Now About Meditation is a publication blog on topics related to meditation and the cultivation of mindfulness, compassion insight and general well-being by Clayton Micallef.
About The Author
Clayton has been practising “mindfulness meditation” for over 20 years and would say that he experienced “benefits” from practising “mindfulness meditation”. At the same time, he argues for a more balanced approach when it comes to “mindfulness meditation” and its secular application towards well-being, that it is not a panacea, that mindfulness is not passive and involves the cultivation of an ethic of compassion and an active engagement with life in a more “wholesome manner”.
In 2004 Clayton had an unfortunate accident which left him paralyzed from the neck down. He describes how mindfulness helped him sustain a sense of calm and groundedness throughout the ordeal.
This is not to say that he did not experience moments of difficulty from such a life-changing experience, but in hindsight, Clayton shares, “that mindfulness meditation as a contemplative practice was one of the things that supported me through the existential crisis that accompanied the initial years of my injury.”
This motivated Clayton to engage in a three-year post-graduate pathway of becoming a mindfulness teacher.
Clayton has a Bachelor’s in Psychology (Honours) from the University of Malta, a Postgraduate Diploma Studies in Mindfulness from the University of Aberdeen and a PhD in Mindfulness from the University of Aberdeen. He is also an MBLC, and CBLC approved teacher. He is also a counselling sessional teaching mindfulness and meditation at the University of Malta Health and Wellness Centre Counseling Unit.
Clayton teaches from the perspective of what are called 2nd Generation Mindfulness approaches. His primary interests are the application of mindfulness towards general-wellbeing, the importance of the intersection between the secular and contemplative practice of “mindfulness meditation”, research into the boundary conditions surrounding mindfulness in its application towards psychological well-being, the mechanisms at work at mediating change in mindfulness practice and the importance of investigating potential adverse effects.
Beyond this, Clayton also advocates for a more balanced approach when it comes to teaching and researching mindfulness and that we need to heed the words of Deane H. Shapiro (1992) and the need of:
A middle road, between uncritical hosannahs of meditation’s effectiveness, and equally uncritical dismissal of that which does not neatly conform to the biases of rationalistic science. On the one hand, we as scientists and therapists may need to be open to exploring ultimate issues and world views which do not neatly fit within our preexisting paradigm. On the other hand, we also need to be careful that we not allow our belief systems to keep us from blindly seeing growth where there may in fact be harm occurring. (p. 66)
