SMILING MIND App https://smilingmind.com.au/ may be used from Session 1 . See instructions below.
GUILDFORD MINDFULNESS PRACTICES: www.guilford.com/MBCT_audio
The platform may be introduced from Session 2. Guided Meditation Practices for MBCT (depression) by Zindel V. Segal, J. Mark G. Williams, and John D. Teasdale. These practices are still supportive for the practice of this non clinical programme. Narrated by the authors: www.guilford.com/MBCT_audio
Our Own Information & Material:
Soundcloud link for Mindfulness Meditation Practices (short). The You Tube Channel has a Playlist specifically associated with performance .
Soundcloud (our own recordings): https://soundcloud.com/user-419564009/sets/mindfulness-meditation-practices?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=email
You Tube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/jerryfoxmbct
Finding Mastery Podcast, 10% Happier and Don't Tell Me The Score: Highly Recommended!!!
Have a listen to the podcasts to support your learning on the MBCT-REP programme.
1. Finding Mastery explores how the best in the world master their craft.
Host and high performance psychologist, Dr. Michael Gervais, interviews people excelling in the most hostile environments to discover the mental skills used to push the boundaries.
Each episode features inspiring stories from the world’s best athletes, brilliant business minds, and the musicians and artists changing our perspective of what’s possible. Thoughtful, spontaneous, and engaging, Dr. Michael Gervais provides insights to help listeners live connected to their potential and pursue their very best.
Podcast (full interview):
https://findingmastery.net/category/podcasts/
2. 10% Happier
Dan Harris is a fidgety, skeptical ABC newsman who had a panic attack live on Good Morning America, which led him to something he always thought was ridiculous: meditation. He wrote the bestselling book, "10% Happier," started an app -- "10% Happier: Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics" -- and now, in this podcast, Dan talks with smart people about whether there's anything beyond 10%. Basically, here's what this podcast is obsessed with: Can you be an ambitious person and still strive for enlightenment (whatever that means)? New episodes every Wednesday morning.
Podcast (full interview):
https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast
3. Don't Tell Me The Score
What can sport teach us about life and how best to live it? Each week Simon Mundie sits down with an expert and uses sport to answer life’s big questions.
Podcast (full interview):
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06qbt0y/episodes/downloads
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/don…
1. Introduction to Mindfulness Practice
A) Introduce Mindfulness Practices this week by going to the SMILING MIND App:
Once you have downloaded https://smilingmind.com.au/ go to the programme: An Introduction to Mindfulness. Now in your own time commence the programme starting with What is Mindfulness?
Gradually work through the An Introduction to Mindfulness programme which will introduce you to mindful meditation practice:
What is Mindfulness?
Why do we need Mindfulness?
How to Practice Mindfulness
What is Mindfulness-2 Minute Practice
Get Started 1 Minute Practice
The Next Step-6 Minute Practice
B) Consider the Sleep Practice (outlined in point 4)
2. Mindful Awareness of Early Indicators:
Often the body tells us before the mind does when we are experiencing stress. Each day just check your: Shoulders, do they feel tight or soft? Now check your jaw, does it feel tight or soft/easy? Now check your toes, are they curled up/tight or soft? When there is tightness in these areas it is often an early sign we are getting stressed. Simply soften the areas if you notice tightness and the mind will follow. Remember when the body is tight we lose energy, transmission of power and fluidity of movement.
3.Know Thyself
According Dan Goleman, ‘Self-awareness is a building block of self-control. Not only will an awareness of what happens to the mind and body under pressure help demystify why you sometimes thrive and at other times you struggle to respond, it will also move you towards being able to control and take charge of your mind and body under pressure’ (Tipping the Balance, Turner & Barker, 2014).
4. Sleep Practice (Carlson and Speca, 2010)
Bring this practice to your life/programme when ever needed.
‘This practice is great because it not it not only evokes the physiology you need for sleep but it also distracts your racing mind with counting so you are focused on the present moment rather than lying there worrying, ruminating, or planning. Together, these conditions create the ideal setting for a good night’s sleep.’
Sleep Practice (from Carlson and Speca, 2010, MBCR publication):
Get into bed and pay close attention to your breath:
a) Allow the breath to become smooth and deep.
b) Eliminate the pause between inhalation and exhalation.
c) Switch to a two-to-one breathing pattern (breathing out for twice the time you breathe in).
