Too Much Worry, Anger, Depression,Negative Thinking, Physical Pain, Mindfulness Can Help Q and A
Are you having too much anger, fear, worry, depression, negative thinking or body pain, and don’t know what to do or think about it anymore?
Rather than be overwhelmed by strong feelings and painful body sensations learn to deal with them by switching to the experiencing mode of the mind and doing mindful breathing. Applied Clinical Mindfulness Q and A
I can’t stop thinking about my emotions, negative thoughts and the physical pain I feel, and get overwhelmed and I end up saying and doing hurtful things to myself and others, is there some non medication approach that might help me?
Learning how to do mindful breathing can help because it calms you down, as it allows you to be less reactive and judgmental to the feelings that are causing what is happening, as it gives you the concentration to keep your thinking from fueling these problems, making them more intense. Beginning Meditation using Mindful Breathing
But isn’t thinking a good thing, people are always saying think about your problems, think before you act, shouldn’t more thinking actually help me?
One reason you are overwhelmed by these emotions, negative thinking, and body discomforts, is that you fuel them by too much emotionally based thinking. Not only do you over think about them in the present, but you bring in past experience and then future wishes, needs and fears. You do this too much and over and over. There is nothing wrong in doing the right amount of thinking and in fact it is needed to logically understand your problems, learn from the past, and prepare for the future. But when it is excessive and driven by your reactions to the emotions involved, it can become no longer helpful. At that point you need to switch from this thinking-doing mode of the mind that you are using to the experiencing mode of the mind for a new and more helpful approach.
What is this experiencing mode of mind and how does it handle things differently than the thinking mode?
The thinking mode, does what it is called, it thinks based on emotional judgment taking in past experience and future needs and fears. The experiencing mode of which mindfulness is an example, doesn’t use thinking at all but direct experience by feeling and sensing of only the present, accepting what is and allowing it to happen. Mindfulness becomes aware of what is happening in the present moment, allows it to unfold, accepts it regardless of emotional charge, and then lets it go for the next present moment of experience. It is this present moment awareness and letting go, over and over, no thinking, no past, no future, no emotional judgment, based on good, or bad, accepting all equally, and then doing this moment by moment. Q and A: Getting Started Guide -Part 1. Switching into the Mindfulness Experiencing Mode
How would one apply mindfulness of the experiencing mode to a difficult emotion like anger?
Every emotion has three parts, feeling, thought and body sensation. Using anger as an example, first there is the intense feeling part, second is the body part with sensations like muscle tightness, perhaps also a feeling like you are going to explode, and thirdly the associated thoughts like, “why are they saying no to me, just like before, and this will happen again unless I do something to get my way”. If Mindfulness was used it would keep you in the present moment, with no more present thinking about the anger, no thinking from the past or the future, no judgment that the anger is bad or good, but accepts the anger just for what it is , allows it to unfold as you feel the feeling, sense the muscle tightness and the explosiveness in your body, keeping any new or old thoughts in the back of the mind.
Can you just summarize what you just discuss?
Simply you keep all of your awareness only on the present moment feelings and sensations of the anger and the associated body sensations, experiencing them by feeling them, sensing them, until they get weaker, or for as long as you can, over and over, until they go away.
How does this practically help?
Mindfulness practically helps emotions like anger, body sensations and thoughts in three ways, first because you are staying in the present and not thinking or emotionally judging you are not adding more layers of distortion and energy to further fuel these problems, secondly by doing this over and over the energy fueling the feelings and body sensation associated with the anger or any other problem will be helped, by being weakened, and if done long enough and you allow its wave like nature to run its course as you experience it will eventually burn itself out and go away, and thirdly in the process you develop insights or new ideas about it, because you will see what its connection are with other things.
Where does the breathing part come in?
One needs an anchor and reminder to use the experiencing mindfulness mode of mind, and secondly one needs a training ground to develop mindfulness and for both of these reasons doing mindfulness based breathing on a regular basis is ideal. Applying mindfulness to breathing will make the mindfulness powerful as it increases concentration and calm all of which are needed to be able to hold the feelings and sensations in awareness and to experience them, as one keeps thinking and emotional judgment in the back of one’s mind, so one can accept and allow the them to unfold long enough to be experienced. Technique of Breathing with Mindfulness the Fine Points
I don’t understand what actually causes the feelings-sensations to be lessened, weakened, easier to manage because you say not to use thinking or logic or analysis, or comparisons with past or future, just this mindful awareness and letting go, moment to moment, over and over?
