Welcome to ‘Happiness Heroes’, a new series of posts celebrating the efforts of local people dedicated to making people happier! In today’s post, I speak with Mel, mindfulness and meditation teacher at TheHub AllJourney, who has been organising events and promoting happiness in Watford for over three years. Mel also hosts online meditation experiences, such as a free ‘Introducing Mindfulness’ course which over a thousand people have accessed since the beginning of January in order to slowly expand their awareness and introduce meditation to their lives.
Mel is currently running meditation sessions every other week in Watford and last week, I was able to join her group for a wonderfully relaxing meditation. Held at Rebel Pebble, a beautiful art gallery and craft shop featuring work by local artists as well as beautiful crystals, jewellery and gifts, the cosy downstairs room was a perfect setting for a peaceful meditation experience. After some gentle exercises, Mel led us in a guided mountain meditation, followed by a period of silence for our own meditation.
Mel’s voice is very soothing, her words insightful and calming, and my favourite part of the meditation was when she reminded us all to smile. After the meditation, the group headed upstairs to chat, have tea and biscuits and peruse the lovely items for sale at Rebble Pebble. All in all, it was a fantastic way to spend a Thursday evening, with a friendly, intimate group, and I left feeling very chilled, grounded and at peace.
Following the meditation session, I was interested to find out about Mel’s journey to becoming a meditation teacher and what meditation means to her.
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Mel from TheHub AllJourney
How long have you been meditating?
“I think we have all experienced a meditative state in our lives but have not recognised it as such, it is the most natural state for a human being to be in. So I will say I have been meditating all my life. When I was travelling in 1991/92 I began everyday with a walk, being aware of the environment, the new day and how I was feeling. It wasn’t until I became a student of mindfulness that I learnt this was called walking meditation”.
How do you approach meditation on a daily basis?
“I have been practising for at least 40 minutes every day since 2010. I am still learning the discipline to wake every morning and meditate, but I will not sleep without taking time to be mindful and I also find moments throughout the day to be present. I now tend to notice when I have not meditated in the morning, how that affects me throughout the day. Most recently I started the day rushing on my bike, allowing my attention to be focused on finances, and crashed because I wasn’t mindful. I haven’t missed a morning practice since!”
What does meditation mean to you?
“It means happiness. After I have meditated I always feel grateful and more at ease. Sometimes it can be hard work, when thoughts arise in the silence and there are no distractions, but being mindful and increasing awareness I believe eventually increases happiness.”
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“In my experience, my unhappiness was connected to keeping the focus of my attention on events that had happened or scenarios that could. Meditating means I only connect with this moment, and I can make that happy.
Both my personal practice and what I teach, is to smile and be still, as when I become aware of my smile my sense of happiness increases. As Thich Nhat Hanh says:
Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.
What benefits do you notice from meditation, in yourself or others?
“I have seen improvements in all areas of my life since practising meditation. Physically my health has improved dramatically, as my stress has reduced so has my blood pressure and cholesterol, and my immunity has improved. I am the only one of my friends and family who hasn’t had the flu this winter. Other benefits are less quantifiable, but I am definitely calmer and more emotionally resilient.
I notice when people arrive to my sessions with their shoulders hunched and a frown, its like they have a grey cloud over them. Then they leave relaxed, walking taller and smiling, its simply because they have given themselves the opportunity to be still and increase their awareness, turn their attention inwards.”
What has your journey to becoming a meditation teacher been like?
“It is a wonderful ongoing journey. That is why I use the phrase All-journey. Because there is no destination, the journey is home. I am always learning, about meditation, myself and ways to teach, however I always come back to simple silence, stillness and smiling.
I learnt to ‘meditate’ in 2007 and then started to look for a group to join in Hertfordshire and London to maintain my discipline. In 2011, I started my own secular sessions, where people from all faiths would be welcome and invited a local yoga teacher to lead the sessions. When this was successful I began my training and in 2012 I started taking some sessions. I was nervous at first but gained confidence when I listened to participants’ feedback. Now I love it and want to teach more and more.”
What is it like teaching meditation online, to people all across the globe?
“Joining with others online is wonderful, and a great opportunity to consciously connect and learn. Knowing people are listening on the other side of the world in a different time zone really encourages me, and I feel I am part of the global movement of mindfulness meditation.”
What have been some of the highlights and challenges of leading meditation groups?
“The highlights are when someone has really benefited from a session and they are grateful. This can be just simply receiving a text the next day that a participant enjoyed a good nights sleep, or it could be learning that I planted a seed for a life changing experience. One woman who connected online last year followed my 2014 ‘New Year, New You’ 21 day project, and that led her to investigate Buddhism further. Now she practices mindfulness regularly and has a completely different outlook on life, a new partner and a different job!
The challenge is before every session and recording, being brave to put my voice out there. But once I ring the bell and connect with the moment, it flows and I am happy.”
What are your future events and plans for continuing to share the happiness around?
“I am going to continue with the meditation sessions at Rebel Pebble and Cassiobury Park and continue with my own practice. I am going to apply to train with the .b project, to teach teenagers mindfulness. I think their project is fantastic and believe it is really important to give the skill of awareness to young people. As the Dalai Lama says:
If every 8 year old in the world is taught meditation, we will eliminate violence from the world within one generation.
To find out more about Mel’s meditation groups and events from TheHub AllJourney, you can find her on MeetUp, Twitter and Facebook. Plus why not try out some of her meditations from the ‘Introducing Mindfulness’ series, at Bandcamp, Soundcloud or Youtube. Like to know more about mindfulness? Read all about it here.
Tagged: Dalai Lama, events, happiness, Happiness Heroes, Interview, local, meditation, mindfulness, TheHub AllJourney, Thich Nhat Hanh, Watford Image may be NSFW.
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