Heartspace Meditation

03/11/2025

The truth about our intimate relationships is that they can never be any better than our relationship with ourselves. How we are related to ourselves determines not only the choice of the Other, but the quality of the relationship. In fact, every intimate relationship tacitly reveals who we were when we commenced it. All relationships, therefore, are symptomatic of the state of our inner life, and no relationship can be any better than our relationship to our own unconscious.

~ James Hollis

27/10/2025

A Present To Myself - Pat Ingoldsby

I have decided to slow myself down significantly this year. No more crazy rushing or panicking or hyperactive pressure. I've made a start by doing a very simple calculation. 365 days during which I shall be awake for approximately sixteen hours each day. That works out as 350,400 minutes. No matter which way you look at it that is a super-abundance of time. It's the perfect answer to give to the negative voices inside my head. "No Pat... you couldn't possibly write a new play this year... that sort of thing takes AGES!" But I've got ages, thank you very much... I've got 350,400 magnificent gilt edged minutes... I'll work it out for you in seconds if you like.
With so much time on my side this year I'm going to really experience and taste and feel every single thing that I do.
No more hurried breakfasts or gobbled dinners with one eye on my food and the other on the clock. This year it's going to be: "Good morning toast-I now propose to cover you very slowly with delicious apple jelly and then I'm going to consciously enjoy every lazy relaxed chew."
From now on I'm going to concentrate on only being as busy as I choose to be. The generally accepted consensus seems to be that unless you are rushed off you feet, up to your eyes and put to the pin of your collar, there is something very wrong with your life. Frantic, wild-eyed people keep dashing up to me and asking: "Are they keeping you busy?"... or "Busy are we?" They ask the question with manic high-energy and are only programmed to respond to a "Yes thank God" answer with "That's a good complaint!"
I never want to be so busy anymore that I don't notice morning rain on cobwebs, a snail wandering up the side of my house and heading towards the roof, a baby trying to catch its own toes. This year, armed with my bounty of over 350 thousand minutes I'm going to pause and say: "Good morning spider, thank you for weaving such silver perfection outside my front door. Hello there snail... I hope you enjoy the view when you get to the top. If you look over towards the two big red chimneys you should be able to see Dun Laoghaire from here."
It's been a long time now since I climbed a tree... so I'm going to. I'm going to get the 42 bus out to Malahide and find a nice easy one. When I get to the top I'm going to stay there for a while and listen and I'm not coming down again until I hear a seagull scream.
It's been many years now since I rolled down a hill... so I'm going to. I'm going to put on some old clothes and get a bus out to Bushy Park because my sister tells me there are some brilliant hills out there... she has actually tested them.
I've made a list of all my 'It's been a long times' and I'm going to have great fun doing them all again... once or twice or even three times. I'm going to hold a shell up to my ear and listen to the ocean, reach through the autumn leaves and kick them high up into the air, buy a quarter pound of clove sweets and really take my time over each one. I'm going to fly a coloured kite on Dollymount Strand and if anyone asks me for a go I might let them hold the string for a while but not for too long. I'm going to build sandcastles and stick a white feather into the top of each one, dig a tunnel and watch the sea filling it up, press the little bubbles on seaweed and hear them going pop, stand on my head and see if the money falls out of my pockets... I've got so many exciting 'It's been a long times' on my list and I've got loads of glorious time in which to do them all again.
I read last year in the Farming Supplement of a daily paper that there are 1.4 million pigs in Ireland. I can't remember when I last saw one so I'm going to see a pig... if the farmer lets me I'm also going to hold a tiny chicken in my hand, milk a cow, pet a donkey and actually watch a cockerel doing his 'Cock-a-doodle-do'. That is something I have never seen. I suspect that they only ever do it when nobody is looking so I'm going to cover my eyes and pretend.
I signed a receipt on the first day of this year... "Received with thanks... the gift of 350,400 minutes." Now I'm going to live them. 💜

20/10/2025

Our Winter Chill weekly guided meditation series is back. I'm so thrilled to invite you to these beautiful sessions. We moved through Winter 2024 together in community live on Zoom each week. The connection and sense of belonging was incredibly moving and nurturing.

Some of the lovely feedback included:

🌟 I was worried the Winter months would be lonely and dark but Winter Chill was the light at the beginning of each week that helped me through grief and what would have been a much more difficult time without our weekly meditation together.

🌟 I never imagined I would feel such a connection with other people over Zoom but I did! It was so lovely to be joined by people all over Ireland and further afield too.

🌟 These weekly sessions because an essential part of my week.

🌟 The Winter months can be a tough time. Winter Chill made it feel more fulfilling.

🌟 It was amazing how much you could get to know people online.

If you're interested in joining us please get in touch with me on WhatsApp 0862150157.

Investment is €100 for all 3 months or €40 pay as you go per month.

If you are struggling financially please reach out to me.

Thanks everyone and I'm looking forward to meditating together soon.

Babs 😊🙏

15/10/2025

"The dogs I know have more soul, more heart, more love, more connection, more patience, and more softness than any human I’ve ever met. They don’t ask for anything—no explanations, no justifications. They just stay, steady and sure, as if they’ve always known what you need before you do.