Follow this sequence for number of breaths and positions:
a) Take 8 breaths while lying on your back.
b) Take 16 breaths while lying on your left side.
c) Take 32 breaths while lying on your right side
3. Repeat the entire sequence if you are still awake.
Breath is life. You could think of the breath as being like a thread or a chain that links and connects all the events of your life from birth, the beginning, to death, the end. The breath is always there every moment, moving by itself like a river.
Have you ever noticed how the breath changes with our moods – short and shallow when we’re tense or angry, faster when we’re excited, slow and full when we’re happy, and almost disappearing when we’re afraid? It’s there with us all the time. It can be used as a tool, like an anchor, to bring stability to the body and mind when we deliberately choose to become aware of it. We can tune into it at any moment during everyday life.
Mostly, we’re not in touch with our breathing – it’s just there, forgotten. So one of the first things we do in mindfulness-based stress reduction is to get in touch with it. We notice how the breath changes with our moods, our thoughts, our body movements. We don’t have to control the breath. Just notice it and get to know it, like a friend. All that s necessary is to observe, watch, and feel the breath with a sense of interest, in a relaxed manner.
With practice, we become more aware of our breathing. We can use it to direct our awareness to different aspects of our lives. For example, to relax tense muscles, or focus on a situation that requires attention. Breath can also be used to help deal with pain, anger, relationships or the stress of daily life. During this program, we will be exploring this in great detail.
Mindfulness Practice App: http://oxfordmindfulness.org/insight/oxford-mbct-app/
or an alternative platform for Mindfulness Practices: www.guilford.com/MBCT_audio
1. Use the Body Scan audio http://oxfordmindfulness.org/insight/oxford-mbct-app/ 3-6 times and record your reactions on the record form.
For SHORTER PRACTICE options go to the Smiling Mind App: The mindfulness meditation practices are found on the Smiling Mind App: https://smilingmind.com.au/
Simply go the Adult Programs and you will find Mindfulness Foundation. Now go to: Mindfulness Foundation note the Module number (101) and practice:
Body Scan (8mins) 101
2. Choose a new routine activity to be especially mindful of (e.g. brushing your teeth, washing dishes, taking a shower, taking out garbage, reading to kids, shopping, eating).
3. Habit Releaser: Add a little randomness to your life. Go for a walk for at least 15 minutes at least once this week (Williams and Penman, 2011)
In a car, we can sometimes drive for miles ‘on automatic pilot’, without really being aware of what we are doing. In the same way, we may not be really ‘present’, moment-by-moment, for much of our lives: we can often be ‘miles away’ without knowing it.
On automatic pilot, we are more likely to have our ‘buttons pressed’: events around us and thoughts, feelings, and sensations in the mind (of which we may be only dimly aware) can trigger old habits of thinking that are often unhelpful and may lead to worsening mood.
By becoming more aware of our thoughts, feelings, and body sensations, from moment to moment, we give ourselves the possibility of greater freedom and choice; we do not have to go into the same old ‘mental ruts’ that may have caused problems in the past.
The aim of this program is to increase awareness so that we can respond to situations with choice rather than react automatically. We do that by practising to become more aware of where our attention is, and deliberately changing the focus of attention, over and over again.
To begin with, we used attention to eating the raisin to explore how to step out of automatic pilot. We then used attention to different parts of the body as a focus to anchor our awareness in the moment. We will also be training ourselves to put attention and awareness in different places at will. This is the aim of the body scan exercise that is the main home practice for next week.
Our aim in this program is to be more aware, more often. A powerful influence taking us away from being ‘fully present’ in each moment is our automatic tendency to judge our experience as being not quite right in some way – that it is not what should be happening, not good enough, or not what we expected or wanted. These judgements can lead to sequences of thoughts about blame, what needs to be changed, or how things could or should be different. Often, these thoughts will take us, quite automatically, down some fairly well-worn paths in our minds. In this way, we may lose awareness of the moment, and also the freedom to choose what, if any, action needs to be taken.
