How are you doing over this Coronation Weekend? 

Confession time — I have mixed feelings about the Coronation … yes, it is a moment in history, and yes the UK is great at doing these kind of events… however, I have certain reservations about the amount of money being spent on this day. This isn’t because I am trying to be a ‘party-pooper’ and I realise that my thoughts are perhaps a little controversial, but I look at the state of our town centres, the position many people currently find themselves in struggling financially and struggling with health, and if King Charles really wanted this to be the start of a different era, there are so many decisions he could have made to make this weekend a celebration but with a lower budget and more low key. I think for many it will feel like rubbing salt in a gaping wound and maybe with a different approach more people would feel better about the celebrations … obviously this is just my opinion and I understand that many of you will love every minute of it and that is great.  So whatever you are doing this weekend I hope you are enjoying yourself, whether it be celebrating with a street party or simply sitting on your sofa watching it all happen on TV, I hope you have avoided the rain and had a good time.

Here’s the news about this week’s classes...

I hope you have had a good week. Keith and I went away for a few days break and I really did feel the benefits, relaxing and resting and it felt great. 

Being away gave me time to reflect on some meditation practise and to work on switching my brain off so instead of constantly looking ahead and worrying I focused on enjoying the present. 

It is very easy to get into a habit of ignoring the good things that are going on all the time, and give attention to what our internal ‘radar’ tends to look out for which feel troublesome and make us worry. When this happens it's a form of selective consciousness that make us only give attention to the things that are potentially small and may not happen frequently if at all, rather than bringing our awareness to the things that happen continuously. This is because the things that happen all the time bring a level of familiarity and consistency, and become less important to us, so we tend to not hold them in our conscious brain. Whereas we will pick up something on our radar which could just be a tiny fragment or moment in our life but our conscious brain selects that to be its focus. 

A little story which supports the selective consciousness ….

My Dad was a home bird and didn’t really enjoy going out or socialising — a very shy man, not very self confident. So whenever we were going out, perhaps to a family party, his immediate question when he was being collected and taken to the party would be: what time will we be coming home? His selective conscious brain was focusing on feeling overwhelmed at the get together, possibly not feeling confident about talking to anyone, feeling uncomfortable, and getting home too late at night. Ignoring the familiarity of being with his family, seeing the grandchildren enjoying themselves, having fun and listening to everyone chatting, getting home feeling happy and content. Ignoring that everyone always loved to see him and spend time with him, listen to his stories, chatting with him. 

Don’t let the joys of the familiar, the consistency of the things that don’t seem to carry much importance pass you by simply because they are always there. Don’t let your selective conscious ‘radar’ focus on what might, could, perhaps happen at some future point.

Have a fabulous Bank Holiday Monday and enjoy your familiar.

With love

Jane xx