About Robert

Since 2013, I have taught thousands of students mindfulness and meditation online and in person. I also run classes, courses, retreats, and workshops for the public and many organisations.

I teach in organisations of all kinds, including local community organisations, the NHS (since 2015), and many others.

Before Mindfulness

I took up meditation in 1988 with a Zen meditation technique called 'mindfulness and awareness of in and out breathing'. It didn't become a regular practice, but I used meditation to help to get to sleep for 20 years.

The Tipping Point

In 2009 I found myself in yet another high-pressure job. Managing the stress that resulted had become increasingly difficult. My mind was always on the future. The present moment was something to get out of the way quickly so I could achieve my goals.

"Life became about the next pay rise, job, relationship, holiday, or experience."

A New Perspective

In late 2009, I picked up a book called 'The Power of Now' by Eckhart Tolle. The concepts I learned changed my life. I learned for the first time that: I was not my thoughts, I was not my emotions, and that the present moment is all we ever have.

I realised there was an alternative to how I felt and thought. The feeling of liberation was immense. I now viewed the world from an entirely different perspective. I had discovered the present moment.

Transformation

I studied neuroscience, cognitive psychology, social psychology and behavioural economics. I read spiritual books and attended meditation classes. I listened to spiritual teachers and practised Presence in my day.

Meditating in solitude taught me that I could observe my inner experience. I began to become familiar with thought and emotion and learned what my beliefs were. Using this new set of tools, I worked through the beliefs limiting my happiness.

Sharing the Practice

As my practice deepened, something became very clear to me: what I was learning wasn't just helping me cope with life, it was transforming how I lived it. I felt a strong pull to share this with others.

In 2013, some friends asked me to teach them meditation, which I began to do at my home. This soon grew into running small meditation classes in a room at a local church. They were simple, practical, and rooted in real life. The same approach that had helped me. Slowly, word spread. More people came. What started as a handful of sessions grew into something much bigger.

Over the years, I've taught around five thousand classes and worked with many thousands of students. What I'm most proud of isn't the numbers, but the thriving mindful meditation community that has formed. A number of us have been meditating together for all that 13 years.

Teaching mindfulness isn't something I do instead of practicing, it's an extension of it.