My initial interest in mindfulness began when I lived in Japan between 2000-2002, while I was doing fieldwork for my doctorate (PhD), based at anthropology department of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS, part of the University of London). I was researching Japanese martial arts (karate and kyudo, Japanese archery) at the time. Some of the philosophy of Japanese martial arts is Buddhist-influenced, and this is when I first came into contact with the ideas of mindful practice and meditation.
After completing my PhD, I have worked as a civil servant in Sheffield since 2005. I have personal experience of anxiety, which has led me to explore and read about mindfulness and compassion in more depth. Since 2016, incorporating mindfulness and compassion into my daily life has transformed the way I approach self-management of worry. Seeing colleagues under pressure at work encouraged me to start sharing what I learned about mindfulness and compassion at work. In particular, I found that encouraging a message of self-compassion really struck a chord with many colleagues, as we are often kinder to others than we are to ourselves.
Having established a personal mindfulness practice, I completed teacher training with Mindfulness UK, doing a Level 4 (foundation degree level) qualification in Integrating Mindfulness and Compassion in Professional Practice, which is accredited by the UK Counselling and Psychotherapy Central Awarding Body (CPCAB). I am listed as a qualified mindfulness teacher on the Mindfulness UK website: https://www.mindfulnessuk.com/trained-teachers-list.
I really feel that mindfulness and compassion can be individually transformative. People are often quite self-aware, but also highly self-critical, so encouraging them to be in the moment and be kinder to themselves can make a big difference. This is why I set up Mindfulkindfulness.
Dr Kristopher Chapman