We can regain our freedom if, as a first step, we simply acknowledge the actuality of our situation, without immediately being hooked into automatic tendencies to judge, fix, or want things to be other than they are. The body scan exercise provides an opportunity to practise simply bringing an interested and friendly awareness to the way things are in each moment, without having to do anything to change things. There is no goal to be achieved other than to bring awareness to bear as the instructions suggest – specifically, achieving some special state of relaxation is not a goal of the exercise.
Mindfulness Practice App: http://oxfordmindfulness.org/insight/oxford-mbct-app/
or an alternative platform for Mindfulness Practices: www.guilford.com/MBCT_audio
1. 10 minute Sitting Meditation and Mindfulness of the Breath (short). Note your experiences on the home practice record form. 10-Minute Sitting Meditation/Mindfulness of the Breath Practice 2-4 times during the week.
For SHORTER PRACTICE options go to the Smiling Mind App: https://smilingmind.com.au/
Simply go the Adult Programs and you will find Mindfulness Foundation. Now go to: Mindfulness Foundation note the Module number (101 & 102) and practice:
Exploring the Breath (7mins) 101
Are You Still Breathing ( 1min) 101
Breath and Sounds (11mins) 102
2. Stretch and Breath (audio track 5) and/or Mindful Movement. Practice 1-2 times during the week)
3. Practise using the 3-Minute Breathing Space (1-3 times on a practice day, at set times that you have decided in advance, and record each time by circling an R on the Homework Record Form.
4. Complete the Pleasant Events Calendar (one entry per day). Use this as an opportunity to become really aware of the thoughts, feelings, and body sensations around one pleasant event each day. Notice and record, as soon as you can, in detail (e.g. use the actual words or images in which the thoughts came) the precise nature and location of bodily sensations.
5. Habit Releaser: Add a little randomness to your life by valuing the television or radio or another form of entertainment. Choose a programme or activity you’d really like to watch, do or listen to; ones that are interesting or enjoyable or both (Williams and Penman, 2011).
This week we practiced resting awareness on the breath and body in movement. The mind is often scattered and lost in thought because it is working away in the background to complete unfinished tasks from the past and strive for goals for the future. We need to find a reliable way intentionally to “come back” to the here and now. The breath and body offer an ever present focus on which we can reconnect with mindful presence, gather and settle the mind, and ease ourselves from doing into being.
Focusing on the breath:
· Brings you back to this very moment – the here and now.
· Is always available as an anchor and haven, no matter where you are.
· Can actually change your experience of connecting you with a wider space and broader perspective from which to view things.
BASICS
It helps if you adopt an erect and dignified posture, with your head, neck, and back aligned vertically – the physical counterpart of the inner attitudes of self-reliance, self-acceptance, patience, and alert attention that we are cultivating.
Practise on a chair or on the floor. If you use a chair, choose one that has a straight back and allows your feet to be flat on the floor. If at all possible, sit away from the back of the chair so that your spine is self-supporting.
If you choose to sit on the floor, do so on a firm thick cushion (or a pillow folded over once or twice), which raises your buttocks off the floor 3 to 6 inches. Whatever you are sitting on, see if it is possible to sit so that your hips are slightly higher than your knees.
Mindful movement allows us to:
· Build on the foundation of the body scan in learning how we can bring awareness to and “inhibit” body experience/sensation.
· See old habits of the mind- especially those that emphasize striving.
· Work with physical boundaries and intensity and learn acceptance of our limits.
· Learn new ways of taking care of ourselves.
The movements provide a direct way to connect with awareness of the body. The body is a place where emotions are often expressed, under the surface and without our awareness. So becoming more aware of the body gives us an additional place from which to stand and look at our thoughts.
Mindfulness Practice App: http://oxfordmindfulness.org/insight/oxford-mbct-app/
or an alternative platform for Mindfulness Practices: www.guilford.com/MBCT_audio
1. Practice the Full Sitting Meditation at least once and/or 2-6 times and note anything you notice on the Home Practice Record Form. Alternative option: continue as last week with shorter practices following at least one Full Sitting Mediation.
For SHORTER PRACTICE options go to the Smiling Mind App: https://smilingmind.com.au
Simply go the Adult Programs and you will find Mindfulness Foundation. Now go to: Mindfulness Foundation note the Module number (102, 103 &104) and practice:
Body Scan Bubble Journey (7min) 102
One Minute Body Scan (1min) 103
Breath and Emotions (7min) 104
2. 3-Minute Breathing Space – Regular: Practice three times on a least one practice day, at the times that you have decided in advance. Record each time you do it by circling an R next to the appropriate day on the Home Practice Record Form; note any comments/difficulties.
