• Log in / Register
  • FOR THERAPISTS
  • Find a therapist

    • Articles by Nick Duerden

    Nick Duerden

    Nick Duerden

    Nick Duerden is a writer and freelance arts journalist, and has contributed to The Independent, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Magazine and Esquire. He is the author of The Reluctant Fathers' Club. [email protected]; @Nick_Duerden

    Categories

    Discovering Vedic Meditation
    04Mar

    Discovering Vedic Meditation
    Nick Duerden
    meditation
    Soul
    It's early on a Thursday evening, and I'm standing alongside a man I have just met, Will Williams, in his smart Shad Thames apartment. We are in front of a photograph of Guru Dev, one of the masters of the Vedic tradition, and Will has his eyes closed while singing something in Sanskrit and offering the gifts I was encouraged to bring - three pieces of fruit, a bunch of thornless flowers - to the guru. As he sings, I steel a glance at Will. His eyes are closed, and he looks utterly serene. Will himself does not resemble what we in the west think of as a "guru". He is...
    » Read More
    Musical Meditation: Discovering LifeFlow
    27Feb

    Musical Meditation: Discovering LifeFlow
    Nick Duerden
    meditation, music
    Soul
    A few months ago now, I came across an audio meditation practice called LifeFlow, the conjoining of the two words presumably designed to illustrate the effortless link that should exist within all of us in the ideal world we all wish to inhabit. "You can allow this scientifically proven audio technology to bring your whole life into perfect harmony and feel peace of mind today!" read the aggressively motivational website blurb, employing, as these things invariably do, a proliferation of exclamation marks in pursuit of blanket persuasion. "YES!" it went on in...
    » Read More
    How to Meditate: Discovering Headspace
    13Feb

    How to Meditate: Discovering Headspace
    Nick Duerden
    meditation, mindfulness
    Soul
    In his book Headspace: 10 Minutes Can Make All The Difference, Andy Puddicombe writes: "This is meditation, but not as you know it. There's no chanting, no sitting cross-legged, no need for any particular beliefs… and definitely no gurus." This, then, is  Meditation 2.0,  aiming to free the practice from its hippy associations . Puddicombe is mindfulness's first poster boy, a former monk and  circus trainer, who boasts good bone structure and an Abercrombie & Fitch dress sense. The New York Times has already suggested he is "doing for meditation what Jamie...
    » Read More
    Meditation: My Journey Begins
    27Jan

    Meditation: My Journey Begins
    Nick Duerden
    meditation, stress
    Soul
    I have never had much time in my life for peace or quiet, and have never really craved either. My mind is a happy hive of perpetual activity, everything churning away up there all the time, day and night. My wife points out, with reason, that I never sit still, never stop. At night, I dream of work, and on holidays, thanks to technology, I take it with me. In sleep, I grind my teeth. The RSI I developed 20 years ago was put down to overwork, poor posture, bad habits, a lack of inner calm. My solution was to start swimming, every day. I swam fast, faster than people in...
    » Read More