Centring Down with Compassion: Recent Episodes
Carolyn Baynes
Carolyn is a Quaker and a mindfulness meditation teacher interested in ways to grow inner qualities like peace, joy and compassion.
This short meditation invites us to centre down and meet with parts of us that we wish to get to know more. It has been inspired by Michelle Glass's wonderful book Daily Parts Meditation Practice.
When our parts feel like they are giving out all the time, sometimes in feels so good to let them receive. This gentle meditation explores Self energy in the hands and brining it to the heart and the rest of the body.
This body invites us to use gentle touch and movement to connect more deeply to our bodies. Please get in touch with me on info@carolynbaynes.co.uk if you are interested in exploring your inner world using Internal Family Systems.
At this time of year Joy can feel very far away as our striving parts work so hard to create a beautiful Christmas. Pause for 10 minutes to allow these parts to relax and feel the warmth and light of Self-energy.
At this time of year parts of us carry overwhelming and exhaustion. Let this gentle meditation bring compassion and presence to these parts.
When we meditate we can stay very much in our heads. This gentle meditation invites us to drop down into our bodies and bring an embodied compassion to part of us that are burdened with hopelessness.
Becoming embodied can open us to this moment and this experience of Light/Self. If this spoke to you and you would like to work with me contact me on info@carolynbaynes.co.uk
This meditation can be done when out on a walk or if walking internally. Quakers talk about opening to the Light, which in the language of Internal Family Systems (IFS) is the Self. Try opening your senses and your heart to nature and allowing it to speak to you. Contact me for therapy using IFS at info@carolynbaynes.co.uk
Advices and Queries 37 asks us to examine our commitment to Truth and Integrity. In the current climate of deep fakes and blatant lies this advice could not be more important.
Advices and Queries 36: Do you uphold those who are acting under concern, even if their way is not yours? Can you lay aside your own wishes and prejudices while seeking with others to find God’s will for them?This special Advice and Query asks us to become aware of our wishes and prejudices, our judgements and biases so that we can uphold Friends acting "under concern".
This advice and query looks at how Quakers have at times felt led to break the law. For example when hiding people from the Nazis, helping people escape slavery, or peaceful demonstrations. How do we internalise oppressive laws in our own minds and what burdens do we want to "lay down" as we come to the end of 2024?This podcast is dedicated to the hope war in Gaza can end. If you feel led to support please donate to UNICEF here: https://www.unicef.org.uk/donate/children-in-gaza-crisis-appeal-email-dec24/?utm_source=Unicef_UK&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=email_dm_loyalty_emergency_gaza_aug2024_update
"Remember your responsibilities as a citizen for the conduct of local, national, and international affairs. Do not shrink from the time and effort your involvement may demand." This firm and clear advice directs us away from apathy and hopelessness and asks that we engage fully in our duties as a citizen.
Advices and Queries 33: 1.Are you alert to practices here and throughout the world which discriminate against people on the basis of who or what they are or because of their beliefs? Bear witness to the humanity of all people, including those who break society’s conventions or its laws. Try to discern new growing points in social and economic life. Seek to understand the causes of injustice, social unrest and fear. Are you working to bring about a just and compassionate society which allows everyone to develop their capacities and fosters the desire to serve?
This advice and query is an invitation to do the inner work of reconciliation with our own emotions and attitudes that we so often refuse to acknowledge. "Bring into God’s light those emotions, attitudes and prejudices in yourself which lie at the root of destructive conflict, acknowledging your need for forgiveness and grace. In what ways are you involved in the work of reconciliation between individuals, groups and nations?"
The peace testimony is a core part of Quaker practice. How do we ensure our outer lives do not inflate war and how do we do the same in our inner lives. This Advice and Query invites and challenges us to explore how we cultivate peace.
Are you able to contemplate your death and the death of those closest to you? Accepting the fact of death, we are freed to live more fully. In bereavement, give yourself time to grieve. When others mourn, let your love embrace them.
Approach old age with courage and hope. As far as possible, make arrangements for your care in good time, so that an undue burden does not fall on others. Although old age may bring increasing disability and loneliness, it can also bring serenity, detachment and wisdom. Pray that in your final years you may be enabled to find new ways of receiving and reflecting God’s love.
Advices and Queries 28: 1.Every stage of our lives offers fresh opportunities. Responding to divine guidance, try to discern the right time to undertake or relinquish responsibilities without undue pride or guilt. Attend to what love requires of you, which may not be great busyness. Come and explore how to "attend to what love requires of you" with this gentle meditation.
1.Live adventurously. When choices arise, do you take the way that offers the fullest opportunity for the use of your gifts in the service of God and the community? Let your life speak. When decisions have to be made, are you ready to join with others in seeking clearness, asking for God’s guidance and offering counsel to one another?
Do you recognise the needs and gifts of each member of your family and household, not forgetting your own? Try to make your home a place of loving friendship and enjoyment, where all who live or visit may find the peace and refreshment of God’s presence.This beautiful advice invites to recall to mind our needs and to "try softer" to create loving friendship.