3. 3-Minute Breathing Space – Coping: Practice whenever you notice unpleasant feelings. Record each time you do it by circling a C for the appropriate day on the Home Practice Record Form; note any comments/difficulties.
4. Complete the Unpleasant Events Calendar (one entry per day) – use this as an opportunity to become really aware of the thoughts, feelings, and body sensations in one unpleasant event each day, at the time that they are occurring. Notice and record, as soon as you can, in detail (e.g. put the actual words or images in which thoughts came, and the precise nature and location of bodily sensations). What are the unpleasant events that ‘pull you off centre’ or ‘get you down’ (no matter how big or small)?
5. Habit Releaser: Add a little randomness to your life, go to the cinema, but with a difference, choose a film when you get there. Often, what makes us happiest in life is the unexpected-chance encounter or the unexpected event. Alternatively, choose or stream a film you would not normally watch (Williams and Penman, 2011).
Difficult things are part and parcel of life itself. It is how we handle those things that makes the difference between whether they rule (control) our lives or whether we can relate more lightly to them. Becoming more aware of the thoughts, feelings, and body sensations evoked by events gives us the possibility of freeing ourselves from habitual, automatic ways of reacting, so that we can instead mindfully respond in more skilful ways.
In general, we react to experience in one of three ways:
· With spacing out, or boredom, so that we switch out from the present moment and go off somewhere else ‘in our heads’.
· With wanting to hold on to things – not allowing ourselves to let go of experiences that we are having right now, or wishing we were having experiences that we are not having right now.
· With wanting it to go away, being angry with it – wanting to get rid of experiences that we are having right now, or avoiding future experiences that we do not want.
As we will discuss further in session, each of these ways of reacting can cause problems, particularly the tendency to react to unpleasant feelings with aversion. For now, the main issue is to become more aware of our experience, so that we can respond mindfully rather than react automatically.
Regularly practising sitting meditation gives us many opportunities to notice when we have drifted away from awareness of the moment, to note with a friendly awareness whatever it was that took our attention away, and to gently and firmly bring our attention back to our focus, reconnecting with moment-by-moment awareness. At other times of the day, deliberately using the breathing space whenever we notice unpleasant feelings, or a sense of ‘tightening’ or ‘holding’ in the body, provides an opportunity to begin to respond rather than react.
Mindfulness Practice App: http://oxfordmindfulness.org/insight/oxford-mbct-app/
or an alternative platform for Mindfulness Practices: www.guilford.com/MBCT_audio
1. Practice Full Sitting Practice/20 Minute Sitting Meditation 2-6 times. Alternate your practice during the week using audio one day and without audio (sitting in silence) the next and record your reactions on the Home Practice Record Form.
For SHORTER PRACTICE options go to the Smiling Mind App: https://smilingmind.com.au/
Simply go the Adult Programs and you will find Mindfulness Foundation. Now go to: Mindfulness Foundation note the Module number (104) and practice:
Breath and The Body 104
Feeling Emotions In Your Body 104
2. 3-Minute Breathing Space – Regular: Practise three times on a least one practice day that you have decided in advance. Record each time by circling an R next to the appropriate day on the Homework Record Form; note any comments/difficulties.
3. 3-Minute Breathing Space – Coping: Practise whenever you notice unpleasant feelings. Record each time by circling a C for the appropriate day on the Homework Record Form; note any comments/difficulties.
4. Habit Releaser: Add a little randomness to your life, sow some seeds or look after a plant for a week (your own or somebody else’s). Alternatively, notice the sky and/or nature at least once this week.
5. Maintain the Pleasant Events Calendar. Use this as an opportunity to become really aware of the thoughts, feelings, and body sensations around one pleasant event each day. Notice and record in your journal, as soon as you can, in detail (e.g. use the actual words or images in which the thoughts came) the precise nature and location of bodily sensations.
Turning toward the difficult
In the practice in the session, we extended our formal practice to begin deliberately to turn toward and approach painful experiences with kindness. The basic guideline in this practise is to become mindfully aware of whatever is most predominant in our moment-by-moment experience.
