Andy Puddicombe

Man behind meditation app goes from monk to millionaire

wildmind meditation newsNilufer Atik, The Telegraph: How a meditation app brought mindfulness to the masses, and success to its creator.

“We all need to get a little head space” – it’s a catchphrase that has become ingrained into the psyches of more than a million people worldwide. And it’s all thanks to the quiet ambition of one man who wanted to help stressed-out executives achieve more calm. A few years on and the app to which the phrase belongs – Headspace – has not only transformed the lives of those who use it, but also that of its founder, Andy Puddicombe.

Bristol-born Andy set up …

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Headspace: meditation for the modern age

Meg Pruce, Time Out: In the daily hustle and bustle of London, it’s tough to find the time to stop, kick back and actually relax. It’s become almost impossible to put down our smartphones, tablets or any snazzy device which demands attention at all hours of the day. If we can’t escape our frenetic lifestyles, then ways to relax must come to us. Thankfully for our poor overloaded brains, the meditation gurus at Headspace have cannily acknowledged this gap in the market. The social enterprise project aims to bring meditation bang up-to-date, by offering short guided lessons in how to take a moment…

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Free your mind

I meet Andy Puddicombe, meditation guru to Premier League footballers, cabinet ministers and leading actors, in a sparsely decorated room in a London clinic. It’s the sort of place you go to discuss bunions, not the meaning of life. Yet Puddicombe is soon imparting wisdom gleaned from several years as a Buddhist monk, and guiding me through a meditation. The meditation lasts for only 10 minutes, and during it I find my mind meandering through my to-do lists, yet, when I open my eyes, I feel calm and focused – as if the insides of my head have been spring-cleaned.

Over the years, a body of research has built up extolling the many benefits of meditation. Most recently the Mental Health Foundation said the NHS should prescribe meditation routinely for depression (at the moment only 1 in 20 GPs do). Scientific studies have shown that meditation – specifically, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), an NHS-approved, secular version of Buddhist mind-training – is at least as effective as antidepressants. Regular meditation can enlarge the parts of the brain that control emotion and reach right into the mind and strengthen it.

Yet even though most of us are aware of the benefits, we’re often deterred by a myriad confusing options about where to learn meditation, as well as an inability actually to find the time to practise it. This is a situation Puddicombe is determined to change. “Outside of a religious or spiritual community there is not much available. Transcendental Meditation comes from a Hindu tradition and some are uncomfortable with that. Then there are Buddhist centres, which are great as you can get meditation for free or for a small donation, but a lot of people also find the religious context off-putting. Within the school of mindfulness there are places where people can do secular courses, yet these are presented in a therapeutic way – and not everybody is up for therapy.”

Yesterday Puddicombe held his first group meditation event for Headspace, a not-for-profit organisation he has set up. Its guiding principle is to provide simple meditation tools to as many people as possible. Puddicombe has also recorded 10 exclusive meditations for the Sunday Times website, each tailored to a specific problem, and now available to access for free. “In and of itself there is nothing religious about meditation. If I am able to present it as more of a life skill, then that will be more relevant to most people. My message is that meditation is not necessarily about sitting on the floor cross-legged and chanting for hours. I say to people, just take 10 minutes out of your day to do a simple breathing technique and you will see big results.” Puddicombe was a student when he left England, aged 22. “I had a number of difficult situations to deal with: my stepsister was killed in a car accident, my ex-girlfriend died having heart surgery, and I was involved in an accident where a couple of my friends were killed. It left me asking some big questions, the sort of questions that a pint of Tetley’s down the pub with my friends wasn’t going to answer.”

For the next few years he travelled between monasteries in Tibet and Thailand, often going into year-long retreats where he would rise at 2.30am and practise 15 to 18 hours a day of meditation. “I learnt how to have humility. A lot of people have a romantic view of going away and living in a monastery, but you crave those distractions, and all you are left with is yourself. It’s painful, it’s humbling, you see the madness and the difficulty that everyone is going through in life, but you come

to a greater acceptance. Rather than chasing after elusive happiness, I was able to sit back and see it’s actually already there.” When he was ordained, he was sent to teach at a Buddhist centre in Moscow. “I began to realise that the whole bald-headed, skirt-wearing thing didn’t work for everyone. You don’t necessarily take robes for life, and I decided it might be more effective to teach meditation as a lay person.”