This advice and query looks so honestly at how relationships can give great joy but also be full of tensions. How do we let in the joy and allow that to nourish our lives AND explore the difficulties with discernment. Do get in touch if you would like to be a part of these podcasts on Farnham.quakermeeting.org
Centring Down is a term Quakers sometimes use to describe the process of "becoming still and cool in heart and mind". In this Advice and Query we explore what are the blockages to "love and stability" in our own minds; so that we can open more fully to the flow of love for children and their carers. If you would like to join one of these meetings please contact us on Farnham.quakermeeting.org.
If you would like to join these sessions live please email quakersfarnham@gmail.com, you would be very welcome. This evening explores the blockages to understanding each other in close relationships and the meaning of a religious commitment in a quaker marriage.
A Quaker’s approach to meditation; this exploration of Advices and Queries 22 explores cultivating an appreciation of diversity as well as forgiveness of ourselves and others.
Advice and Queries 19, Rejoice in the presence of children and young people in your meeting and recognise the gifts they bring. Remember that the meeting as a whole shares a responsibility for every child in its care. Seek for them as for yourself a full development of God’s gifts and the abundant life Jesus tells us can be ours. How do you share your deepest beliefs with them, while leaving them free to develop as the spirit of God may lead them? Do you invite them to share their insights with you? Are you ready both to learn from them and to accept your responsibilities towards them?
In advices and queries (42 short quaker passages) we are invited to "take heed". What does that feel like? What would it be like to live our lives from a more heedful place. This recording done last summer has some back ground traffic noise... I invite you to take heed of the noise and let it come and go! Warm wishes Friends!
This podcast is for people interested in Quaker spirituality and centring down. We explore an Advice and Query every month. This month we open to nurture and acceptance and the power of forgiveness. To join our monthly group email quakersfarnham@gmail.com
If you are interested in developing mindfulness to support your teaching practise contact Carolyn at Mindfulfarnham.com
Quakers use the Advices and Queries to encourage reflection. In number 17 we explore the importance of wise speech and to consider "that we might be mistaken"
This wonderful Advice invites us to move past the armouring of our defences and judgements and open to the diversity that creates a healthy meeting.
If you are interested in joining these sessions please contact QuakersFarnham@gmail.com.
This mindfulness meditation invites us to rest deeply in awareness and remember that this is always a place available to us as a refuge or a home.
This session explore Advices and Queries 13 which looks at ministry. George Fox said "What canst THOU say" How do access our inner gifts and express that in the world?
Carolyn brings "MOWS" and the Tara Brach meditation "RAIN" and fuses them for this enquiry into difficulties.
This Advice and Query invites us to include suffering as well as gratitude and joy in our experience of worship.
This month explores Advices and Queries no. 8 and what is meant by "worship", what are the blockages and to worship and how worship in a group can take us deeper than private worship.
The first seven advices are grouped together. Here we explore why they are linked and how to explore them in our bodies more. This is a guided movement meditation using some of the phrases in the first seven advices and queries.
We can so easily use harsh words to speak to ourselves. When we develop self compassion we start to cultivate a kinder inner voice.
This is a much loved Advice and Query which can lead to a deep exploration of how we experience God in our day to day lives.
Sounds can be triggering as sometimes we have very little control over the soundscape in our environment. In this meditation we can learn to allow the sounds while staying in a refuge of calm, non-reactivity.
Using the acronym RAIN we can learn to relate to our emotions with greater wisdom: R stands for Recognise how we are feeling. A stands for Allow the feeling to be there with a kind attention. I stands for Investigate; What am I believing about this situation? and N stands for Nurture; warmly appreciating our ability to be with the whole range of human experience as much as we can.
Sometimes offering ourselves kindness can be hard. This practice has so many benefits for our well being: as we cultivate a loving heart to ourselves this impacts on everyone around us too.
"Do you work gladly" is the first query of this passage. In this meditation we explore how our thoughts and beliefs about our work; whether paid or unpaid, can colour our feelings and influence our approach to our work
Our thoughts can have a powerful impact on our mood and our bodies. Being mindful of our thinking can give us the freedom to choose whether we should believe our thoughts quite so much, as Thich Naht Han said: "Our thoughts don't always have our best interests at heart."
As we practice mindfulness of emotions we can learn to observe the changing weather of our emotions with out needing to be caught by them.
This podcast explores the depths of the teachings in the Quakers' book of Advices and Queries and follows this with a guided meditation.
This is a talk followed by a meditation using Advices and Queries 4 as a way into centring down.
Loving kindness is a type of meditation which can resource us and refresh us. This short meditation starts with mindfulness of breath and body, then invites us to receive love and care so that we are resourced to love and care for others.
This month friends share together their favourite Advices and Queries and bring to life why they are such powerful teachings.
Take Ten minutes to ground and reconnect to your body to grow a sense of safety and stability in the face of challenge.
Quakers have always valued finding a way to an inner stillness. In this episode we explore Advice and Queries no. 2 as a way to find our way to stillness.
This meditation uses Advices and Queries 1 to draw us into stillness. We will use the body as an anchor for centring down and opening to compassion.