How my mindfulness journey began….

At the age of 35 things were pretty good in my life. I was married with 3 happy children and my main concern was getting a full night’s sleep. I remember thinking there was light at the end of the tunnel on that score and then it happened…. What felt like a double cyclone hit me. I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Then, 2 years later, when my children were aged 6, 4 and 2, I suffered a recurrence. For those two and a half years I lurched from: surgery to radio therapy; to chemotherapy, then back to surgery and chemotherapy again. I only escaped the fear of the cancer returning, and what that might mean, when I was meditating. The 3rd storm that hit me, was the much-regretted end of my marriage.

While grieving over the end of my relationship, and the other losses cancer had caused, I decided to find a way to support my own happiness and peace of mind. My meditation practice to date had been so helpful so in a bid to learn more, I completed my first mindfulness based stress reduction (MBSR) course in 2015 and was inspired to train to become a mindfulness teacher. I completed an 18-month Diploma at the Centre for Mindfulness in Dublin and have been teaching MBSR since 2017.

I regularly meet with my teachers and peers at teacher trainings, retreats and online events. We support one another by sharing our expertise and methods to continuously improve our teaching. To ensure the highest level of excellence in my teaching I attend formal supervision with a senior mindfulness teacher. I am a member of the British Association of Mindfulness Based Approaches (BAMBA) and the Mindfulness Teacher’s Association of Ireland (MTAI).

Trained to teach Dots.

Fiona is trained to teach Dots, a mindfulness curriculum for teaching children aged 3 to 6.