Puddicombe, now 37, was taken under the wing of a vice-president of BP to whom he had taught meditation in Moscow, who gave him the means to set up Headspace in the UK. Since then he has built up an impressive roster of private and NHS clients, and there is now an eight-month waiting list to see him. He believes that meditation really helps with profound issues, and people come to him at the clinic with a huge variety of problems. “I see people with anxiety, depression, issues of anger, insomnia and addictive behaviour. The bottom line is that most of these things are driven by really strong habitual patterns of thought. Yes, of course they stem from difficult times in people’s lives, but what keeps them going is not being able to step out of that pattern.”

Meditation, says Puddicombe, allows you to become aware of those negative patterns and therefore step out of them. It can also ease milder complaints, increasing a general sense of wellbeing and reducing stress. As I leave his clinic with a smile on my face, I can well believe it.

[via Times Online]
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Stress: Seven steps to an inner calm

The Times: (Andy Puddicombe) Just seven steps, implemented each day can help you find your way to peace and tranquility

Take 10 minutes out each day

This is a simple, basic meditation that is best done at the start of the day. Find a quiet place where you can sit without being disturbed.

Take a couple of deep breaths and close your eyes. Become aware of your senses: the feelings in the body, the sounds and the smells around you.

Don’t think about them, simply notice them.

Next become aware of the breath.

You don’t need to breathe in any special way, just notice how the rising and falling movement of the breath feels in the body. Each time the mind wanders, gently bring it back to that same point of focus — the rising and falling sensation of the breath.

Make it a daily exercise

A bit like learning any new skill, meditation works best when you do it regularly and often. It doesn’t have to be at the same time every day, but you may well find it easier to stick to this way.

Be conscious of what you’re doing

We live on auto-pilot, especially when we do things that we have done thousands of times before — brushing your teeth or drinking a cup of tea, for example.

Choose just one of these activities to be fully conscious of each day.

Rather than let the mind wander off into worrying, planning or thinking about things, notice what it feels like to actually drink a cup of tea. What does it taste, feel and smell like? It’s amazing how much we miss because we are simply lost in thought.

Resist the urge to control the mind

When we first become aware of the constant chatter of our thoughts, we try to “stop thinking”, which is impossible. Focus instead on being at ease with whatever is happening in the mind. If it’s busy, OK, it’s busy. Resist the temptation to try to control it. If you feel irritated or upset, that’s just how it is sometimes. Don’t fight it. Let thoughts come, acknowledge them and let them go. By allowing thoughts and feelings to flow in this way, they are usually much more short-lived.

Shift the focus from ‘me’ to ‘you’

Have you ever noticed that the more you focus on your own problems, the bigger they seem to get? Take a moment to reflect on those people close to you who might also be having a tough time with things right now. How are they feeling? This simple exercise helps to put your own difficulties into perspective and to develop empathy and understanding towards that other person.

Ease off the gas

If you look at the best sportsmen and women, they seem to play with a sublime lack of effort. Roger Federer, the tennis player, is one of the best examples of this. Trying harder does not mean performing better — often it’s just the opposite. By approaching everyday activities in a slightly more relaxed and measured way, things not only will become more enjoyable, but also will be done that much better.

Take practical steps

When life becomes so busy that you hardly have time to breathe, it’s unrealistic to expect a lot of headspace.

If it’s possible, try to simplify life a little. Look for ways to reduce the amount you’re doing, or ways of doing it more effectively. Similarly, if you have lots of thoughts racing around your mind, take a couple of minutes to write them down. This can help to free up the hard drive, and at least give a feeling of additional space in the mind.

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