Old Blog | Dyana Wells

Mindfulness and the Prefrontal Cortex

by Dyana Wells | Oct 10, 2019 | Buddhist Psychology, Integration, Meditation, Mindfulness, Psychology

A lot of us have heard about mindfulness and its possible benefits. Recently I have learned a few interesting things about the brain that have made the benefits of mindfulness meditation even clearer to me. Meditation produces a thickening of the prefrontal cortex –...

Introducing Kum Nye – Moving Meditation

by Dyana Wells | Oct 3, 2019 | Anatomy & Physiology, Integration, Kum Nye, Meditation, Mindfulness

I have been a student of Kum Nye for over thirty years, and I still love the simplicity and effectiveness of this practice. It comes from Tibet and was brought to the west by Tarthang Tulku in the 1970s. It has never become widely popular, which is a mystery to me,...

The Four Noble Truths and Modern Life

by Dyana Wells | Sep 26, 2019 | Buddhist Psychology, Integration, Meditation, Mindfulness, Psychology

The relevance of Buddha’s four noble truths in our modern lives The fundamental and most important teachings of the Buddha are disarmingly simple. There is suffering There is a cause of suffering There is an end of suffering There is a way to the end of suffering. It...

Mindfulness and Buddhist Psychology

by Dyana Wells | Sep 19, 2019 | Integration, Meditation, Mindfulness, Psychology

Have we reduced Buddhist psychology to mindfulness training? What might have been lost in the translation? The core teaching of the Buddha has always about how to reduce human suffering. The freedom or liberation his teachings refer to is freedom from suffering. It...

The Body as an Intelligent, Sensitive, Living Organism

by Dyana Wells | Sep 12, 2019 | Anatomy & Physiology, Integration, Meditation, Mindfulness, Somatics

Somatics and somatic movement classes grew out of Feldenkrais, and developed alongside new research into neuromuscular reprogramming. Somatics is based on the principle of neuroplasticity – the understanding that the brain is continually remodelling itself in response...

The Symphonic Body

by Dyana Wells | Jun 5, 2019 | Anatomy & Physiology, Integration, Mindfulness, Somatics

Reflections arising from a Somatics Practice Part 3 – The Symphonic Body The skeletal structure of the body is an intriguing confusion of so many curves and angles and knobbly bits. In particular I find the pelvic bone almost impossible to visualise internally – it...

How much of my body is my friend?

by Dyana Wells | May 11, 2019 | Anatomy & Physiology, Integration, Mindfulness, Somatics

Reflections arising from a Somatics Practice Part 2 – How much of my body is my friend? When I started somatics I was stunned to realise that I couldn’t directly sense much of my physical body. I didn’t have any direct feeling for it at all. This was after a lifetime...

My Relationship to My Body

by Dyana Wells | Apr 18, 2019 | Anatomy & Physiology, Integration, Mindfulness, Somatics

Reflections arising from a Somatics Practice Part 1 – My relationship to my Body Do I see it simply as a body-vehicle I can use to do what my mind wants? Is it something to manipulate according to my will and ideas and desires. Is this body a source of pain or...

Awakening the Sacred Body

by Dyana Wells | Mar 20, 2019 | Meditation, Mindfulness

Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche is a teacher of and writer about Tibetan Bon and Dzogchen. He is Tibetan and grew up studying in India. I have been reading his books avidly over the last month, with a couple more about to arrive from Book Depository. On a recent short retreat...