Mindfulness Based Living Course: A Self-help Version of the Popular Mindfulness Eight-week Course, Emphasising Kindness and Self-compassion, Including Guided Meditations
192
Mindfulness Based Living Course: A Self-help Version of the Popular Mindfulness Eight-week Course, Emphasising Kindness and Self-compassion, Including Guided Meditations
192eBook
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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781785358401 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Collective Ink |
| Publication date: | 11/30/2018 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 192 |
| File size: | 2 MB |
About the Author
Heather began training in Mindfulness with Rob Nairn in 2004. She is a British Wheel of Yoga trained yoga teacher, has a PGDip in Mindfulness Based Approaches from the University of Bangor, Wales and a Masters Degree in Studies in Mindfulness from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. In 2010 Heather co-founded the Mindfulness Association (www.mindfulnessassociation.net) which is now one of the largest Mindfulness Training and Mindfulness Teacher Training organisations in the UK. She lives in Lockerbie, UK.
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
What is Mindfulness & Why Practise It?
Mindful Eating Exercise
Follow the Mindful Eating Exercise written out below or follow the guided audio.
Traditionally, several raisins are used for this exercise in mindful eating, but interesting alternatives are tangerines, a square of chocolate or a shortbread biscuit. To begin with, have the food resting in your hand and just see it, noticing how it looks, whether light reflects off its surface, the colours and textures that can be observed. Now feel the weight of it in your hand and notice how the contact feels between the food and your hand, and if the object is a tangerine, feel the process of peeling it. Spend some time smelling the food, what scent do you notice? Also, as you smell the food do you notice if anything happens in your mouth. Now place the food in your mouth and feel it resting on your tongue. Can you notice the feelings of contact between the food and your mouth? Do you notice any difference from how the food felt in your hand? What is happening in your mouth as the food rests there? Then take one bite into the food and notice what happens. Are there any textures and tastes that you notice? Slowly chew the food and notice how your experience of eating unfolds. Then swallow the food and see if it is possible to follow the passage of the food down the throat and notice how far you can feel it go. Notice whether there is any aftertaste in the mouth. Then mindfully eat a few more bits of the food, exploring the different senses of taste, smell, touch and sight. Take about 10 minutes in total to eat mindfully.
Write down here what you noticed about your experience:
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Did you notice the weight, texture and feel of the food in your hand before you put it in your mouth? What did it smell like? How did it feel in your mouth and how did it taste? Is this your normal experience of eating?
For many people this exercise can be a revelation, because they realise how the rich and nourishing experience of eating is usually rushed and ignored. Usually we eat quickly and then swallow our food without savouring its taste and texture, so often caught up in thinking about something else. In this way we miss out on the simple delight of eating that is available to us through our senses if only we choose to pay attention.
In a similar way we live so much of our lives on automatic pilot, out of touch with our moment-by-moment experience and lost in thinking. A good example of this is driving a car or taking a bus. On arriving at our destination we might realise that we have noticed very little about our journey – the sights, smells and sounds along the way and instead we might see how we have been caught up in thinking or dreaming, listening to music on the radio, or immersed in the virtual reality of our phone. In doing this we are missing out on the richness of our lives, missing out on connecting with people around us and missing out on the insights that can arise from being in touch with our inner world.
Perhaps this wouldn't matter so much if we were thinking happy thoughts, but so often this is not the case. Mostly we get caught up in ruminating about our problems and worries, and in the process we become even more stressed and miserable. This is where Mindfulness can make a big difference to how we live our lives, so let's look at what Mindfulness is and why we might choose to practise it.
What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is a faculty that we already possess. It is not something that we need to import from the outside. It is like a muscle that we did not realise we had and that we have seldom used, so it is weak. Just as we can train a muscle by going to a gym, we can train the faculty of Mindfulness through doing practice. In short, this faculty needs to be recognised and then trained.
Rob Nairn describes Mindfulness as:
Knowing what is happening, while it is happening, without preference.
The key element in this definition is 'knowing'. This does not refer to conceptual knowing, but to a quality of simple awareness: we are aware of what is happening while it is happening. This might not seem like a big deal when we start, but the more we practise Mindfulness the more we realise that although what we experience is constantly changing, awareness does not change. More and more we learn to come to rest in this awareness and to relate to our lives from this place. When we do this we find a place of stability within ourselves that we can come to rely upon and trust. From this stability, insight naturally arises into what is happening within our minds and in life around us. In this way, we do less and see more.
The definition also illustrates that there are two aspects to Mindfulness training. The first is technique: "Knowing what is happening, while it is happening" and the second is attitude: "without preference".
Technique
The technique is to stay present and be aware of what is happening both within our mind and the outer environment. Mindfulness is a way of being in touch with life directly as it emerges, unfolds and changes. This skill is deceptively simple but hard to practise. The mind very quickly drifts away from simple awareness of the present moment into thinking about things, and in this way we lose touch with the quality of knowing that lies at the heart of Mindfulness. For this reason we need methods to help us stay present.
