Mark Coleman is a mindfulness teacher, wilderness guide, and author.

Mark Coleman is the author of From Suffering to Peace, Make Peace with Your Mind, and Awake in the Wild.  As a rebelious young man living in London, Mark stumbled upon a meditation centre at the height of the punk era. His discovery began a lifelong journey of exploring the mind, meditation, and causes of suffering and happiness.
Mark is the founder of the Mindfulness Institute and has an MA in clinical psychology.  Mark has guided students on five continents as a corporate consultant, counselor, meditation teacher, and wilderness guide.
Conversation highlights:

Concern that mindfulness is being touted as a panacea and reduced to bite size parts
Mindfulness as a way to gain understanding, insight and inner freedom.
How Mark found mindfulness in the midst of the London punk era.
Don't have time to meditate? Mark shares practical ways you can choose mindfulness over numbing in the midst of a busy life.
Our default node network and negativity bias:  the physiological and psychological reason we are wired to be slightly negative with a meandering mind.
The body as the best way to train to be present.
Kindness as an important element of finding capacity to hold an experience and not suffer with it.
Fairy tale spiritual mythology is not the path to awakening.
The shift from self centredness to service.
Despite a general feeling of powerlessness, serving the people around us has the power to ripple out and create influence.

Mark Coleman's Memorable Quotes:

"You may not have time to meditate for half an hour, but you have time to be present to a whole host of activities including driving, conversations, cooking, cleaning."
"We all want the happily ever after story; the fairy tale spiritual mythology.  I thought that too. I wanted to get enlightened so I wouldn’t have to feel and deal with the messiness and painfulness of life."
"Remember that mindfulness, which is awareness, is a quality within us all.  Awareness is our birthright."
"Since we are an interconnected web of life, influencing one small thread of that weave influences the whole tapestry."

Mentioned in this episode
Mark Coleman's book, From Suffering to Peace:  The True Promise of Mindfulness
Website - markcoleman.org
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