Growing the Good - The Mindful Podcast
Episodes
Series 5 Episode 5 - Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet with Lesley Price
22 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Better known in Wigan as helper of hedgehogs and heritage buff, Lesley Price introduced Neil to the spiritual wisdom and powerful poetic language of K...
Series 5 Episode 4 – Rise Above the Script with Albert Bramante.
29 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Author, agent and psychologist, Albert Bramante, joins Neil and Hayley to discuss successful strategies for raising self esteem and overcoming fears ...
Series 5 Episode 3 - Neuro Linguistic Programming - Cracking the Code for a Happier Life
14 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Inspired by Ali Campbell’s NLP Made Easy we explore the methods and techniques that can reprogramme the brain to attain success and happiness.Suppor...
Series 5 Episode 2 - Wim Wenders' Perfect Days, A Zen Movie
29 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we don our anorak and geek goggles for a deep dive into Wim Wenders' Zen movie, Perfect Days to explore the mindful aspects of cl...
Series 5 Episode 1 - Seeing in the Dark, Shamanic Therapeutic Practice
14 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Inspired by The Shamanic Journey by Paul Francis, we explore the many interesting parallels between Mindfulness and Shamanism.Support this podcast at ...
Series 4 Episode 20 - Charlotte McCartney and Mindful Events
05 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we get to speak with Charlotte McCartney, founder of Wigan based Mindful Events. She speaks honestly about her own sufferings that led...
Series 4 Episode 19 - Thrive Christmas Party 2024
14 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Thrive are a Wigan based CIC supporting adults with additional needs in a variety of ways but in addition to the practical support they also offer a s...
Series 4 Episode 18 – Ichigo Ichie (One Moment, One Meeting)
29 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Inspired by the handy, fun and fascinating guide by Garcia and Miralles, Neil and Hayley explore the art of making the most of every moment.Support th...
Series 4 Episode 17 - The Pig of Happiness by Edward Monkton
04 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It’s the happiest ever episode of Growing the Good the Mindful Podcast! Let your happiness ooze with this hilarious and inspirational fable!Support ...
Series 4 Episode 16 - Wabi Sabi
20 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we explore the concept of wabi sabi, an emotional state one experiences when one witnesses beauty and the passing of time, the patina ...
Series 4 Episode 15 - Your Heart's Desire by Sonia Choquette
13 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Neil explores this step-by-step guide towards achieving your heart’s desire. Does it work? There’s only one way to find out!Support this podcast a...
Series 4 Episode 14 - The Secret
10 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Hayley explores the classic theories of Rhonda Byrne and elicits the thoughts of the Mindful Audience.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.co...
Series 4 Episode 13 - The Brothers Čapek
29 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Neil and Hayley explore the mindful and prescient work of the Czeck writers and artists Josef and Karel Čapek who gave us the word robot in 1923, wer...
Series 4 Episode 12 – MIM Dementia Café
26 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Neil spends an enjoyable and quite moving afternoon with Al Hart and Ian Unsworth of Music in Mind at Wigan’s MIM Dementia Café.Support this podcas...
Series 4 Episode 11 - MIMFest 2024
22 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Music in Mind organise a unique accessible music festival for people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities that ensures everyone can access the music...
Series 4 Episode 10 - Exploring the Yellow World of Albert Espinosa
06 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Espinosa was just 14 when cancer caused him to lose a leg and a lung. After 10 years of treatment, his cancer was cured, but he was left with 24 ‘di...
Series 4 Episode 9 - Relaxation in a week with Pat and Colin Dyke
25 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Neil and Hayley explore a week's worth of relaxation tips and techniques from Pat and Colin Dyke's 90s pocket guide, why don't you try mak...
Series 4 Episode 8 - The Comedy Stylings of Sigmund Freud
18 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Series 4 Episode 8 – The Comedy Stylings of Sigmund Freud.In 1905 Freud published ‘Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious Mind’.Join Neil a...
Series 4 Episode 7 - Playing Attention
08 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For 4 weeks, young players from a local soccer club took part in One Together’s pilot mindfulness programme – Playing Attention. In this episode w...
Series 4 Episode 6 - Secrets About Life Every Woman Should Know: Ten principles for spiritual and emotional fulfilment by Barbara De Angelis.
21 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week we discuss the book, Secrets About Life Every Woman Should Know: Ten principles for spiritual and emotional fulfilment by Barbara De Angelis...
Series 4 Episode 5 - Love, Life and Death, L E Bowman's Passionate Poetry
14 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
At times bitter and resentful, at others, filled with hope and joy, but always life affirming. Like in all of us, powerful emotions sweep across the e...
Series 4 Episode 4 - A Calm Sea and a Prosperous Voyage
07 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A calm sea and a prosperous voyage! The wish springs to the lips when a ship’s company sets sail. But, as Gertrude N M Ramsay explains in her book, ...
