The Meditation Course Podcast

This episode is a recording of a class I taught on my online meditation course on Thursday, the 8th of January 2026. There is a 15-minute talk explaining how our cultural perspectives on gratitude and optimism work against us, and how we can adopt a different perspective that's more helpful by training our minds through meditation. We then moved on to 30 minutes of focused-attention meditation...

In this episode, recorded live during a guided meditation class in Bromley, Robert explores what mindfulness really is—and why it's far more than a stress reduction technique. We look at how the mind automatically creates narratives about the past or future and how a single thought can derail our day—unless we spot it early. Mindfulness meditation is the training ground for that awareness. What Yo...

In this class, which I ran as one of my year-round online live group guided meditation classes on Tuesday, the 12th of August, I explained about meditation at night.  Beditation can be practised before you go to bed, if you wake up in the night and also while meditating in bed in the morning.  I also teach three meditations that I have learned help students to relax, calm their minds and drift off...

The Eastern Wisdom traditions have gifted us a legacy of thousands of years of mental training. This isn't just noticing the present moment, it's an immense library of meditations, skills, techniques, and training, that combine to work together. These practices help us to construct a map of our inner landscape so we can to navigate our lives more helpfully. Science gives us a mountain of e...

From a class I taught on The Meditation Course on Thursday 16 January. I have learned over the last decade of teaching mindfulness, meditation and resilience that disconnection and social fragmentation are among the greatest challenges that people face in the modern world. The Mind fulness-Based Resilience practices are fine-tuned for this landscape and I explain the scenario and guide some techni...

In this class, we explore the effect of 'The Marketplace of Fear' the modern media has become and learn how to change our mindset so that our attention is no longer drawn consistently towards a place of anxiety. This needs a toolkit of practices that we can use to manage our stress, redirect the focus of the mind, intervene in repetitive thoughts and take beneficial actions. To join us on our live...

In this episode, I teach a set of practices that people have been using for at least 3,000 years to cut through all of these layers of uncomfortable, unhelpful baggage and return us to an experience which is our evolutionary legacy. It's how human beings can live when we are liberated from all of the expectations that the modern world heaps on us. This is a recording taken from a class on Saturday...

Hi everyone, This is another meditation only episode. I will add a small number more of these then probably, depending on the response, return to the full episodes including the talk. In any case I intend to add a few more of these meditation only episodes as they have been requested by students. There is quite a lot happening in January so I suggest that you subscribe, at least for free, to The M...

Understanding Awareness, The Perception Zone, and Witness Consciousness This meditation is designed to cultivate mindful awareness and Witness Consciousness. It is also a deep and calming practice. In our fast-paced world, we often find ourselves rushing through life on autopilot. Yet beneath this surface-level experience lies a deeper capacity for awareness that can transform how we experience ea...

Another Meditation only today. The perception zone is our nexus in space and time. We need to be aware of our presence in the space around us, and we also need to be aware of the passage of time. When we're in nature, this gets switched on. Walk into a forest, especially if you're alone, especially if there's low visibility, and you will be plugged into your environment, receiving all of that sens...

This Episode is a meditation only. Apologies for the delay in posting. I have been focused on the pilot for a private podcast for subscribers to The Meditation Course. This has almost all of my classes on it so there are three or four episodes each week. This will be available as an extra tier in January, 2025. Change of Format Normally my podcasts are recordings of my classes which all start with...

This is a recording from a class on Thursday, November 7. The topic of the class talk is Meditation and connection. In it, I explain how some Meditation practices (including the practices in the Seven Keys to Clarity program running on The Meditation Course) help us release the burden of beliefs that form our mental model and cause us to feel separate from nature and each other. This sense of sepa...

In this class recorded in Bromley on Saturday 26 October and part of The Meditation Course, I explain how we can relax our mind and body together. The way that the mind connects to the body is fascinating. By relaxing the body deeply we can come to a place of deep, focus, and calm for the mind. To join us for four live group guided meditation classes each week, visit https://meditationcourse.live

Meditation is mental training. It's easy to become diverted into the meditative experience itself and think that is the end of it.  It's important to remember that meditation is mental training for life. We can learn many skills from our meditation practice that can benefit us in different ways. It's never too early to put what we learn in meditation into use as during our day. Then we can integra...

The direction of the mind is a combination of thoughts and emotions that lead us into an inner narrative. This narrative can be unhelpful or even distracting. In this class I taught on Saturday, 12 October, we explored the relationship between the mind and emotion. We practised some meditations that help us work with the mind when its direction is powerful and intense. The meditations include medi...

We can't predict our future mental states or how we'll think or feel because we can't predict the events and experiences that will create those thoughts and feelings.      Because of this uncertainty, it is unwise to rely on a single meditation practice, however cosy and comfortable, or even a tiny selection that gives us what we need right now.      Meditation is mental training. When...

In our culture, we often suppress our emotions, leading to repression and unhealthy "emotional leakage." But there is an alternative! In this powerful new episode, we explore: - 😞 How society encourages emotional suppression - 🎭 Healthy ways to express & process emotions - 🧘‍♀️ Meditation practices to regulate emotional responses - 😌 Handling difficult interactions with calm and...

The first meditation of the month is Following The Breath. In this class, we learn how focusing on the breath enables us to connect to the present moment. We also learn how to practice this and how this skill can work for you during your day to help you switch on mindful awareness and step out of the craziness of the modern world. Meditation of the Month We will have a meditation each month and th...

This episode is a recording of a class on The Meditation Course on Thursday, 15 August. I am posting more regularly but on a private podcast. Contact me for details. In this class I explained about mantra and we practiced a variety of mantra meditations. A mantra is something you say aloud or in your mind that you repeat. Mantra meditation is a truly ancient practice that goes back to the Rig Veda...

After our meditation and nature connection retreat at the weekend, I thought it was a good idea to run a class on the meditations that we did in nature. Connection in nature is all about allowing natural environment into an our experience. All the sensations and smells and sounds become part of the totality of the experience of the present moment, which is what mindfulness is. To experience this,...

Hi everyone, Today's meditation class explored the link between our natural connection to other people and to nature that works so well for our ancestors, but breaks down in modern societies with millions of people. Unfortunately, I know the audio quality was poor and so I have cleaned it up and made it available as a podcast and on the meditation course website which is at https://meditationcours...

In this week's class on my online meditation course, we explored observation meditations. We explored how our perceptions, influenced by our cultural backgrounds and culture, add layers to our experiences, much like augmented reality. The class explained how we can be aware of our cultural filter while practicing meditation and experiencing mindfulness. Through examples like walking meditation and...

Welcome to The Meditation Course podcast. Today, we return to the essential topic of mindfulness, unravelling its meaning and importance and how to embrace it in our fast-paced world. Mindfulness may defy precise description, yet it's best understood through direct experience. By simply observing time's passage or the sound of a bell, we begin to engage with the mindful state of being. This state,...

When you're physically stressed, you only have a few options to intervene in your stress. One option is to learn how to relax. Relaxation isn't something you need to go on holiday for; you also don't need a glass of wine, a cigarette, or a magic combination of price-tagged experiences. It's a really simple thing. When we get stressed, our body becomes tense because we're finely tuned for nature, a...

Counting the breaths is an ancient mindfulness meditation technique and the best practice for about 50% of new meditators to start with. It's a practice where we count each breath using the inner voice. The way I teach it is to count each in and out breath. This engages the mind in an activity that helps to calm the mind. Counting the breaths is the single mindfulness meditation practice that is m...