If you are feeling low, stressed, lost or stuck, then this journey will offer a range of ideas, practices and experiences that could well equip you to move through it more easily.

Are there external factors or people that seem to have a toxic effect on your mood or state of peace?

Is your sense of well-being too dependent upon others or circumstances being just right for you?

Do you simply feel tired and unable to feel enthusiastic about anything?

Do you feel disconnected from a meaningful sense of place and purpose in the world?

If so, we will be exploring how to uncouple links in the causal chain of reality-mind-body-experience so as to enjoy greater choice over how you think, feel and respond. This is the stuff of self mastery and mindfulness, where you become more aware of your state and feel able to do something about.

We will also be exploring the Circadian Rhythm, the 24 hour body clock that governs your mental and biological processes. This clock orchestrates and harmonises all body functions and when we live out of synch with it (and most people do) it can leave us feeling tired, irritable, food addicted and unable to concentrate. It also affects our moods, sleep and resistance to illness. These symptoms then affect how we then function within our relationships and our life as a whole.

In this Well-being journey you will be learning a range of psychological and physical practices to help you to stay more grounded and connected to your natural state of peace and joy, despite being in the midst of difficult people or situations.

You don't have to be sick to get better. It's a life choice. Either you are aware and ready for it, or perhaps its just not yet your time to participate in a programme such as this.

Our sense of well-being is heavily influenced by how our mind works. Our states of mind determine our inner weather which can be dark and gloomy or bright and sunny, or somewhere in between.

As a mindfulness-focused psychotherapist, much of my work involves coaching clients to uncouple from the thoughts and habits that promote the gloomy weather.

Sometimes we need to feel the hell out upsetting experiences so that they pass more quickly. Sometimes we just need to use our awareness to clear the stage of our mind, ordering those life-sucking voices and 'actors' that to get off the stage, now. This leaves us with more space in our mind to listen to those actors, perspectives and narratives that are balanced and much more life giving.

This journey takes a pragmatic approach to mind as being a primary contributor to our everyday experience of well being. Helping people to derive greater joy, peace and to be more available for real connection with the people in our lives.

This programme focuses largely on skills and mindfulness-based practices. It aims to build mental resilience and the well-being that comes from having greater mastery over our awareness, attention and the narratives that underpin nearly every feeling that we have.

I'm an avid student of what equips us to have a nourishing and fulfilling experience of life. We all want to be happy, effective and productive - I'm no exception. What started as a journey over 40 years ago to find the keys to my own sense of life-fulfillment, gradually evolved into my professional work as a leader/team coach and therapist.

I wanted to understand the building blocks of human experiences and how we become the person we are in the world. My hope was that if I understood that, I might have more influence over who I was and how I felt - moment to moment.

Being in training with my Native American teachers and subsequently with the Karuna Institute, introduced me to particular wisdom-maps of human consciousness.  The combination of contemporary and Buddhist Psychology together with these maps of consciousness enabled me to provide nourishing experiences where people could understand themselves and others in a more generative and fulfilling way. Team connections would form and deepen, allowing dysfunctional habits to naturally evaporate. 

At this point of my long journey, I now wish to make these lessons and insights available globally, to save others time and suffering as they too strive to understand how to make their lives feel happier and to just be... better.

The biggest thing is a sense of peace and trust in life. Trust in yourself that you can cope with pretty much whatever life throws at you.

There's an inner trust that comes from knowing that you are on a path of human progression. That you are not standing still in life, but that you are still learning and growing. Still alive and vital. This fuels inner confidence and the courage to be more of who you are at your core. A core from which you have become disconnected as the many hurts and impingements received when growing up, force us to learn strategies and ways of being that are not who we are, at our core.

But how to get back there? How to recognise the subtle mental programmes that drive how we show up each day, in our lives? How to let those narratives go and to soften back into a natural and inherent state of being that has always been within, but that has become forgotten? A core state of being that funds the courage to live life fully and authentically.

Although this programme touches upon the needs physical aspects of sleep, nutrition and exercise, the main thrust of this journey is the mind and emotions that give rise to our experiences - for better or worse. If we don't take care of the physical, it will be harder to maintain the well being state of our mind and body.

Of course you may still experience challenges that feel difficult. But you as you learn to relate to these states of weather in a more skillful manner, you will find it easier to move through and beyond them. You will return more quickly to your baseline of feeling calm and basically at peace, despite being triggered by circumstances.

Fear and anger are probably the two most highly charged emotional states that we have to deal with. Both are horrible for people to experience and it costs a lot of energy to try to contain or hide them within themselves.

When afflicted by these highly charged states we tend rush to fix and control those external factors which we blame for our upset and loss of well-being. But when we are dependent upon our lives being 'just so' - needing things to be a certain way for us to feel okay, our experience of well being will always be held to hostage by external forces. Forces over which we never truly have control. You may find that idea hard to tolerate and accept.

We all have a tendency to fix people and situation that upset us. Unfortunately, this often comes from a defensive place of aggression, judgement or the desperate need to regain control. But this often makes matters worse, plus it adds the spectre of conflict to an already unacceptable situation. This makes our reactive charge is even stronger.

So how do we stay okay, when things go wrong and every fibre in our being compels us to fix those things that interfere with our happy state?

First, you need to recognise when your inner weather is changing for the worse, before you can do something about it. Then we need to uncouple from the causal chain of thought, feelings and the urge to react. (This is what the well-being programme will teach you.) We then become less suffocated by our desire to change things and so less driven to act on impulse.

By understanding the mechanics of your fear response and practices for uncoupling from it, you gain more choice over how you meet and transform fear. In this programme you will learn to separate the story in your mind (about a future scenario that wish to avoid) from the actual feeling sensations in your body. This is the start of dissolving your states of fear, anger or any other emotionally charged feeling. And when you no longer fear feeling afraid, you no longer fear anything. Instead, you learn to trust yourself and your ability to cope. Your peace then becomes a bit more unshakable.

Your window of tolerance will expand. It will become easier to step back from feelings and triggers. You will learn to relate more generatively towards your feeling states, finding it easier to return to a grounded state of presence before acting. When you do act, it will then be coming from a place of calm, grounded power and self authority, which will have a different effect upon people and relationships than simply 'flying off the handle'.

You'll be gaining self mastery.

People learn faster and are stronger together, so we offer an option to belong to a tribe of fellow travelers. People who share your passion for getting to grips with what it means to thrive as a human being, despite the difficult experiences that come into our lives from time to time.

The Tribe package allows you to join weekly 'gatherings' of people who share a desire for regular connection and new input. People who want to create their own personal 'owners manual' for being in the world more fully and with greater fulfillment. In these meetings we will explore, share and learn about applying the tools within the programme. I will also be commenting on the challenging themes that have been emerging with people and will offer guided practices for you to add to your Well-being toolkit.

In our gatherings, common issues may emerge that are not currently addressed in the programme. These will be addressed with helpful practices and teachings which will being added to the Classic programme as we go along. You will have access to all new content and updates whether or not you choose to join our Tribe option. It just depends whether you want a tribe at your back, carrying you along faster as the community shares and grows together. 

Belonging to a tribe can be a huge resource to our sense of place and well-being. Just knowing that it is there and that there is a place where you can go to comment, connect and support one another, can make us all feel more able to cope with whatever may come our way.