Mindfulness Practice

Breath Meditation

The mindfulness of breathing meditation is one of the simplest and most powerful practices.The Buddha claimed he was doing this practice when he gained insight into the cause of suffering, and it is breath awareness that he taught as the starting point in his teaching on the cultivation of mindfulness.  

The practice cultivates focus, attention, clarity and insight. It regulates the autonomic nervous system. It trains the meditator how to engage and let go of different processes. It helps a person interrupt destructive thought and emotional processes, to cultivate meta-cognitive awareness.

The significant research on the mindfulness of breathing meditation demonstrate it’s profound benefits in regard to healing mood disorders and transforming structures in the brain and nervous system associated with stress and trauma.

This meditation can be the cornerstone of a dedicated practitioner, a life journey that unfolds within the beauty and simplicity of breathing.

Compassion Meditation

Compassion meditation and mindfulness meditation are known as the two wings of a bird, the practices support one another.
If the mindfulness of breathing (MOB) meditation develops clarity of mind, then compassion meditation can be said to cultivate qualities of heart.

Compassion meditation feels different than the MOB, it is a more imaginative, playful and personal journey.

Typically we pay attention to four archetypical figures we meet in our life, oneself, loved ones, neutral people and difficult people. For example we bring to mind someone we have a difficult relationship with, we pay attention to how our inner state shifts when we recall this person, we feel our stomach contract, our breath quicken. We notice how the image of this person is as if it is frozen at the moment the wound was inflicted. We pay attention to parts of our experience where these is a sense of opening, of ease, we cultivate and harvest those parts through attention. We deliberately introduce images or words that support a shift in our experience where we are able to hold the difficult person in awareness in equanimity. We expand our capacity. We need not like the difficult person, but we can find a way to hold them in awareness in a way that is peaceful. In this way we cultivate equanimity, transform our relationships, restore joy and goodness to our lives.

In the biography ‘From a Mountain in Tibet’ Lama Yeshe Losal Rinpoche tells how he practiced compassion meditation towards the Chinese soldiers who tortured his father and brother. He described how he used visualisation within his meditation to cultivate equanimity and compassion.
Compassion meditation is radical, it transforms our relationship with suffering and patterns of avoidance, it restores love and joy.

Breath-Work

The intention of the breath-work practices is to support autonomic regulation and improve breathing function, for this reason we practice a specific set of breathing exercises.

We use a Butekyo practice called the Control Pause to assess and track breathing function, as well as gentle and strong breath hold practices that increase tolerance to carbon dioxide, that optimise biochemical breathing processes, increasing the efficiency of respiration. We also practice slow breathing rhythms.
In these sessions we typically avoid hyperventilation style practices such as Kapalabati. Even though research on this group of practices has demonstrated specific health benefits. This is because my experience from my personal / clinical experience and reading of the search has shown me that most people will benefit more from hypoventilation style practices that support parasympathetic rest and digest, that calibrate structures in the brain that regulate respiration and optimise the biochemical relationship between oxygen and carbon dioxide.

I also emphasise the importance lifestyle choices including sleep, diet, working with stress, and exercise as key factors in transforming breathing processes. These classes will help you understand the why of practice, and ground you in practice.

David Cornwell 

David Cornwell studied the treatment of depression through mindfulness at Oxford University. His Oxford thesis explored the relationship between mindfulness, depression and polyvagal theory.  

He is a licensed therapist in the UK having studied at the Karuna Institute, a psychotherapy school specialising in mindfulness based psychotherapy. David trained as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner and in EMDR.

David has practiced mindfulness since 1999, has been teaching since 2003. David founded Cihangir Yoga in 2006 in Istanbul Turkey, and developed a mindfulness centre in Istanbul's American hospital.

David lives in Mallorca with his family, works as a therapist, and teaches mindfulness.