In our approach we use a four-stage method:
• we learn to settle our jumpy 'monkey mind' through breathing and counting
• we bring ourselves more fully into the body through grounding
• we come to rest in the space of awareness that exists in and around our experience
• we use a neutral support (like sound or breath) to bring our attention back to this simple awareness of being present when it drifts away into thinking
This will be explored in more detail later, but right now the important point is to appreciate that we need a set of methods or techniques to help us train the mind. As many Buddhist teachers remark, it does not matter how many times our attention drifts away into thinking, the only important thing is to notice this and bring our attention back to the present – and for this we need a method.
Attitude
This second aspect is a crucial part of the training. If we practise the Mindfulness methods with a critical or judgmental attitude, we can end up being even more critical of ourselves – especially when we notice things in ourselves that are unpleasant or difficult. Acceptance lies at the heart of the attitude we are trying to cultivate. It means being OK with whatever is occurring within our minds, whether pleasant, unpleasant or boring – hence the phrase "without preference" in the definition above. This entails making space for difficult feelings and emotions and not getting caught up in reacting to them. As Rob Nairn so often says, "Nothing is wrong!" This statement points to something really important that lies at the heart of Mindfulness training: even if things feel bad and difficult we do not need to reject these feelings, because they are part of the richness of who we are as human beings. Through reading this book we hope that you will come to understand the far-reaching implications of Rob's statement and how it can transform your life.
Another important element of the attitude is cultivating warmth and kindness to what arises in our experience. We are not simply dispassionate and neutral to what we feel, but we learn to hold the inner movement of sensations and feelings with kindness. The meaning of kindness in this context is not judging ourselves for the experience we are having. This allows the mind to open up and not contract around difficult feelings. It is also a way of acknowledging what is right and well within our experience.
As Jon Kabat-Zinn states:
So long as we are breathing there is more right with us than is wrong with us.
This is reassuring as all of us reading this book are breathing!
Why Practise Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is an experiential process. It requires us to practise it rather than think about it too much. For this reason when we ask ourselves the question of why we might want to practise it, it is best to turn to our own experience for answers rather than get involved in a process of analytical thinking. In this respect, reflect on the following questions:
• How often do you do one thing while thinking about something else? Like washing the dishes while ruminating over an argument you had with a colleague.
• How often do you find yourself dwelling on the past or worrying about the future?
• How does it make you feel to live your life this way? Do you notice any feelings of conflict or stress or a drop in your mood?
• Would you like to find a different way of relating to your thoughts and emotions – one that is more accepting and less reactive?
This is the path of Mindfulness practice.
Some universal benefits to practising Mindfulness include:
• Appreciating the richness of the moment-by-moment experience rather than glossing over this as you race through your life on automatic pilot
• Becoming kinder and less critical towards yourself and others
• Becoming less reactive and so less likely to hurt yourself or others through destructive emotions like anger, jealousy and resentment
• Improving your relationships through being more present, responsive and attentive to friends, loved ones, strangers, and even enemies
• Allowing your mind to become more settled and calm
• Enabling your inherent wisdom and compassion to emerge and enrich your everyday experience, so that you fulfil your potential as a human being
Key research findings on the benefits of Mindfulness practice are:
• It can enable us to cope with medical (physical and mental health) and non-medical problems
• It can help to reduce stress, anxiety and rumination
• It can help to increase empathy and self-compassion
• It can reduce emotional distress, increase positive states of mind and improve quality of life
• It can influence the brain, autonomic nervous system, stress hormones and the immune system in positive ways
• It can promote healthy eating and sleeping
• It can promote optimal health in mind, body, spirit and relationships
CHAPTER 2Session One – Start Here and Now
Guided Reflection on Intention and Motivation
Spend a few minutes reflecting on the following questions and filling out the sections below. Try not to think too much about the answers, but just see what emerges without any expectations. Give time for a few answers to emerge, but also be OK if no answers come at the moment. You may find that answers to these questions arise at other times, such as when you are going to sleep, when you are washing up or when you are out walking. If this happens, make a note and write them down below later.
What is my intention or purpose in following the course in this book?
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How do I hope to benefit from it?
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How do I want it to change the way that I live my life?
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How do I want it to benefit the people in my life and in the world?
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What are my deepest hopes and aspirations in following this course?
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Can I express these in the form of a personal vision or aspiration, which communicates my wholehearted intention?
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If we lose our motivation to practise after a few weeks it can be useful to come back and look at these notes, to remind ourselves why it is that we want to practise Mindfulness.
It is important not to make our intention and motivation into a goal or an expectation, so that we are constantly measuring our progress against our desired outcomes. So once we clarify our intention and motivation, then let go of any aims or expectations and instead just follow the course and do the practices. Then review how it has gone when you get to the end of the course.