So, the first step, if the mind is being repeatedly drawn to a particular place, to particular thoughts, feelings, or bodily sensations, is deliberately take a gentle and friendly awareness to whatever is pulling for our attention, noting the sense of being pulled again and again to the same place.
The second step is to notice, as best we can, how we are relating to whatever is arising in the body or mind. Our reactions to our own thoughts and feelings may determine whether they are passing events or persist. Often, we can be with an arising thought, feeling, or bodily sensation, but in a non-allowing, reactive way. If we like it, we may become attached to it, and try and hold on to it. If, on the other hand, we dislike it, because it is painful, unpleasant, or uncomfortable in some way, then we may experience fear or irritation, tense up and contract or try to push it away. Each of these responses is the opposite of allowing.
Letting go and letting be
The easiest way to relax is, first, to stop trying to make things different. Allowing experience means simply allowing space for whatever is going on, rather than trying to create some other state. Through cultivating “willingness to experience,” we settle back into awareness of what is present. We let it be – we simply notice and observe whatever is already here. This is the way to relate to experiences that have a strong pull on our attention, however powerful they seem. When we see them clearly, it prevents us from getting pulled into brooding and ruminating about them, or trying to suppress or avoid them. We begin the process of freeing ourselves from them. We open up to the possibility of responding skilfully and with compassion rather than reacting, in knee jerk fashion, by automatically running off old (often unhelpful) strategies.
A new practice
In the session, we explored together this new way of approaching the difficult. If we noticed that our attention kept being pulled away from the breath (or another focus) to painful thoughts, emotions, or feelings, the first step was to become mindfully aware of those physical sensations in the body that were occurring alongside the thought or emotion;, then we deliberately moved the focus of awareness to the part of the body where those sensations are strongest. We explored how the breath could provide a useful vehicle to do this – just as we practised in the body scan, we can take a gentle and friendly awareness to that part of the body by ‘breathing into’ it on the in-breath, and ‘breathing out’ from it on the out-breath.
Once our attention had moved to the body sensations and they were in the field of awareness, the guidance was to say to ourselves, “It’s OK. Whatever it is, it’s OK. Let me feel it”. Then, we just stayed with the awareness of these body sensations and our relationship to them, breathing with them, accepting them, letting them be. It may be helpful to repeat, “It’s OK. Whatever it is, it’s OK. Let me be open to it,” using each out-breath to soften and open to the sensations. . “Allowing” is not resignation—it allows us, as a vital first step, to become fully aware of difficulties and to respond to them skilfully.
Mindfulness Practice App: http://oxfordmindfulness.org/insight/oxford-mbct-app/
or an alternative platform for Mindfulness Practices: www.guilford.com/MBCT_audio
1. Practise with your own selection from the Mindfulness Audios a minimum of 40 minutes on practices day (e.g. 20 + 20, 30 + 10, etc). Record your reactions on the Home Practice Record Form.
For SHORTER PRACTICE options go to the Smiling Mind App: https://smilingmind.com.au/
Simply go the Adult Programs and you will find Mindfulness Foundation. Now go to: Mindfulness Foundation note the Module number (103 & 105) and practice:
Breath and Thoughts (10mins) 103
Short mindfulness Practice (3mins) 105
Breath and The Body (10mins) 105
2. 3-Minute Breathing Space – Regular: Practise three times a day at times you have determined in advance. Record each time by circling an R on the Homework Record Form; note any comments/difficulties.
3. 3-Minute Breathing Space – Coping: Whenever you notice unpleasant thoughts or feelings (paying particular attention to thoughts) – if negative thoughts are still around after the breathing space, then write them down. You might like to use some of the ideas in the Handouts ‘Ways you can see your thoughts differently’ and ‘When you become aware of negative thoughts’ to get a different perspective on these thoughts. Record each time you use the 3-Minute Breathing Space – Coping by circling a C for the appropriate day on the Homework Record Form; note any comments/difficulties.
4. Note situations in which you use the breath as an anchor to handle the situation as it is happening, and times you choose to carry out tasks mindfully e.g. washing up, showering. Remember these times are always available wherever you are, whatever you are doing.
