My Mission & Philosophy
“I have practiced mindfulness for 25 years. I aim to make this valuable practice accessible and jargon-free."

Padraig O'Morain

I have practised mindfulness since the late 1980s, have taught mindfulness throughout Ireland and in London, have demonstrated mindfulness on ITV, RTE and TV3 and have had books on mindfulness published in several countries and several languages. My aim is to make mindfulness easily accessible to people in their everyday lives.

When I began to practise mindfulness, not many people had heard of it in the West. At the time people were expected to do long meditations every day which didn’t always fit in with the pace of life. Instead I prefer to use simple mindfulness approaches  to help me be mindful during the day and to get the benefits of this truly beneficial practice. This ‘easy mindfulness’ approach, which has been the subject of Mindfulness on the Go and my other mindfulness books, is what I will pass on to you.

Padraig_O_Morain_pic About
What I do

I teach mindfulness to people who want to build this practice into their daily lives. My focus is on helping people to integrate mindfulness easily into what they do, even if they don’t set time aside for 20 min (or longer) meditations.

Who I have presented workshops and courses for:

  • Accenture
  • Accord
  • Actavo
  • Association of Garda Superintendents
  • Belvedere College
  • DHL
  • Employee Assistance Professionals Association
  • Enable Ireland
  • Ervia (Gas Networks Ireland & Irish Water)
  • Etsy
  • Festina Lente
  • Forensic Science Laboratory
  • Garda Diversion Programme
  • Generali PanEurope (video)
  • Glenville Nutrition Ireland (audios)
  • HSE
  • Institute of Guidance Counsellors
  • Institute of Integrative Counselling and Psychotherapy
  • Irish Congress of Trade Unions
  • Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy
  • Irish Dental Association
  • Irish Medical Organisation
  • Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation
  • Kildare County Council (Library service)
  • Marine Rescue Service (Canadian Helicopter Corporation)
  • Medical Council
  • Mergon
  • MS Ireland
  • National Learning Networks
  • National Union of Journalists
  • NUI Maynooth
  • Rehabcare
  • Relationships Ireland
  • Riversdale Community College
  • School Chaplains’ Association
  • Smurfit Business School (UCD)
  • St James’s Hospital
  • Suicide or Survive
  • Tallaght Hospital
  • TBWA
  • TEEU
  • The Law Society
  • The Pensions Board
  • Tolka Area Partnership
  • Trinity College Dublin
  • Trinity College Dublin Medical School
  • Verizon
  • Ward
The background

How it all started

I began to practice mindfulness on a sunny Dublin afternoon in the 1980s. During my lunch break I had bought a book on meditation and I had read two paragraphs on mindfulness.

I tried it out and I liked how I felt. Later that afternoon, I abandoned my desk in The Irish Times – not an unusual event – and went for a stroll in the grounds of Trinity College. Cricketers were finishing a game in the late afternoon sunlight. The pavilion bar was open at the end of the field. I bought a beer and stood and watched the game of cricket – a game, I might add, about which I knew nothing. I felt wonderful as I practiced my mindfulness. I was filled with the deepest sense of peace and happiness I had ever known. I have never forgotten the experience.

The sense of euphoria lasted for a few days. Then it went away and it has only rarely come back. This is a common experience at the start of a meditation practice. People sometimes then make the mistake of chasing that euphoria, of trying to get it back. While the feeling may come back for a few minutes or hours now and then, this is only likely to happen rarely. To be in a constant state of euphoria would, in any event, be unhelpful in many areas of your life. I wouldn’t want to be operated on by a euphoric surgeon!

I should add that I have previously worked as a journalist, first with RTE Radio One and The Irish Press and then as a health correspondent with The Irish Times.

I have also worked on the counsellor training course at the Institute of Integrative Counselling and Psychotherapy in Tallaght, Dublin. I do some work as a counsellor and counselling supervisor, though not a lot.

I have written a number of books including Mindfulness on the Go – Peace in Your Pocket; Light Mind – Mindfulness in Daily Living; and Like A Man – a Guide to Men’s Emotional Wellbeing.

I also write poetry and short stories and my poetry collection, The Blue Guitar, is published by Salmon Poetry.

I live in Dublin with my wife and two daughters.

Mindfulness Courses

smiling-man-with-laptop-indoors-B3U679G About

Mindfulness Books

reading_book2 About

Free Mindfulness Audios

audio About

Newsletters & Daily Bell

bell About

Latest from my blog

Busy-chef-in-kitchen About
Mindfulness in the clatter and clang of the kitchen – a Masters programme for chefs adopts an ancient practice.

You don’t expect to find mindfulness flourishing in the pressurised life of the chef But...

07/11/2017
hearts About
Mindfulness Course – True Friend, an Online Course in Mindful Self-compassion

Be a true friend to yourself with this course of 15 lessons which remains available to you...

23/09/2017
adoption-stories2-960x604 About
A mother’s story: Eileen

from The Irish Times 11th May 1996[Items in square brackets have been added since publication] When...

09/09/2017
Page 39 of 47