Welcome to the weekly insights for this week.
I post a Weekly Insights article each week. Each article is a roundup of the insights that I've posted the previous week across all my social media platforms. Each insight is a micro-learning post that teaches something useful in the areas of mindfulness, meditation, and resilience.
The Visual Path to Focus
Mandala meditation works like breath meditation, but you use your eyes instead of following your breath.
You focus on the centre of an intricate circular design. That's it.
Here's how to practice:
Find a quiet spot and sit comfortably.
Softly focus your gaze on the mandala's centre point.
Your vision will blur as you meditate—this is normal. Don't fight it.
When your mind wanders, gently bring your attention back to the centre.
The pattern is simple:
- Focus
- Mind wanders
- Notice
- Refocus
This cycle builds focused attention in the same way that breath meditation trains your mind; mandala meditation does it through visual focus.
The intricate patterns often carry symbolic meaning, but that's not what makes the practice work. The foundation is pure attention training.
Try it today: Find a mandala image online or select any single visual point. Sit with it for 5 minutes. Notice how your mind moves between focus and distraction.
That noticing? That's the practice working.
Worry is a repetitive, persistent thought process that repeats in the mind, ruminating over unhelpful potential future outcomes.
We will only label it worry once we've decided the mind is spending too much time on it. We don't actually need to go over anything over and over again. There's an element of distrust in our future selves' capacity to cope with something that may happen. And so, letting go of worry has no downside.
Spending too much time on something that has a parking space in our head is the very definition of worry, so freeing that parking space up is never a bad thing.
Mindfulness meditation, over time and with practice, neutralises the intensity of unhelpful thoughts and uncomfortable emotions.
The purpose of meditation is to become familiar with the mind, which eventually makes us comfortable with it. We make friends with our difficult thoughts and uncomfortable emotions.
It's good to meditate with others because it is a powerful way to build and maintain a meditation practice.
We meditate regularly at least four times a week, with easy-to-access online classes and many other formats, like five-week courses, retreats, and workshops. So please do join us and learn to let go of your worry.
🌿 The Meditation Hub is Live 🌿
I recently realised that I now offer many different ways to learn and deepen your meditation practice — so I’ve brought them all together in one place.
✨ What you’ll find:
🧘♂️ 5-Week Mindfulness Courses — online & in person
🌐 Weekly Meditation Classes — online & in person
🔮 Advanced Meditation Training
🏞️ Retreats & Workshops
🎧 Public & Private Podcasts
🎥 YouTube Channels with full classes
🎵 Guided sessions on SoundCloud
All of it is now easy to access in one place — the website I built to bring everything together:
