as much as we individuals shape our culture.

And so, as we find an increasing integration and wholeness in our own lives through our spiritual practice, there is a need, then, to bring this into our world. And this is deeply challenging – not only because we are only ever beginners ourselves but also because the fragmented nature of our culture is so deeply entrenched.

In the light of this, the question I begin to ask myself is: how then should we live?

The answer to this question will be found on several different levels: in my spiritual practice; in my personal relationships; in my lifestyle; as well as in whatever I can do to question and challenge those aspects of our culture which do not support the flourishing of life on earth – including all human life.

So my musings will also explore themes such as these with particular interest in

  • environmental issues
  • all issues around migration.

The two are, of course, deeply connected.

Thank you for reading this far.

I hope you enjoy exploring different aspects of this site.

And do get in touch through the contact page.

About

WHO I AM – WHAT I DO

This is Tim Stead’s personal web-site. I am a freelance mindfulness teacher and writer having trained with the Oxford Mindfulness Foundation.  I run 8 week courses, residential retreats and quiet days. I also offer spiritual direction/accompaniment.  I follow the Mindfulness teachers good practice guidelines. I am based in Oxford, UK.

COURSES. 

(See ‘Courses & retreats’section for more details)

A shift in perspective – mindfulness, spirituality and the way of wholeness. This eight week course in meditation focuses on developing your own meditation practice both as a way of being in the world and also of responding to all that is going on around us. Whilst drawing heavily on the evidence-based theory and practice of mindfulness we also explore mindfulness’ relationship with the classic, non-dual spiritual traditions and the bearing these have on the whole of our lives. And what we find is that it is not primarily new information which we need, but a new way of seeing – ‘a shift in perspective’. Though this course is not aimed at experienced meditators, participants will be expected to have had some experience of meditation.

See Love Be. This course is based on my book of the same name and I run it both as an eight week course and also as a residential retreat. It is aimed at people who have done some mindfulness and want to explore how to bring a mindful approach to the whole of life. We explore spirituality in its widest sense with no fixed agenda and valuing the insights and applications of participants from different faiths and philosophies. See ‘coming events’ page for updates.

Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). This is the evidence based course which was first found to be a significant support for people with chronic recurrent depression. But it has also been found to be beneficial for people with all sorts of mental and physical health issues as well as people struggling with the simple challenges of ordinary life.

Finding peace in a frantic world. This is the course we teach to Oxford University students and staff and Junior Doctors in Oxfordshire. It is is a lighter, ‘entry level’ course in mindfulness aimed at non-clinical populations – in other words, people in ordinary life situations who may want to better manage stress & anxiety or find greater focus in a high pressure life. It is based on the best selling book, ‘Mindfulness – a practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world’ by Mark Williams and Danny Penman. We use the book as the course guide and the group comes together once a week for a 90 minute session to practice the meditations together, reflect on our experience and engage in some key cognitive exercises. In between sessions participants are invited to use the audio meditations at home on a daily basis ready to come back the next week and reflect on our experience of having done this. 

RETREATS

I also run residential mindfulness based retreats. More details of these retreats will appear as I arrange them but do register your interest through the contact section. Alternatively if you have a group which would like to set up such a retreat I am very happy to be booked in for this.

QUIET DAYS

I have also run single ‘Introduction to Mindfulness’ days for both church and other groups. These days run from around 10am to 4.00pm. If you are interested in setting one up please get in touch. All that is needed is a room or hall big enough to sit the participants in a circle on upright comfortable chairs (anything from 15 to 25 is possible). People can bring their own lunch but you might want to provide tea and coffee.

TALKS/WORKSHOPS

Finally I am open to giving talks about mindfulness. This can be about how mindfulness supports well-being or how it might link with spirituality. I prefer such sessions to be at least 90 minutes so that there is time to experience a bit of mindfulness practice and for participants to respond to the experience.

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Contact Tim

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