The power of accepting your now. A Happy Hour Conversation with Michael McCaffrey

This week's show is with Michael McCaffrey. He began the invaluable practice of meditation and contemplation in 2010. He now speaks publicly on the many benefits of meditation as well as the misunderstandings and misconceptions that act as a block to developing a practice. He also offers meditation in workspaces and runs retreats in the UK.

As I said on last week's show, meditation is something that I'm on a real personal journey with at the moment - I used to meditate years ago in the hope of calming my mind, and now when I have a calm mind much of the time, I'm interested in discovering whether I can still benefit from meditation and if so, how. I'm inviting you along for the ride with me.

In this week's show, I certainly got what I wanted... Michael shared his incredibly inspiring journey of going from crack addiction to becoming a meditation teacher - and he shares the insights and obstacles he experienced along the way.

What you'll learn from this episode:

• Addiction to something (not just drugs) is almost always a way of escaping some kind of suffering. It's not a choice. Instead of demonising sufferers, how can we offer some support and understanding?

• When we make the regular practice of sitting and noticing the thoughts - without distraction - we allow ourselves the powerful recognition of what's really going on for us.

• From that recognition of our true self, we can move from searching for escape to an acceptance of what's going on in the moment.