Series 4 Episode 3 - Outwitting the Devil (Self Help with Satan)
30 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 1938, Napoleon Hill unlocked the secret to communicating with the Devil. In a fascinating interview, he persuaded the Devil to reveal all his secre...
Series 4 Episode 2 - National Playday at Haigh Woodland Park 2023
02 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Neil and Hayley get out and about taking part in Haigh Woodland Park's Playday and exploring how important it is to young people and their familie...
Series 4 Episode 1 - Neil's Heart Skips a Beat
14 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Join Neil as he takes us on a journey through his recent illness and open heart surgery, exploring how a Mindful attitude helped him manage the diffic...
Series 3 Episode 20 - The Wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh
11 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Thich Nhat Hanh is the hugely influential Zen master who's teachings are mentioned in pretty much every episode of Growing the Good. As we take a ...
Season 3 Episode 19 - Supporting Teens
11 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
One Together CIC do quite a lot of work with teens, through their Mindfulness and Well Being/Character Strengths (SOMA) programmes. We have been asked...
Series 3 Episode 18 - Douglas Adams and the Art of Stealing Biscuits
06 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When a complete stranger took and ate Douglas Adams' biscuits at a train station without a word, he was filled with judgement about the other pers...
Series 3 Episode 17 – The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there. What Mindfulness looked like in September 1965.
03 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
‘The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there,’ wrote L. P. Hartley in 1953. Join us as we take a trip through a copy of Psycho...
Series 3 Episode 16 - Mindfulness goes to the Movies
29 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
At One Together, we love movies but do we enjoy the same ones? In this episode Neil shares his top ten mindful movies with Hayley but will she agree? ...
Series 3 Episode 15 - Ikkyu, the Rebel Zen Master
22 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In his quest to free Hayley of her fear of death, Neil brings out the big guns! Ikkyu, Zen Master of Medieval Japan, was shunned by the monasteries fo...
Series 3 Episode 14 - Can there be such a thing as Mindful Hope?
15 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Is Hope a Mindful quality? We are taught to find happiness in this present moment, does Hope catapult us into an uncertain future with the promise of ...
Series 3 Episode 13 - Hayley's Top 5 Mindful People
08 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It's Hayley's turn to choose her top 5 influential movers and shakers in the world of Mindfulness!Support this podcast at — https://redcircl...
Season 3 Episode 12 - Death
01 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Death. It’s part of the inevitable cycle of our worldly existence. Wouldn’t life be easier if we learned to accept, even embrace our fragile morta...
Series 3 Episode 11 - Can Maths Be Mindful?
25 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Neil and Hayley, teachers with decades of experience, discuss whether maths and mindful attitude are congruent with one another and Neil makes a revel...
Series 3 Episode 10 - Neil's Top 5 Mindful People
17 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Do you agree with Neil's top 5 picks of inspirational mindful individuals? Get in touch and let us know who you would choose!Support this podcast ...
Series 3 Episode 9 - Haemin Sunim's Calm in a Busy World
10 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Hayley and Neil explore the work and philosophy of Zen teacher and best selling author Haemin Sunim and learn just what you can see when you slow down...
Series 3 Episode 8 - Laughter is the Best Cure
04 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Woohoo Missus! How tickled we are to bring you an episode all about the power of Laughter Yoga, no seriously!Support this podcast at — https://redci...
Series 3 Episode 7 - Ikigai, What's Your Reason to Live?
26 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Ikigai is the Japanese philosophy that everyone can have a reason to make them get up each morning filled with a sense of purpose and wellbeing. How c...
Series 3 Episode 6 - Toltec Wisdom of The Four Agreements
20 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Inspired by The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz, we explore the idea that the Toltecs found the path to joy and an end to suffering over a thousan...
Season 3 Episode 5 - Martin Seligman, Positive Psychology and Character Strengths
28 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Inspired by Authentic Happiness and Flourish by Martin Seligman, we explore the qualities of well-being, as identified in Positive Psychology, and lea...
Series 3 Episode 4 - Ohm the Great and Powerful
21 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We have all seen the traditional image of meditation where people sit and chant 'Ohm' but why? What is Ohm and what does it mean? There's ...
Season 3 Episode 3 - Eudaimonics, Harness the Power of the God Within
14 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Eudaimonics means good spirits, or more actually good demons, or the god within ourselves. When we are aware of our lives and that the lives we live h...
Series 3 Episode 2 - Louise Hay
07 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we pay tribute to the remarkable writer, life coach and inspiration that is Louise Hay. Hopefully it will inspire you to find out mor...
Season 3 Episode 1 - Eating Our Children!
