Under this circumstance, it is difficult for us to keep a work/study routine, or to engage in the activities of joy as usual. When the environment is lack of order, how could we help our mind and body settle down a little bit? Join the session with Mindful Self-compassion Teacher DalidaTurkovic and see what she suggests.

I left Beijing on 19th November at 4 am. Direct flight to Belgrade felt like a treat as news of the new wave of lockdowns stormed through my WeChat. Three-year restrictions, and continuous opening and closing, reminds me of exercising on a monkey-bar. After a while, muscles become fatigued and pausing to rest doesn't bring any strength into tired muscles and clammy hands. Even after letting go of the bars, pain reminds you how hard it is even to hold a spoon. As I reached my parents' apartment and lay down on a living room sofa, tears came to my eyes: I couldn't believe I could feel the smell of home. 

I stepped on the soil where my childhood memories flourished with joy. I am in Europe, the Balkans to be exact. I hear and understand the language but somehow feel out of tune. I don't know how to explain it. Perhaps parallel reality is playing tricks on my mind. My roots may be here but my heart still beats in and for China. I ache as I hear about lockdowns. Walking freely on the streets makes the lockdown experiences of this year even more meaningless. I don't know how to explain it. My lungs will explode as I try to gasp for Truth.

A few weeks ago I attended Justin Jones-Fosu's keynote speech for ICF Imagine (International Coach Federation): How to Change the Rhythms When Rhythms Around You Have Changed? I was surprised when he brought up that dinosaur-old question: Do you see a glass empty or full?

We are out of luck for retreats and silence. We couldn't go to Qingdao without difficulties to come back to Beijing, we moved the retreat to Changping and the event is cancelled... I crave togetherness, especially now that I have bought my ticket for 19th November. Winter is coming and I will embrace it in Europe.

I have been writing this article for two weeks. Numerous edits and observation how my state changes brought me to today. I was sweeping the yard and my Sadness came forward. I could see her, touch her and oh, yes, feel her. She didn't want me to sweep the yard, she wanted full attention and space to break. I invited her to join doing the chore. It can be fun if done mindfully, I said. She was willing to participate for five minutes, and then took me for another ride. Rewinding two weeks ago... it was Tuesday, 27th September.

What inspired you to become a coach ?

Becoming a coach was more of a personal need rather than an inspiration.

After a few years of attending mindfulness group sessions, I felt the need to expand and deepen my way of" being mindful" rather than "doing mindfulness practice."

"To become masterful in suffering means to experience joy each time we gain awareness that suffering is present. This is not an expression of sadistic nature but rather a reminder that suffering brings an invitation to learn, grow, and transform through the healing properties of mindful presence. To avoid suffering coming from emotions means that we ignore the anger and forget to express our boundaries, we ignore fear and anxiety, so we don't prepare well, and we forget about worry, so we don't consider different options."

Can we avoid suffering from emotions?

If you are reading this article, I assume that you are already familiar with the theories and principles behind meditation and mindfulness. I also assume that you are familiar with the benefits of physical exercise, gratitude journals, being present, focusing on your breath, spending time with good people, and eating well. It sounds simple, doesn't it? Why are we then still incapable of applying these pearls of wisdom in our lives? What else do we need to attain life wisdom?

Failing at being a perfect parent is my favorite moment of parenting, one of which was unintentionally captured on video when my son videotaped himself during remote learning one day.

Mindful Self-Compassion for Teens (MSC-T, formally called "Making friend with yourself") is an empirically supported, 8-session program designed to foster the skills of self-awareness and resilience, helping teens to navigate more effectively with the ups and downs of life with greater ease. Research finds that MSC-T participants experience many benefits including decreased stress, greater resilience, and increased well-being.

You are probably familiar with the aspect of an observer in mindfulness practice. That observer sometimes takes a form of a factual and distant interpretation what we are observing in ourselves and beyond. It often happens in the practice that this narrative get us into another form of judgment - less argumentative but nevertheless, it is still judgment. Compassion and practice of loving-kindness can help us to shift from this distant judgment into warm experience of how we are riding the waves of life.

It’s been a month since Pearl left home. As I think of her, my heart shrivels, and I feel a clenching fist suffocating my chest. I fight with tears as worry eats my thoughts. It is hard to have a closure. Friends try to remind me how much we have done already - sleepless nights, roaming through the hutongs with her food, with a recording of the food filling up in her bowl, shyly calling her name and whistling so she can hear how much we love her.

As coaches, we learn how to ask open questions, give space for contemplation and perspective shift. Asking closed questions that require a simple 'yes' or 'no' answer resembles driving into a dead end road. It's a conversation killer. For example, take this question: "Are you happy?" There is no simple way to answer it.

Join us on Thursday 2nd June 7.30pm Beijing Time to learn more upcoming mindfulness-based coach training program.

Do you remember how it was to be a teenager? What it was to be you, what were the challenges you had to go through, on the journey of becoming an adult?

It’s a great pleasure for me to be launching together with BMC an eight-week Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (8-Week MBCT) that will provide you with a structured way to develop your mindfulness practice whether you are a beginner to mindfulness or an existing practitioner.

Due to the current uncertainty and difficulty to plan short or long term, Beijing Mindfulness Centre will pause with activities through May holidays and announce next steps after the holidays. One thing that I know for sure, it is not easy to be in a leadership position at this time. So kudos to all who can maintain their calm and cool, who can feel motivated to move forward even when all signals show that we cannot move anywhere.

I spend more time on the phone, getting lost in absentminded scrolling through the news. General sense of fatigue is draining, and it feels like deja vu. I have been here before. It is hard to find excitement about the future. Maslow's hierarchy of needs is rapidly demoted from self-actualisation to the basic needs: safety, food and shelter. How does this happen and where are these deeply concerning realities taking us?