The mindfulness is self, the direct present moment experience itself done over and over, that it the feeling-sensing, allowing, accepting is all that is needed. The mind can change brain chemistry and thus help emotions, thinking and body sensations in two ways , using the activities of the thinking mode mind you mentioned in your question, basically logical emotional analysis, or in the experiencing mode by allowing the sensations and feelings to occur, experiencing them directly, accepting them in the process, using this mindful awareness and letting go, over and over.
Is one mode better than the other?
No both have their place and both are needed and should balance each other, but in our human development we have over emphasized the thinking mode at the expense of the experiencing mindfulness mode.
What does one actually do if one has a strong emotion?
Shift into the mindfulness experiencing mode using mindful breathing, keep all thinking, about the present , past and future in the back of your mind, as you breath over and over to increase concentration, calm and mindfulness. Then when you are ready with enough concentration and calm, you feels-sense the emotion its physical sensations, accepting them, allowing them to unfold, experiencing them, for as long as you can, or until it get weaker , or goes away. You can go back to the breathing, when you need to , to develop more calm and concentration, more staying power, so you can again experience the feelings and sensations. Continue to do this over and over, all the time keeping thinking in the back of your mind, as you allow and accept whatever is happening to be experienced.
Should I wait for the strong emotions to occur to practice this, or is there some way I can practice ahead of time?
You will do better if you prepare yourself ahead of time using this five step program to help any problem:
1) Make a headline: First use your usual thinking mode analysis to try to focus on your problem , to get a general sense of what it is, how it makes you feel, what body sensations it causes, and what thoughts it generates, making a headline of sorts introducing and calling attention to the problem,
2) Meditate using mindful breathing: Second leave your thinking mode, putting the headline about the problem in the back of your mind, and enter the experiencing mode by doing mindfulness based breathing on a to develop calm, concentration and more powerful mindfulness,
3) Turn your headline into a story, a drama, a major movie, a miniseries: Third when you believe you have stable and enough concentration and calm leave the mindfulness mode and go back and use your usual thinking mode mind to expand on the headline about your problem, and make a story, a drama, a miniseries about your problem, think, think, and feel, feel, what you can about the problem issue by bringing up the past, the future, think about the problem over and over again and again, and little by little you will start getting more and more emotions , thoughts and body sensations about the problem, hold on to these emotions and body sensations you have stirred up, build up the best story, drama, miniseries you can, when it has peaked, you
4) Meditate on your drama or miniseries; Fourth re enter the mindfulness mode with you breathing and now make your drama, the story , the miniseries, the feelings and body sensations your have stirred up become the new object of your focus as you now do mindfulness based breathing, do this as long as you can or need to, burning up the energy of the feelings and the body sensations.
5) Analyze what you learned about your story: Fifth, re enter your usual thinking mode and logically analyze what just has happened using what you have experienced and learned to better handle and deal with your problem issue.
Can you summarize what you just discussed at length?
Simply it is using both modes of the mind thinking and experiencing using mindfulness, that is being aware in the present moment of what you are doing while you are doing it, as you stay focused on your problem, and expand on it, going back forth between first thinking logically and secondly then just experiencing the by sensing-feeling. Then doing it over and over, by going from headline to story, and building on each, over and over. This is how our mind works anyway but usually on auto pilot, that is unconsciously out or our awareness. The five step program is a way of using mindfulness to stay aware intentionally in the present moment, step by step, to use the best of both parts or modes of our minds.
This sound all very hard and complicated to do, is it?
The hard part is to set up a regular mindfulness breathing or meditation practice so you can get its initial benefits which will convince you of its value. If that happens the rest will fall in place taken care of by the power of the intuitive creative experiencing mindful mode of mind.
What are the initial benefits of mindfulness practice?
The initial benefits of meditation is a calm concentrated mind and more relaxed body, that is more aware in the present moment, being able to get more satisfaction from pleasurable things, having less suffering from painful negative things, and being less and less bored with what initially seemed neutral or not so interesting. Many other unexpected good things are also likely to happen, that vary from person to person, some are beyond words but are deeply experienced and felt.
How does one set up such a practice?
Learn how to do mindfulness based breathing, do it when you can throughout the day, and set up some brief periods of sustained mindfulness based breathing which is all meditation is, starting with as little as 5 to 10 minutes at a time, two to three times a day, such as after you wake up, sometime in the middle of the day, and before you go to sleep. Do this on a regular basis and you will start getting some of the benefits. Try it and convince yourself. BareBonesMeditation, Child Mindful Breathing to help anything