the Mindful Monday Newsletter. 6th January 2025.

?An eclectic, hand-picked selection of stories from the past couple of weeks. Hope one, or some, of these pieces allow the opportunity for connection and the chance to pause, feel and think.?

A very Happy New year from Mindfulness Matters. Today !?

Are you interested in learning how mindfulness can assist with reducing stress levels, greater mental clarity, greater resilience, improved concentration and communication skills, and emotional intelligence? Please get in touch on this channel or [email protected] and +44 7920 257908. Nick.

Interested in trying meditation this year? Here is a nice, short introduction from The Guardian - ‘The only thing you need is your own mind’: How to start meditating. "Everyone has to start somewhere. In this new column, experts give advice about activities and practices that will help you live well. Because the first step is usually the hardest. Meditation has many benefits. Studies have found it can help with anxiety, depression, insomnia and even gut health. So why isn’t everyone doing it all the time?

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Really pleased to share this information and support the valuable work that Trish Bartley , Didi Mogashoa and Rob Vincken are doing, with their Mindfulness and Cancer Project - https://www.mindfulnessandcancer.com?

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From The Guardian . Consuming arts and culture is good for health and wellbeing, research finds . Engaging with arts improves quality of life, increases productivity and creates financial ‘dividend’ ht Jane Acton for this.?

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The Shipping Forecast at 100: 'the radio’s prayer'. ‘Around the Bay of Biscay and back for tea’. The weather bulletin has inspired poets and popstars and become our national lullaby .

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In the spring,?a herd of lifesize puppet animals?will set off from the Congo basin on a 20,000km journey. As if forced to move by the climate crisis, lions, kudus and gazelles – all made from corrugated cardboard, with eyes like coals – will head to the Arctic Circle. The troupe will swell as it travels, taking in species belonging to different regions, and training new puppeteers and makers at each stopping-place.?

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Ht Leonie Schell . ‘Many of us have instinctively known that companies investing in workplace well-being tend to perform better. Now, the evidence is clear: Not only do they perform better, they actually outperform the market. This conclusion comes from an excellent study conducted by the University of Oxford, where researchers analysed responses from 1 million workers across over 1,700 publicly listed U.S. companies.

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UK churchyards are havens for rare wildlife, finds conservation charity.

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Love this from Maria Popova at The Marginalian. ‘When music courses through us, we are reminded that the mind and the body are one, and that the body — like music, like feeling, like the universe itself — is made of matter and time. It may even be that music is the language of time, mathematics its alphabet and that?“all truth is comprised in music and mathematics”

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From The Mindfulness Association, a compassion focused January mindfulness calendar. Research suggests that being more compassionate improves our physical and mental wellbeing. Compassion practice opens us up to allowing our human messiness to reveal itself and supports us to be OK with the way we are. We gradually realise that that the messy human condition is not our fault and so we can let ourselves off the hook of perfection. Download available here.

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Does life feel like it’s speeding up………? How to slow down time in 2025. From The Guardian

Hope you have enjoyed reading

Warmly, Nick

[email protected]