10 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Usually in mindfulness we teach that things are as they are. There are no good or bad things, we simply learn to acknowledge and accept the world as i...
Season 2 Episode 6 - Who are you and what do you do?
14 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It's the question we get asked most frequently and it's equally the most difficult to answer. In this episode, we've had a go but please g...
Season 2 Episode 5 - Otherness and Counterfeit Communities
12 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Our mind, ego, schema, call it what you will, builds layers of misunderstanding and judgements around us that we mistakenly think is 'us'. In ...
Season 2 Episode 4 - Grateful Teens Are Happy Teens
29 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Why do some young people find it so hard to be happy? Sometimes it is because they set their sights on conditions for happiness that cannot be achieve...
Season 2 Episode 3 - Staying in the Present Moment
22 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
All of us have busy lives and busy minds but none more so than young people. In this episode we ask out teen mindfulness group what worries pull their...
Season 2 Epiode 2 - Keeping Your Cool
15 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We all find our buttons being pushed at one time or another, letting off steam, blowing our top, but why? What is it that tips us over the edge into o...
Season 2 Episode 1 - Happiness
08 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this series we will be talking to the teens attending our mindfulness workshops so that they can share their experience and give helpful advice to ...
Episode 20 - Interbeing
12 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Our mindful insight allows us to see things not as they are, but as they really are. We view the world as fragments like a broken mirror instead of se...
Episode 19 - Willpower
05 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
All too often it is our impulses, cravings and unfulfilled desires that cause us to act in ways we later come to regret, can mindfulness help grow and...
Episode 18 - Resilience Part 2
29 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Neil and Hayley found there was still lots to talk about on the topic of resilience after the last episode so here's Resilience Part 2! It's e...
Episode 17 - Resilience
22 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It's the rub that shines the penny, we all encounter difficulty in our lives, it's part of what this being human is all about. Can mindfulness...
Episode 16 - Mindful eating
15 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Can mindfulness help you lose weight? Can it cure fussy eaters? There’s only one way to find out and that’s by listening to episode 16 of Growing ...
Episode 15 - Mindful Walking
08 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Doing things in a mindful way simply means slowing things down and paying attention to what's happening right now, in this moment. Mindful walking...
Episode 14 - Mindful Movement
01 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Think mindfulness is all about sitting still and meditating? Think again! In this week's episode, Neil and Hayley explore and explain the benefits...
Episode 13 - Affirmations
24 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Can positive affirmations really help you to be the thing you want to be? Absolutely they can! In this episode Neil and Hayley have far too much fun e...
Episode 12 - Visualisation
17 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In visualisation meditation, the brain has difficulty distinguishing between what is real and what is imagined. This can help us rewire the brain so t...
Episode 11 - Negative Bias
11 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We all have that negative voice inside our heads that tells us we need to be better, that we aren't good enough. In this episode Neil and Hayley d...
Episode 10 - Difficult Emotions
01 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Probably one of the key reasons people come to mindfulness, we all have to manage difficult emotions at some time in our lives. Indeed, to some extent...
Episode 09 - Awareness of Thought
01 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In the Tibetan Tradition, two tools were needed to control the wayward mind; the rope of mindfulness and the hook of awareness. In this episode we exp...
Episode 08 - Kindness
12 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Kindness is sometimes mistaken for weakness but in actual fact it takes great strength to be kind. Moreover, there are some very real benefits to kind...
Episode 07 - Gratitude
12 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Join Neil and Hayley as they explore just what a remarkable, miraculous thing it is to be alive, in this moment. So many of us are trapped on a hedoni...
Episode 06 - Happiness
12 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The big one, everyone wants to be happy, don't they? But what does happiness really mean and how can you achieve it? Join Neil and Hayley as they ...
Episode 05 - Mindsight
12 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Is there such a thing as 6th sense? Mindsight comes close but you have to train your mind to use it well. How skilful are you at recognising the feeli...
Episode 04 - The Beginner's Mind
12 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Can you approach everything in life with fresh eyes? Free of judgement and preconceived opinions? It is a skill you were born with, to be open and cur...
Episode 03 - Present Moment Awareness
12 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Join Neil and Hayley as they share with you the secrets of turning off the auto pilot. Even in the busiest of lives, there is space to slow down, incr...
Episode 02 - Breathing
12 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Learning how to get in touch with the breath and the body is one of the fundamentals of mindful practice. Our breath is always with us wherever we go ...
Episode 01 - Neuroplasticity
12 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Your brain has an amazing capacity to grow and change. Once you understand how this works, anything is possible. In this episode, Neil and Hayley expl...
Episode 00 - An introduction to growing the Good
12 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
An introduction to Growing the Good - the Mindful Podcast with mindfulness teacher Neil West. Join Neil for an overview of the podcast and a taste of ...