Mindfulness, Meaningfulness and Meditation

About Gareth

Dr. Gareth Burr (Bsc;PhD/DPhil) is a registered Mindfulness Teacher and offers Mindfulness and nonduality sessions; one-day retreats & the annual mindfulness retreat (May 1st-3rd). Gareth's courses, classes and sessions are highly recommended for all stages - both beginners and advanced.

Gareth is with The Independent Mindfulness Teachers Guild (IMTG), an East-anglian group of Mindfulness Teachers, now scheduling weekend 'Mindfulness in Nature' silent-led retreats for 2020 - please email for more info.

Gareth trained in the Mindfulness teacher training program with the Centre for Mindfulness Research & Practice (CMRP) at Bangor University, completing to level TTL3 (Teacher Training Level 3). He teaches the 8-week Mindfulness course in Cambridge, and first engaged with the formal mindfulness training during doctoral studies. He is currently running a farm and outdoor woodland retreat centre in South Cambs

What is mindfulness?

During mindfulness sessions we practice sitting still, cultivating the art of watchfulness, wakefulness and resting in awareness and relaxing with interest in the nature of being and knowing and paying close attention to all the qualities and types of sensations in direct experience including feelings and thoughts.

The training involves noticing our natural cycles of both willingness and unwillingness (to practice) and paying attention to our moods (and modes) of being and noticing the qualities of different kinds of sensations and feelings and thoughts. This kind of listening and watching and learning involves inquiry into the nature of being and knowing in relation to experience.
During this practice and nonpractice we notice the great cycles of forgetting and remembering and we 'see our seeing' and come to know the knowing. Understanding is enhanced when we include and encompass what is unfolding in and around us as we learn to include the various ways that we relate to 'what is happening' within and around and with patience and practice we gain insight into ourselves and discover natural capacities and capabilities for resting in (& as) ever-present awareness
The nondual mindfulness approach involves curiosity, courage, and kindness. We practice an attitude that enables and supports insight into various aspects of lifeworld experience: including all the levels and layers of our common human inter-existence. We learn to notice, and attend, to what we don't normally pay attention to -or notice- during the busy-ness ('business') of our day-to-day lives: ever watchful for the familiar forms of thought and feelings that arise in awareness



if you are looking for a place to engage in some regular research and practice - this course could be for you

And what we come to notice in the important space of our practice will become invaluable: transforming and enriching life in relation to self, others and the world that we all share. With commitment to practice comes the wonders of exploration, adventure and discovery.

Mindfulness involves noticing the qualities involved in our ever present lifeworld of direct and immediate experience: and we come to recognise important aspects of our nature, with emphasis on knowing how we are -and what we are- (rather than 'who' we think we are): with entangled attachments and habitual tendencies seen in new light.

These mindfulness sessions include practices and mind-body exercises with plenty of opportunities for sharing and reflecting about the nature of our experience. can be quite a big challenge, as participants are asked to practice at home as part of a daily routine, and, like learning any new skill: practice is the key.

There will be options of retreat days to stabilise and develop our daily practice, with day retreats and meet-ups, and seminars, and w/e silent-led retreats as well as the annual silent led retreat



Mindfulness is now the subject of many scientific studies. Due to its track record it is widely used in the NHS as an effective treatment for stress, anxiety and depression. The mindfulness training has been shown to improve the functional connectivity of the brain, improving attentional focus and enhancing sensory awareness. There is a substantial corpus of evidence to show how the human brain's connectivity networks associated with attention and sensory processing show training-related changes after mindfulness training.

Other wellbeing outdoor activities organised in association with the wider community, include: walking in the woods; working on the farm; Autumn apple-picking days; wild food foraging and raw food nutrition; fungi foraging; green woodworking; willow weaving; coppicing and charcoal making, and, ..the art of simply just being: where the qualities of mindfulness can be more fully integrated: investing in our human 'being' - alongside our human 'doing'