Mindful & Relaxation Practice:
Loving Kindness - with Self (10:00)
Our minds are always trying to give us meaning out of what our senses experience but it’s important to realize that many of those meanings are often based on only a few scraps of information.
Because of this, a lot of time these meanings don’t reflect a true picture of what’s happening. So, we have to keep updating based on new information.
Exercise:
Imagine you are feeling upset because you had a disagreement with a colleague. Shortly after this, you see another colleague in the hall and he or she rushes off quickly saying they can’t stop.
Now imagine you are feeling happy because you and a colleague have been praised for your work. Shortly afterward you see another colleague in the hall and he or she rushes off quickly, saying they can’t stop.
What went through your mind in each scenario? Did you have two different interpretations (one negative and one positive)?
*Our interpretations of events reflect what we bring to them as much, or more than, what is actually there. Thoughts are not facts!
Feelings Give Birth to Related Thinking Patterns
When our feelings and thoughts come together like this, they can actually cause us to feel these feelings more strongly. This makes these thoughts very compelling and can make it hard to see that they are just thoughts.
Sitting Meditation with a Focus on Relating to Thoughts as Mental Events
Practice 20-25 minutes of guided sitting meditation from one or a combination of the meditations listed on the course calendar. Whatever meditation you decide to use, remember to hold in your mind that thoughts are thoughts, not you or the truth.
Every day this week, consider taking a 3-minute breathing space 3 times a day, or as often as is practical for you:
3 Minute Breathing Space – Jon Kabat Zinn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oWmGJc8NWI
Every day, take a breathing space when you notice unpleasant feelings or when you notice your thoughts taking over
3 Minute Breathing Space – Responsive with a Focus on Thoughts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TfqiEdchvw
Three Ways to Practice Viewing Thoughts as Mental Events
When you realize your attention has drifted from your focus (breath, body or sound), pause to recognize any thoughts. Then say, “thinking” to yourself to remind yourself that these thoughts are just thoughts and gently return your attention back to your focus area.
Make thoughts a primary focus of your attention. Similar to when you focus on sounds, notice thoughts arising, developing and passing away. You can imagine your thoughts as if they were a movie on a screen which pass when the scene changes. Or you can picture your thoughts as moving on a stream, carried by and away on a current. To begin with, just try this for 3 or 4 minutes at a time.
When you notice thoughts have a strong emotional charge or seem persistent, remember emotions are “packages” of body sensations, feelings and related thoughts. Acknowledge the thoughts as thoughts, then “drop” below the thoughts to explore, in the body, the sense of emotion that created the thoughts. Bring awareness to that region of the body. This can be hard, so be patient with yourself if it is not immediately easy to bring awareness to all of these sensations.
The Train of Associations
We do not need to fight with thoughts or struggle against them. We can just choose not to follow the thoughts when we realize they have risen. Thoughts can sweep the mind and carry them away and then we jump on the train of association, getting carried away as well.
If we get carried away, we may step down from the train feeling differently than we did before; often feeling worse.
The thoughts we have, and their impact on us, depend on our understanding of things. If we are in a clear space of power when thoughts arise and pass, it doesn’t matter what our thinking is because we can see the thoughts that pass for what they are. Our task is to see them clearly so we can choose which ones to act on and which to let be.
Setting Up an Early Warning System
These lessons were partially designed in order to help people recognize when they’re getting burned out, anxious, depressed, or stressed.
The first step is to prepare an Early Warning System to identify your Early Warning Signs which can tell you your mood is beginning to spiral.
These signs can include: Sleeping more or sleeping less, getting easily exhausted, giving up on exercise, not wanting to see people, not wanting to deal with business, seeing negative thoughts and feelings, eating more or eating less, becoming irritable, putting things off…etc.
What are your own signals? Use the questions here to identify them: www.guilford.com/teasdale-materials.
Often people you trust and who know you well can identify these signs before you do. You can include them to help you notice and respond to these.
You can create a summary of your warning signs by including the 5 most important signals for this.
Stepping Back from Thought
Remember, thoughts are just thoughts, not “you.”
For example, if you think you must get a certain number of things done in a day and act as if it’s the truth, then you’ve created a reality in which you believe all those things have to be done in the day.
So, if the thought of how much you have to do comes up in meditation, you will need to pay attention to this thought or you might actually act on it before you realize you are doing so.
But, if you’re able to step back and see it clearly, you can prioritize things and make sensible decisions about what really needs to be done
In this way, recognizing your thoughts can free you from a distorted reality. When we spend time each day in meditation; in a state of non-doing, we are cultivating calmness.