5. Habit Releaser: Add a little randomness to your life: A) think back to a time which was less hectic and recall an activity which you enjoyed. Choose one of these activities and plan to do it (whether it takes 5 minutes or several hours). B) Do a good deed for someone else and needn’t be something big! (Williams and Penman, 2011)
It is amazing to observe how much power we give unknowingly to uninvited thoughts: “Do this, say that, remember, plan, obsess, judge.” They have the potential to drive us quite crazy, and they often do!
Joseph Goldstein
Our thoughts can have very powerful effects on how we feel and what we do. Often those thoughts are triggered and run off quite automatically. By becoming aware, over and over again, of the thoughts and images passing through the mind and letting go of them as we return our attention to the breath and the moment, it is possible to get some distance and perspective on them. This can allow us to see that there may be other ways to think about situations, freeing us from the tyranny of the old thought patterns that automatically ‘pop into mind’. Most importantly, we may eventually come to realise deep ‘in our bones’ that all thoughts are only mental events (including the thoughts that say they are not), that thoughts are not facts, and that we are not our thoughts.
Thoughts and images can often provide us with an indication of what is going on deeper in the mind: we can ‘get hold of them’, so that we can look them over from a number of different perspectives, and by becoming very familiar with our own ‘top ten’ habitual, automatic, unhelpful thinking patterns, we can more easily become aware of (and change) the processes that may lead us into downward mood spirals.
It is particularly important to become aware of thoughts that may block or undermine practice, such as “There’s no point in doing this” or “It’s not going to work, so why bother?” Such pessimistic, hopeless thought patterns are one of the most characteristic features of depressed mood states, and one of the main factors that stop us taking actions that would help us get out of those states. It follows that it is particularly important to recognise such thoughts as ‘negative thinking’ and not automatically give up on efforts to apply skilful means to change the way we feel.
“From thoughts come actions. From actions come all sorts of consequences. In which thoughts will we invest? Our great task is to see them clearly, so that we can choose which ones to act on and which simply to let be.”
Joseph Goldstein
The thinking level of mind pervades our lives, consciously or unconsciously, we all spend much or most of our lives there. But meditation is a different process that does not involve discursive thought or reflection. Because meditation is not thought, through the continuous process of silent observation, new kinds of understanding emerge.
We do not need to fight with thoughts or struggle against them or judge them. Rather, we can simply choose not to follow the thoughts once we are aware that they have arisen.
When we lose ourselves in thought, identification is strong. Thought sweeps our mind and carries it away, and, in a very short time, we can be carried far indeed. We hop a train of association, not knowing that we have hopped on, and certainly not knowing the destination. Somewhere down the line, we may wake up and realise that we have been thinking, that we have been taken for a ride. And when we step down from the train, it may be in a very different mental environment from where we jumped aboard.
Take a few moments right now to look directly at the thoughts arising in your mind. As an exercise, you might close your eyes and imagine yourself sitting in a cinema watching an empty screen. Simply wait for thoughts to arise. Because you are not doing anything except waiting for thoughts to appear, you may become aware of them very quickly. What exactly are they? What happens to them? Thoughts are like magic displays that seem real when we are lost in them but then vanish upon inspection.
But what about the strong thoughts that affect us? We are watching, watching, watching, and then, all of a sudden – whoosh! – we are gone, lost in a thought. What is that about? What are the mind states or the particular kinds of thoughts that catch us again and again, so that we forget that they are just empty phenomena passing on?
It is amazing to observe how much power we give unknowingly to uninvited thoughts: “Do this, say that, remember, plan, obsess, judge.” They have the potential to drive us quite crazy, and they often do!
The kinds of thoughts we have, and their impact on our lives, depend on our understanding of things. If we are in the clear, powerful space of just seeing thoughts arise and pass, then it does not really matter what kind of thinking appears in the mind; we can see our thoughts as the passing show that they are.
From thoughts come actions. From actions come all sorts of consequences. In which thoughts will we invest? Our great task is to see them clearly, so that we can choose which ones to act on and which simply to let be.
It is remarkable how liberating it feels to be able to see that your thoughts are just thoughts and not ‘you’ or ‘reality’. For instance, if you have the thought that you must get a certain number of things done today and you don’t recognise it as a thought, but act as if it’s ‘the truth’, then you have created in that moment a reality in which you really believe that those things must all be done today.
