Who I am, what I do and a few thoughts about mindfulness and neuroscience research

I'm Michael Chaskalson. I live with my wife Annette in Cambridge in the UK and these days I teach mindfulness in a wide variety of contexts. I run mindfulness-based stress reduction courses for the general public in London (http://www.mbsr.co.uk/mbsrcourses.html) five times a year and I'm currently developing a level 2 course for the alumni of those courses. I teach mindfulness skills to business coaches to help them sharpen their coaching skills (http://www.mindfulness-works.com/offerings.php) and I offer courses and masterclasses to NHS clinicians, execs and their teams, and people from professional services firms.

There is so much good research around the effects of mindfulness training around these days. Especially about its impact on various aspects of brain function. Now that we know so much more about neuroplasticity and that the brain can be trained there's a real buzz around mindfulness in some neuroscience circles. More and more neuroscientists are coming on my London courses. They sometimes bring new insights to bear on what we're up to in the classes and I hope that what they learn there can sharpen and focus some of the new research that's being done. These are exciting times.