Soul Searching and Finding: 5 Books of Self-discovery
Is there anything better than reading a book that deeply flavours your life, if only for a while? I can almost connect the dots of my journey – by the books, films or stories which informed me at different times. They’ve boosted me out of slumps, expanded my...
Brené Brown Quotes to inspire your Day
(Image credit: Brene Brown) It would be somewhat surprising if you haven’t yet heard of Brené Brown. A mother, research professor, storyteller, and author, Brené has dedicated her career to exploring themes like vulnerability, courage, empathy, and shame. Grounded and...
How to start meditating regularly (and stick to it!)
Meditation is a practice that we’ve either heard of, or know is good for us. People have been practicing it for centuries to seek calm, wisdom, and compassion. Science has also found many health benefits to meditating regularly: More self-awareness Reduces stress and...
6 alternatives to meditation to help you feel calmer and grounded
Here’s how to experience the benefits of meditation without sitting in a quiet room…
You’ve completed a silent retreat.. Now what? Five ways to bring mindfulness back home
Completed a silent retreat? Here are five things you can do to help hold onto some of the mindfulness magic your experienced!
Starting a ‘Sit Spot’ practice
As humans, our connection to nature is key to our sense of peace, contentment, creativity, health… you name it. Yet, as we move through the hustle and bustle of our lives, evoking stillness in nature can start to feel like a faraway dream. The answer: a Sit Spot. Sit...
A tech-free weekend: Where meditation and mindfulness leads to a little magic.
A guest & writer details her silent retreat experience and is surprised at how impactful this tech-free retreat is.
Make each morning a ritual
One of the most profound tips I’ve ever heard is: to set an intentional morning ritual. Annie Dillard once famously said ‘how we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.’ This might seem simple, but try stay with it for a moment. Given that each of our...
Winter is our warmest season in the Blue Mountains…
Inspired from a recent newsletter we sent out, we wanted to remind you that winter is our warmest season at our Blue Mountains retreat!
How to create your own DIY retreat experience
We’ve all been there; that point in time when life is asking (or demanding!) us to pause, rest and recharge our energy. Naturally, here at Happy Buddha – we’ll be the first to advocate the power in wellness retreats… but sometimes a getaway is simply not on the...
Direct from a participant: The Stillness of the Mind
A candid and thoughtful account of what it’s like to participate in Journey into Stillness silent meditation retreat. The Stillness of the Mind by Leah Burton.
Autumn and learning to let go
Updated March 2022 Letting go. It’s a gentle, soft sounding idiom that floats frequently from the quiet lips of yin yoga teachers, weaves itself through the texts of ancient yogis and spiritual teachers, and has no doubt made an appearance or two on your social media...
The power of essential oils
We’ve all been here. That place where we want to relax, but our minds decide to race onwards instead. One beautiful antidote for such situations is aromatherapy;  the art of using essential oils to shift energy and support healing. As humans, our sense of smell...
Emptying the bucket: a practice for peace
As a society, stigma around the practice of sharing our emotional and mental realms seems to be fading. Wonderfully – we’re starting to open up about personal struggles and mental health issues, with more vulnerability than ever. It’s no understatement to say...
Intuition: turn up your Inner Voice
Some of us hear our inner voice loud and clear. We make aligned decisions quickly and seamlessly. On the other hand, some of us have the opposite experience. We struggle to know what we truly think, want or don’t want. What has happened here is that we’ve silenced our...
Mindfulness Makes You More Creative
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if creative ideas flowed effortlessly any time we needed them? Unfortunately, for most of us this is not the reality. We often feel stuck, replaying the same situations in our minds again and again with the same results (or lack of results)....
Take a Break From Adulting: The Importance of Play
‘We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.’ – George Bernard Shaw The world of adulting is one we’re all pretty familiar with. We’ve all caught ourselves getting excited about cutlery sets, new sheet covers and...
Journey into Stillness: The Power of Silence
‘Silence is not the absence of sound, but the presence of an inward-listening awareness.’ – Maria Popova In this day and age, many of us are excessively surrounded by noise. We’re being exposed to news, entertainment and a constant stream of technological...
Mid-year Motivation: Books to Inspire Momentum
It seems as though time is flying… but can you believe we’re already just over halfway through the year? It’s time to re-examine those New Year’s resolutions, and to take a look at how you’re tracking. It’s time to pat yourself on the back, as well as to...
Reset Your Intentions for the Rest of the Year
It seems like only yesterday that we were celebrating the start of this year and planning for a happier, healthier and more prosperous New Year. Here we are now, past the halfway point. We’ve all experienced some successes and some failures. We’ve stayed true to some...
What if You Have What You Want? – The Power of Contentment
So many of us move through life at a pace that we ourselves can barely keep up with. We focus on our desires or next steps – and lose sight of what is actually here right now. When we live our lives this way, contentment becomes an unattainable goal: a receding...
Ayurveda: the Science of Life
‘Through Ayurveda you will discover all the forces of Nature working within you, and that you yourself are a replica of the cosmos…’ – David Frawley Ayurveda, or the ‘science of life’ is the five thousand year old Vedic natural healing system of India. As we...
Intuitive Eating: Bringing Love back Into Our Diets
Each one of us has a unique awareness of our own experience. We each have a beautiful, powerful sense of intuition – a gut feeling about what is right or wrong for us. Whether or not we follow this guidance system is up to us. Learning how to intuitively eat is...Destination Happiness
Happy Buddha is on TV!Talk about happiness!! In the midst of winter a film crew retreated with us and here’s the final result. We can’t thank Angie Hilton and the crew from Destination Happiness enough for having a laugh and experiencing what it’s...
Easy Ways to Reduce Stress Right Now
Unfortunately it sometimes feels like life gets the better of us. There’s just too much to do, not enough time and we don’t seem to be getting any closer to our goals. But the thing is, there’s no need to wait until the weekend, or your next Christmas break to feel...
Nurturing your Inner Child through Music and Movement
Is there anything more endearing than watching a baby bop up and down to a tune on the radio? As humans, we are born with an innate joyful response to music. We naturally tap our feet, hands and bob our heads when a good song comes on. But somewhere along the way we...
Why Yoga? – A Lifelong Inner and Outer Journey
The popular book ‘Fitness Is a Religion’ might have a daunting title, but it certainly contains some truths. It raises a few interesting and transformative ideas – the central one being; ‘Fitness is a religion, a way of life rooted in the deeply held conviction that...
Ignite Your Spirit
“IGNITE YOUR SPIRIT” ~ Our new tagline. But what does this mean, we hear you ask? Do you want me to set myself of fire, I hear you ask? Well, not literally, but metaphorically, YES! Come sit down with us beside our beautiful cosy Happy Buddha fireplace and...
Getting Grounded
When you’re feeling grounded, you’re like a big, strong tree rooted firmly into the earth. Fierce winds may ruffle your crown, and you might even lose a few leaves and branches. But still, you remain standing – and your life force helps you to recover quickly...Self-discovery starts here >> Silent Meditation Retreat
Recent good vibes!
