🔭 The Present Perspective Newsletter

🪞 Your Relationship with Meditation Reflects Your Relationship with Your Life

So often we treat meditation—and our life—as something to “get right,” as though peace depends on achieving the perfect state. But real freedom arises when we allow ourselves and our life to be exactly as they are.

“The real meditation practice is life itself … The real meditation practice never stops … The real meditation is how you live your life moment to moment.” — Jon Kabat-Zinn

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Dear Reader

Our relationship with meditation reveals our relationship with our life.
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If we approach meditation as something to get right, it reflects an attitude of trying to get life 'right'.
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This in turn indicates an underlying—and often unconscious—belief there is something wrong with life in the first place.
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We can spend a whole lifetime trying to get life right.

We can also spend a whole lifetime trying to get meditation right.
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Authentic meditation—real mindfulness—is a letting go of the need to get anything right.
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It is an encounter with ourselves and our life exactly as they are.
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It is an act of kind attention and allowance. This is a practice of unconditional love.
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Our love is not conditional on anything being right.
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We give up the need to change anything, including ourselves, and surrender into this moment.

We devote ourselves to simply sitting quietly, undistracted, with our moment-to-moment experience.

Over time, we fall in love with the practice itself.
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Again—here—our practice reveals our relationship with life.
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We fall in love with ourselves, with life, and with love itself.

​➕ Taming an Angry Mind – Mindfulness Plus Workshop​

Learn fresh mindfulness tools to help you respond rather than react.
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In this workshop you’ll discover practical techniques to calm your nervous system, express your needs in healthy ways and explore the deeper emotions that often sit beneath anger, such as feeling hurt or anxious.

• Learn how to recognise your anger cues before they escalate.
• Learn techniques to calm your mind and approach life with patience and compassion.
• Increase your capacity for calmer communication and more balanced relationships.

This workshop includes a practical workbook that explains the neuroscience of anger and gives a step-by-step guide to pause, reset and respond.

Date: Wednesday, 8 October 2025
​Time: 6.30pm – 7.30pm AEDT
​Price: $20 standard ticket. $35 VIP ticket (includes recording)
​Facilitator: Nat Mallia
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🧘‍♀️ Mini Mindfulness Exercise: The Mirror of Awareness

1. Find a quiet spot and sit comfortably. Imagine holding a mirror in front of you. This mirror reflects not your face, but the truth of your inner experience.
2. For a minute, notice what appears in the mirror: thoughts, feelings, sensations. Allow each to be reflected just as it is, without judgement.
3. Now soften your gaze and let the mirror widen. Notice how everything—comfort, discomfort, stillness, restlessness—is held in the same open reflection. Nothing needs to be altered for it to belong.
4. Rest in the realisation: You don’t need to fix the reflection. You only need to witness it with kindness.

Why this helps:​
This practice shows us that meditation is not about correcting or perfecting, but about seeing clearly and lovingly. Like a mirror, awareness does not select or reject; it simply reflects what is true, and in doing so, brings peace.

🏫 Intro to Mindfulness Courses and Workshops​

Reduce anxiety, improve sleep and increase self-acceptance with mindfulness.
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These Intro to Mindfulness and Meditation courses and workshops are designed for absolute beginners and are offered by certified Mindfulness Works mindfulness teachers.

Queensland

​Bulimba – 30 September​

​Buderim – 11 November​
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Online and Live

​Online and live - Monday, 3 November​
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🏡 Coming Home to Yourself – 7-Day Silent Meditation Retreat, Healesville: 11 – 17 Feb, 2026​

A retreat for self-belonging and love. First release tickets available now!

Step into a world of calm, depth and self-love. Experience an environment of safety, silence, beauty and natural ease.

Now is the time to truly come home to yourself.
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Experience a precious and profound opportunity to embrace yourself fully and unconditionally.
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Located in the serene setting of Maitripa Retreat Centre, Healesville, this retreat provides an exceptional chance for self-love, self-forgiveness and self-acceptance.
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“A fantastic retreat to reconnect with self led by two very skilled facilitators.” — Lisa Shortridge

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This fully immersive, 7-day meditation retreat, led by Karl Baker, and Stephen Archer is a deeply transformational, yet gentle experience suitable for absolute beginners as well as experienced meditators.
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​Book your place now now with a $500 deposit.​
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Teachers: Karl Baker and Stephen Archer
​Location: Maitripa Retreat Centre, Healesville, Vic
​Dates: Wednesday, 11 Feb – Tuesday, 17 Feb, 2026.
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🏢 Workplace Mindfulness Training

Nationwide in-person or online mindfulness training for workplaces.
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– Build team mental and emotional resilience.
– Improve mental fitness.
– Practical strategies for reducing burnout.
– Enhance team communication and connection.

​Get a customised program and free quote.
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🤔 Mindful Check-In. When do you most need to be right?

Sometimes noticing the little moments when we need to be right is the easiest way to spot our habits of mind.
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The good news is that the world rarely ends if someone misquotes a movie or insists on the wrong directions.
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Catching ourselves in these moments can be playful—and it reminds us that peace, humour and connection often feel much better than being right.

📝 Mindful Meme of The Week

📩 Ideas? Comments? Complaints?

​Respond to this email.