A mindful heart and mind

Discover the silence, stillness and space within

Dec 11, 2025

Sunlight streams through trees onto a grassy path. — Photo by Franco Debartolo on Unsplash

“Cultivating mindfulness can lead to the discovery of deep realms of well-being, calmness, clarity and insight within yourself. The path to it in any moment lies no further than your own body and mind and your own breathing. This domain of pure being, of wakefulness is always accessible to you.”

Jon Kabat Zinn

It’s been 11 years since I took part in my Mindfulness Teacher Training and what a journey it has been.

In December 2014 I went to a beautiful retreat centre in rural Dorset to train as a Zen Meditation and Mindfulness Teacher on a week-long residential retreat. Little did I know then, that this would change the direction of my life and influence not only the way I teach, but my perspective on life, living, thinking and being in the world.

At the time I was struggling with anxiety and needed help finding ways to deal with it, learning mindfulness seemed a good way to discover some positive steps forwards. I had already trained in Hatha Yoga, completed a Meditation Teacher Training course and started learning Tibetan Buddhist Meditation, so this felt like a great progression to help me even further along this path.

The training itself was amazing, the structure of the course, the time spent in silence, in meditation, in learning together, in teaching new skills together was just a wonderful heart-warming experience. Doing all this in an amazing space, with open fires, nourishing food and beautiful light filled sculptures filling each of the rooms, truly lifted my heart.

Then on New Year’s Eve, something amazing happened, one of my fellow students chose to take part in a precept ceremony to commit to the Buddhist path. I felt a sense of awe at this process and wonder at the feelings of connection. My heart burst open and I felt as if the room was filled with buddha’s offering their blessings, the clock struck midnight, fireworks began and my journey to discover the Buddhist path had begun.

All of this started with the simple act of being mindful and it is something anyone can do in order to move past difficulties and find a deeper connection within themselves.

Mindfulness of the breath

Mindfulness is not just being present with our mind, but with our heart as well. The Japanese character for ‘mindfulness’ is called nen, it is made up of two characters – ima, meaning ‘now’ and shin meaning ‘heart and mind.’

When we start from this place of awareness with both our heart and mind together, we start from a place of kindness, of curiosity, of wondering. We leave behind the judgement and the self-criticism, and we just explore, notice and become aware.

Buddha taught that taking our awareness to our breath can lead us all the way to enlightenment, so this is a perfect place to start.

We can begin by being mindful of our breath flowing in and out, noticing where the breath flows to in our body, being aware of how deep or shallow it is. We watch without any story line or any wish to change anything, just feeling, listening, noticing. If we drift off into thoughts or get distracted we just gently return our awareness to the breath. There is no forcing here, just gentle mindful awareness.

When we focus on our breath it allows us to become more aware of how we are feeling in our body, mind and emotions. We may start to notice the tension in our body, we may feel nervous, anxious or actually really relaxed. Perhaps our mind is swirling with thoughts and we feel unsettled. Whatever we are feeling, through mindfulness we can begin to notice how the body and mind are in each moment and we can start to be kinder to ourselves. Taking time to observe our breath helps us to slow down our thoughts and calm our emotions, when we feel calmer, our body is less tense and we can begin to feel happier and healthier.

You may like to visit my post “Light a candle in the darkness” and listen to my calm recording to help you settle into your breath and into a kinder way of being.

Silence, Stillness and Space

A calm state of mind is within our grasp we just have to look past the ordinary busy and active mind to find our Buddha nature - the stillness within.

Often people think that they need to have a still or quiet mind in order to meditate, but we can find the quiet spaces or silence within our busy mind. All we have to do is notice the silence in and around our thoughts rather than waiting for our mind to be still and quiet.

“You don’t need to run away from noise to find silence. You find the silence within the noise.”

(Awakening the Luminous Mind, by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche)

By noticing our thoughts with openness and kindness, without judging, rejecting or getting carried away with them, we can start to see the space around our thoughts and connect with the stillness within.

“As the sky hosts the clouds, silence hosts all sounds.”

(Awakening the Luminous Mind, by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche)

As we connect with the silence and stillness within, we can also connect with the space in and around us, or a way of seeing that we haven’t noticed before, a place of openness that helps us see everything as one.

“Imagine an empty vase. The space inside is exactly the same as the space outside. Only the fragile walls of the vase separate one from the other. Our Buddha mind is enclosed within the walls of our ordinary mind. But when we become enlightened, it is as if that vase shatters into pieces. The space “inside” merges instantly into the space “outside.” They become one: There and then we realize they were never separate or different they were always the same.”

(The Tibetan book of living and dying, by Sogyal Rinpoche)

Making a hole is a shoji

Even a small insight can lead us towards this oneness. My teacher talks about “making a hole is a shoji” – a shoji is a Japanese paper screen and our spiritual development can be like making a hole in a screen - starting small with a pinprick, then a finger hole, later a hand-hole until the paper is removed completely.

He says that even a tiny hint of light is the same light that we see once the paper has been removed and therefore even a small amount of light is still enlightenment.

“When we recognize the many conditions of happiness that are there, in us and around us, we realise that we don’t need to be searching for happiness anywhere else, or hoping it will arrive on some future day. This is very important, to know that happiness is possible here and now. With mindfulness you can recognize all the conditions of happiness that are already in you and around you, more than enough to be happy.”

(Peace is every breath, by Thich Nhat Hahn)

When we see that we can be happy in each and every moment through our mindfulness practice, we start to recognise the joy of being right where we are. We may no longer feel the need to chase after things, strive for more, do better, to have more, as we know that we have everything we need right now. Knowing this is an awakening, an insight into another way of being.

“We have the power to wake up, to touch enlightenment from moment to moment, in our very ordinary and, yes, busy lives. So let’s start right now. Peace is your every breath.”

(Peace is every breath, by Thich Nhat Hahn)

Are you interested in learning about mindfulness and beginning that journey towards your kind heart and open mind? Would you like to find a way of observing without judgement, so that you can discover the silence, stillness and space right there within your busy life?

Then you may like to visit my website where you will find short online courses, free guides and coaching session available.