People complicate love. They wrap it in conditions, dress it in expectations. Dive it towards pain and disappointment. A dog doesn’t do that. Their love is raw, honest, and without strings. Without complications. They see you—not the version you show the world, but the one you keep buried. And they love that version most of all.

I’ve met plenty of people, but none have ever matched the soft, gentle loyalty of a dog. They don’t try to fix you; they just sit beside you, whole and true. Through thick and thin. And that’s more than most humans will ever understand."

~ R.M. Drake

12/10/2025

Sometimes we unconsciously, unwittingly, and unintentionally become warriors of our ancestral past by “seeking”.
Seeking betterment because we have to, to survive.
Seeking solace in beauty because we have to, to have inner peace.
Seeking safety because we need it and deserve it.

Healing is cleaning up old “stuff” passed down from many generations but “Healing also
means taking an honest look at the role you play in our own suffering”

~ unknown

03/10/2025

There really was no one else quite like you. Thank you for sharing your beautiful mind and heart with us. Your wisdom was gentle and profound. You are everywhere now. Rest in peace 🙏🥺💔💜

19/09/2025

WHY DO WE WANT TO BE SEEN?
(It’s not for validation.)

There’s a deep ache many of us carry. A quiet hunger. Not loud, not attention-seeking… but ancient. It moves beneath our service, our offerings, even our silence. A pulse beneath the surface:
“See me.”

But what is this, really?
Is it neediness? Ego? Childhood wounding?

Sometimes, yes.
But not always.
Sometimes, it’s the soul.

Because to be truly seen not through projection or persona, but in essence is to collapse a veil that has separated us from the truth of who we are.
It’s not about recognition. It’s about remembrance.
It’s not about being liked. It’s about being mirrored into wholeness.

We want to be seen because there are parts of us from other lives, other lands, other roles that were never witnessed.
Not when they burned.
Not when they healed.
Not when they spoke.
Not when they died.

We carry songs we never got to finish.
Codes we never got to pass on.
Truths we died for, silently.
Temples we left in flames, not knowing if anyone would ever remember.

And so now, in this life, we write. We post. We speak. We offer.
And sometimes the trembling underneath isn’t about “being enough” in the social sense it’s about “being real” in the soul sense.

“Will anyone recognize me this time?”
“Will I still be silenced?”
“If I open my voice, will the field betray me again?”

When you hear someone say “I just want to be seen”, look closer. They may be carrying a fragment of a forgotten world.
A Magdalene who never got to testify.
A masculine protector who stayed in shadow.
A child who knew too much.
A seer who was too accurate.
A priestess who survived but alone.

Being seen truly is a form of healing.
Not flattery.
Integration.

To be seen is to become visible to yourself, finally, through the eyes of another who carries the harmonic to hold it.
It’s not about being on stage.
It’s about being in resonance.
It’s about being received where you were once rejected.

When we say: “I see you” and we mean it we’re collapsing separation.
We’re reaching through timelines and lifting a version of someone out of exile.

This is why it feels so sacred.
This is why the longing hurts.
This is why we ache when it doesn’t come.
And this is why we must keep offering it not to everyone, but to the ones whose memory crosses ours in the field.
Even once.

To be seen is to be remembered.
To remember is to return.
To return is to become whole again.

We don’t want fame.
We want witness.

We don’t want followers.
We want mirrors.

We don’t want to be validated.
We want to be real across lifetimes.

And when someone truly sees you…
You’ll feel the ache ease.
Not because they gave you anything but because they returned something you’d forgotten was yours.

~ Aurion

14/09/2025

"Letting there be room for not knowing is the most important thing of all. When there's a big disappointment, we don't know if that's the end of the story. It may just be the beginning of a great adventure. Life is like that. We don't know anything. We call something bad; we call it good. But really we just don't know.”

~ Pema Chodron

15/08/2025

Looking forward to another special evening at the DSC in Swords 🙏💜

Join us for our evening of relaxation with Babs Leonard of Heartspace Meditation on August 28th at 7:30pm. Take some time for yourself and enjoy our self care night in our amazing Zen Den💙🧘‍♀️ RSVP to triona@downsyndromecentre.ie

05/08/2025

I am grateful for the scar
that I finally stopped covering ~

the one that taught me
how to dance in the sacred field
where my regret ends
and self-love begins ~~

my dearest one,
maybe some of our wounds
weren’t meant to vanish,

but to become
a quiet radio station
tucked under our ribs

broadcasting to anyone
within earshot
of our hip-swaying healing

a faint dive bar slow-dance dirge
playing over and over that’s called:

“I am still here.”

~ john roedel

04/08/2025

Sincere heartfelt thanks to Ciaran for such a powerful, truthful and heartfelt review. Ciaran took my meditation course in June and it was a truly beautiful experience. I look forward to so many more meditations together. Thank you Ciaran. I really am so totally moved to hear how many healing and impactful benefits you are getting from your daily meditation practice.