One patient, Peter, who’d had a heart attack and wanted to prevent another one, came to a dramatic realisation of this one night, when he found himself washing his car at 10 o’clock at night with the floodlights on in the driveway. It struck him that he didn’t have to be doing this. It was just the inevitable result of a whole day spent trying to fit everything in that he thought needed doing today. As he saw what he was doing to himself, he also saw that he had been unable to question the truth of his original conviction that everything had to get done today, because he was already so completely caught up in believing it.
If you find yourself behaving in similar ways, it is likely that you will also feel driven, tense, and anxious without even knowing why, just as Peter did. So if the thought of how much you have to get done today comes up while you are meditating, you will have to be very attentive to it as a thought or you may be up and doing things before you know it, without any awareness that you decided to stop sitting simply because a thought came through your mind.
On the other hand, when such a thought comes up, if you are able to step back from it and see it clearly, then you will be able to prioritise things and make sensible decisions about what really does need doing. You will know when to call it quits during the day. So the simple act of recognising your thoughts as thoughts can free you from the distorted reality they often create and allow for more clear-sightedness and a greater sense of manageability in your life.
This liberation from the tyranny of the thinking mind comes directly out of the meditation practice itself. When we spend some time each day in a state of non-doing, observing the flow of the breath and the activity of our mind and body, without getting caught up in that activity, we are cultivating calmness and mindfulness hand in hand. As the mind develops stability and is less caught up in the content of thinking, we strengthen the mind’s ability to concentrate and to be calm. And if each time we recognise a thought as a thought when it arises and register its content and discern the strength of its hold on us and the accuracy of its content, then each time we let go of it and come back to our breathing and sense of our body, we are strengthening mindfulness. We come to know ourselves better and become more accepting of ourselves, not as we would like to be, but as we actually are.
Mindfulness Practice App: http://oxfordmindfulness.org/insight/oxford-mbct-app/
or an alternative platform for Mindfulness Practices: www.guilford.com/MBCT_audio
1. From all the different forms of formal mindfulness practice you have experienced, settle on a form of practice that you intend to use on a regular, daily basis for the next 5 weeks. Use this practice on a daily basis this week, and record your reactions on the Homework Record Form.
For SHORTER PRACTICE options go to the Smiling Mind App: https://smilingmind.com.au/
Simply go the Adult Programs and you will find Mindfulness Foundation. Now go to: Mindfulness Foundation note the Module number (201) and practice:
Curiosity and Beginner’s Mind (6mins) 201
Extended Meditation (20 Minutes) 201
Connecting with Nature (5 mins) 201
2. 3-Minute Breathing Space – Regular: Practise three times a day at times that you have decided in advance. Record each time you do it by circling an R for the appropriate day on the Homework Record Form; note any comments/difficulties.
3. 3-Minute Breathing Space – Coping plus Action: Practise whenever you notice unpleasant thoughts or feelings. Record each time you do the coping breathing space by circling a C for the appropriate day on the Homework Record Form; note any comments/difficulties.
4. Complete the feedback form and questionnaires and bring them along next week.
5. Complete your relapse signature and action plan using the guidelines below and bring it along next week
By being actually present in more of our moments and making mindful decisions about what we really need in each of those moments, we can use activity to become more aware and alert, and to regulate mood.
This is true for dealing with both the regular pattern of our daily lives and periods of worry or low mood that may lead to stress and sadness – we can use our day-by-day experience to discover and cultivate activities that we can use as tools to cope with periods of distress. Having these tools already available means that we will be more likely to persist with them in the face of negative thoughts such as “Why bother with anything?” that are simply part of the territory of depressed mood.
For example, one of the simplest ways to take care of your physical and mental well-being is to take daily physical exercise – as a minimum, aim for three brisk, 10-minute walks a day and also, if at all possible, other types of exercise, such as mindful stretching, yoga, swimming, jogging, and so on. Once exercise is in your daily routine, it is a readily available response to depressed moods as they arise.
The breathing space provides a way to remind us to use activity to deal with unpleasant feelings as they arise.
UCLA Health Meditation Practices:
https://www.uclahealth.org › marc › ucla-mindful-app
With this easy-to-use app, you can practice mindfulness meditation anywhere, anytime with the guidance of the UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center.
Tara Brach Meditation Practices:
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/tara-brach/id265264862?mt=2
https://www.tarabrach.com/guided-meditations/