What does it actually mean to love yourself? This episode explores the protective patterns beneath self-criticism, people-pleasing, and difficulty setting boundaries, and ends with a practical contemplation to help you question the story your mind is telling and consider what it might mean to have your own back.

Many people come to mindfulness hoping to feel calmer, less stressed, or less overwhelmed, only to discover that they are noticing more, not less. More thoughts. More emotions. More restlessness. More uncertainty.

Together, Claire and Victoria explore why awareness is such a central part of mindfulness practice, what may be happening beneath the surface when we "just notice," and why change often begins somewhere quite different than we expect.

A thoughtful conversation for anyone who has ever wondered whether noticing is really enough, or questioned what mindfulness is actually helping us cultivate.

In this featured episode of Getting Real with Mindfulness, Claire Kelly (Oxford Mindfulness) and Victoria Fontana (Mindgazing) take on a persistent myth about mindfulness: that it makes people passive, compliant, or less willing to stand up for themselves.

But what if acceptance means something very different?

Together, they explore the relationship between awareness, choice, and action, and examine why mindfulness may have more to do with courage than resignation.

In this featured episode of Getting Real with Mindfulness, Claire Kelly and Victoria Fontana explore a surprisingly common experience in mindfulness practice: boredom.

Why can a few minutes of paying attention feel so uncomfortable? Why does the mind so quickly look for something else to do? And is boredom really the problem we think it is?

Do you find yourself criticizing others in a way that doesn’t feel good? In this episode, we explore what happens when the inner critic turns outward, why we can get hooked on what other people should be doing differently, and how those moments can become a doorway into understanding ourselves more clearly.

Self-criticism isn't a flaw. It's a protective mechanism. This episode untangles the inner critic and offers a self-compassion practice that actually shifts it.

In this featured episode of Getting Real with Mindfulness, Claire Kelly and Victoria Fontana explore a question that many mindfulness practitioners encounter at some point: How do we know if mindfulness is actually working?

A conversation ends, but the mind doesn’t. Hours later, it quietly replays what was said, what wasn’t, and what it all might have meant.

In this episode of No User Manual, we explore why the mind returns to past conversations, how it turns moments into stories, and how awareness can gently shift our relationship to these loops.

Feeling stuck in a change you genuinely want? This episode offers a compassionate framework to understand what’s really getting in the way — and how to move forward without force.

There’s a moment when wanting more from your life shifts from exciting to overwhelming. In this first episode of No User Manual, we explore why ambition can feel heavy — and how to meet it with curiosity instead of self-criticism.

In this featured episode Victoria Fontana and Claire Kelly take on one of the most common misconceptions about mindfulness — that it’s soft, indulgent, or lacking depth. Through personal stories, practical examples, and insights from neuroscience, they explore why mindfulness is not fluffy — but courageous, rigorous, and deeply transformative…

In this featured episode of Oxford Mindfulness - Getting Real with Mindfulness, Victoria and Claire Kelly explore the messy, honest, deeply human side of contemplative practice — and what they wish they’d known when they began…