References
Teasdale, J., Williams, J, & Segal, Z. (2014). The mindful way workbook: An 8-week program to free yourself from depression and emotional distress. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Application: Effectiveness of Mindfulness with Regulating Attention
Many people mistakenly believe that mindfulness or meditation asks the meditator to clear their mind from all thoughts. This is a myth. As this lesson explained, mindfulness teaches you to develop a different relationship with your thoughts. Rather than being consumed by them, you notice them with curiosity, without necessarily believing them. You may even notice yourself noticing your thoughts. Because meditation is such an ancient tradition, many derivations have been established which are commonly practiced around the world today and they all have a slightly different paradigm for how to relate to your thoughts (Zylowska, 2012).
Mindfulness can be practiced by using formal meditation (e.g., a 30-minute sitting meditation focused on the breath) or informal meditation (e.g., briefly bringing awareness to the smell of the ocean while walking along the beach).
The two broad styles of meditation practice are focused attention (FA) meditation and open monitoring (OM) meditation (Lutz, Slagter, Dunne, & Davidson, 2008). FA is marked by a targeted and sustained concentration on a specific object or sensory input (Lutz et al., 2008). FA teaches practitioners to let go of any thoughts that are not in line with their anchor (e.g. the breath or a candle). OM is characterized by a calm, receptive, and accepting awareness of sensations, thoughts, and feelings. Thoughts that arise in the present moment can be investigated with curiosity as an interesting part of the present moment, without them needing to relate to a specific anchor or topic. The Hindu practice of Transcendental Meditation (TM) offers another narrow style of meditation in which one solely repeats a mantra, a specific set of personally meaningful words, to themselves in order to self-actualize (Alexander, Rainforth, & Gelderloos, 1991; Tanner, Travis, Gaylord-King, Haaga, Grosswald, & Schneider, 2009). In TM, similarly to FA, the only thought that is focused upon is the chosen mantra, all other thoughts are allowed to pass by without investigation. FA, OM, and TM, all fall under the umbrella of mindfulness, however they are each unique.
Given that mindfulness involves awareness of the present moment, a common problem meditators experience are distractions from the present moment by thoughts of the past or the future (Zylowska, 2012). For instance, while engaged in FA exercise, the meditator may set their intention on paying attention solely to their breath, however, the mind may become pulled by distracting body sensations, emotional responses, or thoughts of some pressing matter in their life (Lutz et al., 2008). Each time distraction occurs, the meditator must gently nudge their attention back into alignment with the concentration object or stimuli (Lutz et al., 2008).
This process of paying attention to competing stimuli is known as executive attention or conflict attention (Fan, McCandliss, Fossella, Flombaum, & Posner, 2005; Zylowska, 2012). In this manner, meditators practice regulating their attention repeatedly throughout each exercise. For this reason, FA (and TM) can be specifically helpful with improving one's attention because they provide the practitioner with ample opportunities to notice where their mind is, compare it to their intended focus, and redirect their thoughts if necessary.
This is a skill that is needed in everyday life when dealing with a high level of distractibility. OM can be helpful because it helps with consistently having a more comprehensive awareness of internal events (e.g. thoughts and feelings) in a manner that allows them to investigate these internal events prior to acting on them. For example, noticing that they really want to eat yet another slice of pizza after they have already eaten 4 pieces. This moment of reflection can limit the potential damage that stems from what may have otherwise been an impulsive choice.
References
Alexander, C.N., Rainforth, M.V., & Gelderloos, P. (1991), Transcendental Meditation, self-actualization, and psychological health: a conceptual overview and statistical meta-analysis, Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 6(5), 189-247.
Fan, J., McCandliss, B. D., Fossella, J., Flombaum, J. I., & Posner, M. I. (2005). The activation of attentional networks. NueroImage, 26(2), 271-279. doi:10.1016
Lutz, A., Slagter, H. A., Dunne, J. D., & Davidson, R. J. (2008). Attention regulation and monitoring in meditation. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 12(4), 163-169. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2008.01.005
Tanner, M. A., Travis, F., Gaylord-King, C., Haaga, D. F., Grosswald, S., & Schneider, R. H. (2009). The effects of the transcendental mediation program on mindfulness. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 65(6), 574-589. doi:10.1002/jclp.20544
Zylowska, L. (2012). The mindfulness prescription for adult ADHD: An eight-step program for strengthening attention, managing emotions, and achieving your goals. Boston, MA: Trumpeter Books.