Originally from New Zealand, I moved to the UK in 1990. I am 44. I had a spinal
injury 28 years ago which has left me living with constant pain and neurological
problems and I use crutches or a wheelchair for mobility. Twenty years ago I
first started exploring meditation and relaxation techniques to manage my own
chronic back pain.
The Peace of Mind project has grown out of this experience
and I have read extensively enabling me to integrate techniques and approaches
that I have found helpful from a wide range of sources.
I am a practicing Buddhist and was ordained in 1995 into the Western Buddhist
Order when I was given the name Vidyamala (meaning, “garland of
wisdom/beauty/aesthetic appreciation”). I love teaching meditation, running
retreats and applying these awareness techniques within the context of pain
management.
My reasons for founding the Peace of Mind project in 2000 were two-fold: Firstly
to offer some of what I had learned from my own experience to others who suffer
from pain and ill health. Secondly I find running the courses is on-goingly
helpful for me personally, in terms of managing my own life circumstances.
When I was 20 I learned to meditate, and then became interested in Buddhism as a
philosophy and way of life. In 1976 I was ordained into the Western Buddhist
Order and have spent most of my adult life practicing and teaching meditation
and other Buddhist methods of working on the mind.
In 1976 I was ordained into the Western Buddhist
Order and have spent most of my adult life practicing and teaching meditation
and other Buddhist methods of working on the mind.
After a few years,
I moved to Manchester to help set up The Manchester Buddhist Centre. In
those days the Centre was not the large and impressive building that it is
today. Working from a small house in the suburbs we did meditation and Buddhism
classes for many years. In the fifteen years that I was there I guess
I must have taught thousands of people to meditate.
Ten years ago I went to live and work in a Buddhist study retreat
centre in North Wales. I wanted to spend more time reflecting on life and trying
to understand more deeply the philosophy behind Buddhist practices.At the end of this period I felt a need to return to ‘the world’. I wanted to
find a way in which I could contribute to society in a more direct way.
Consequently, when Vidyamala contacted me to ask me to work with her on her pain
management project I jumped at the chance.
I have a special interest in using mindfulness and meditation as aids in
combating depression. One of the things I have had to work with in my own life
is a tendency towards depression, and I have found that some of the methods
Vidyamala uses in her courses are also very useful in preventing depression.
