Getting Closer to Acem - Assistant Instructor Training

Nick Tedstone

I started meditating in 2005 and the two key things that made me want to carry on were that, 1), I started to feel more centred and more present in the moment after meditating and 2), I liked the way in which the Acem organisation genuinely wanted to help people fulfil their own potential. As someone who has always struggled with expressing how I really feel, I instantly found the way in which guidance groups are run very rewarding and gained a huge respect for an organisation that is run purely by the energy and the motivation of the people involved. If I could capture some of that commitment in my team at work we would be a very high performing team indeed.

It wasn’t until I went to my first retreat in Norway that I started to think about how Acem works and how do they organise their operations in the UK. The first thing I learnt was that the UK is different to many other countries where Acem is working in that there are no instructors or organisers based in the UK, so everything is run by Eva Skaar from Norway. As someone who believes Acem has offered me a lot, I couldn’t believe that we couldn’t start to build our own organisation in the UK. Having also met lots of wonderful people through retreats and meetings at Conway Hall in London, I was sure others would feel the same.

I remember one late, warm evening at Halvorsbole (Acem International Retreat Centre near Oslo, Norway) discussing with two Acem initiators how I might get more involved in Acem, and one of them talked to me about becoming an assistant instructor. Acem very much recognises that anyone getting involved with Acem will probably already have a very busy life and is likely to need a very flexible training programme especially when it comes to contact with Norway.

In addition to practical work in connection with meetings, retreats and advertising, my programme to date has involved me assisting at four beginners courses, and this will continue now that the programme restarts in September. These have been an excellent opportunity to work with people just starting out on a journey in their lives and exploring something that is potentially quite daunting when you first turn to it. My role involves presenting some key topics on ‘How to meditate’, the Free Mental Attitude and Concentration as well as carrying out a recap of key issues and doing various bits of follow up activity like emailing all the participants to find out how they are getting on. Away from beginner's courses, I have undertaken a series of small study tasks which have really helped me with my understanding of the Acem organisation and the psychology of meditation. A typical question might be for me to explain my understanding of Goal and Process driven meditation and to describe where Acem fits into these definitions. Throughout this work, I have been fortunate to be in regular contact with Acem initiators who have in true Acem fashion given me encouragement and feedback.

I feel that closer working with Acem has helped me become a better meditator. The more you work with the core concepts, the easier it all becomes, and certainly I’ve realised that even though I think I know a lot about the process, I still have plenty to learn.

But most importantly I think the biggest benefit to me is the idea of starting out on a journey with Acem to build a meditative organisation in the UK which has its own instructors and is able to organise and run its own retreats and meetings.