Own Your Breath - nurturing wellness & mindfulness one breath at a time

16/06/2026

Amazing discovery during our woodland walk today - nature is full of surprises 😊🙏🏼🌿

05/06/2026

As we linger to watch the diligent bees at work, it's interesting to reflect on our own occupation.
Is it fulfilling?
Is it stimulating?
Does it bring intrinsic rewards?
Do our labours benefit others?
How often are we totally immersed in work that satisfies and challenges us?
How fortunate are those whose work lifts them up: such an extraordinary blessing.
🙏🏼

05/06/2026

Today's visit to the City Art Gallery - temporary exhibition: Room to Breathe, featuring skyscapes, including this Constable.
How refreshing - groups of paintings across the centuries which feature a great expanse of sky - deliberately displayed to promote pause; visitors invited to linger, to lose themselves in remarkable depictions of the heavens. As it once caught the breath of the artist, we now take time to admire its awe-inspiring magnificence.
When we find ourselves apart from the landscape and sky, art can provide a stimulating substitute. Proponents of Forest Bathing encourage us to create a natural outdoor ambience in our home and workspace with plants and pictures, to soothe the mind and stimulate the calming side of our brain. So too these artworks invite us to pause, to take a moment to sense the serenity of place and space.
Which work of art transports you to a special place?

01/06/2026

Oudam Em shares insight on a challenging principle -
How simple it would be if we could achieve enlightenment from our studies, or receive it from our teachers.
Imagine a single path guaranteed to lead there, or perhaps a series of tasks or challenges designed to provide transformation.
No.
Just like Siddhartha and Govinda, your way and mine are not the same.
As individuals, we must each discern our own particular way, and immerse ourselves completely, wholly.
Each on our own quest.
Enjoy the journey 🙏🏼

25/05/2026

Mindfulness brings our focus to the present moment.
It heightens our senses.
It intensifies our awareness.
Mindfulness when eating increases our appreciation of our food.
It enables us to engage with its aroma, textures and flavours.
It nurtures greater awareness of its source.

22/05/2026

The universe has existed far longer than we can conceive.
It follows its own remarkable rhythms, often indiscernible to us.
When we celebrate that autonomy, when we delight in its wonder, our connection to the whole universe lifts our hearts & enables us to soar.
🙏🏼

22/05/2026

Nature always has something remarkable for us to discover, even in unlikely places - we must simply remember to pay attention.
🙏🏼

22/05/2026

Wise insight from Oudam Em in '99 Zen Moments'.
We strive for control, believing that all will be better, more predictable and manageable, once we have grasped power over our lives.
But this is an illusion.
It is a misconception that generates more stress, more agitation, as we strive to attain something always beyond our reach.
Simply consider how many things in life remain beyond our control...

Once we are aware, once we acknowledge there are elements we cannot control, then the mist clears.
Walk the path. It will lead you precisely where you need to be.
🙏🏼

21/05/2026