Intention, Motivation and Sharing
We use intention, motivation and sharing to frame each of our sessions of Mindfulness practice. We reflect on intention and motivation at the beginning of each session of practice, and we reflect on the benefits of our practice and share these benefits with others at the end of each session. So each session has a beginning, a middle and an end.
Intention
Reflecting on our intention sets our direction of travel. Before we do anything in life we start with an intention. When we are thirsty and want to drink a cup of tea, we first form an intention to make one. Similarly, at the beginning of a practice session we sit in our posture and form the intention to practise Mindfulness. We bring to mind the key elements of Mindfulness practice that have taken root in our own experience. Some examples of how we might express our intention are:
• To stay present
• To come back to being present when we notice that we are lost in thinking
• To be kind and gentle to ourselves during our practice
These are just suggestions and it is important that we make our intention our own – something that touches our heart and is meaningful to us. Intention drives change in the human mind and so reminding ourselves of our intention each time we practise helps us to stay on track with our aspiration: perhaps to be mindful, accepting and kind. For example, each time we notice that we are caught up in thinking, it is our intention to be present that reminds us to come back to the present moment. Each time we notice we are giving ourselves a hard time, because our minds are caught up in thinking again, it is our intention to be kind that reminds us to be gentle with ourselves.
Motivation
After reflecting on intention we then reflect on motivation. Whereas intention clarifies what we are doing, motivation clarifies why we are doing it. In this way motivation provides a broader context for our Mindfulness practice: why do I want to practise Mindfulness? Some examples of motivation are:
• Benefitting ourselves – for example becoming less stressed, sleeping better and feeling calmer
• Benefitting others – for example improving relationships with our loved ones and being less reactive with those people we find challenging
Again, these are just suggestions and it is important that we make our motivation personal and rooted in our own experience, so that it is meaningful to us. As our Mindfulness practice matures and we begin to see its potential to transform our lives, our motivation may change and develop. It might evolve, for example, from wanting to feel more calm and less stressed to aspiring to actualise our full potential as human beings and helping others to do the same.
Reflecting on our motivation each time we practise reminds us regularly of the importance of our Mindfulness practice in our lives. Over time it is our motivation that gets us out of bed in the morning and on to our cushion to meditate each day. It creates the force and impetus behind our practice.
Intention and motivation are like a bow and arrow. Intention is the arrow and motivation is the power behind the bow. First we point the arrow in the direction we wish it to go and then the muscles of the arm pull back the bow – the muscles are the power of motivation behind our intention. But just as we let go of the arrow once it is fired, in a similar way we let go of our intention once formed and trust that it will take us in the right direction. In this way we do not turn our intention into an expectation. We bring it to mind when we start to practise and then we let it go and trust in what happens.
Sharing
At the end of our session we take some time to reflect on the benefit we may have experienced from doing our Mindfulness practice. It is important to acknowledge that Mindfulness practice is an activity that we do that is beneficial to ourselves and to those around us, and to acknowledge how fortunate we are to be able to practise Mindfulness. Many people do not have this opportunity to train their minds. Then we cultivate a habit of generosity by sharing this benefit with others, in particular those who are less fortunate than we are. We make the wish that others may benefit from our Mindfulness practice. This practice of sharing counteracts the tendency to become self-absorbed and it encourages us to open up to a bigger space of awareness in which we acknowledge our connection with all living beings.
Posture Sitting in a Chair
Mindfulness practice involves placing both the mind and the body in an appropriate context that nurtures the emergence of awareness. We place the mind by setting our intention and motivation. We then place the body by paying close attention to our posture.
The body is a great ally in Mindfulness practice because it is always present, even though the mind wanders all over the place. For this reason we use the posture of the body as a container for holding the mind. Moreover, the posture of the body is a metaphor for our intention. It embodies the following qualities that we are aspiring to in our practice:
• Alert
• Open
• Grounded
• Dignified
• At ease, embodying kindness to ourselves
A useful metaphor for posture is imagining the body like a mountain, the breath like the wind and the mind like the sky.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Mindfullness Based Living Course"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Choden & Heather Regan-Addis.
Excerpted by permission of John Hunt Publishing Ltd..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Introduction,
Chapter 1 – What is Mindfulness & Why Practise It?,
Chapter 2 – Session One – Start Here and Now,
Chapter 3 – Session Two – The Body is Always Here and Now,
Chapter 4 – Session Three – Introducing Mindfulness Support,
Chapter 5 – Session Four – Working with Distraction,
Chapter 6 – Session Five – Exploring the Undercurrent,
Chapter 7 – Session Six – Exploring the Attitude of the Observer,
Chapter 8 – Session Seven – Acceptance & Self-Compassion,
Chapter 9 – Session Eight – A Mindfulness Based Life,
Chapter 10 – The Rest of Your Life,
Chapter 11 – Mindfulness Skills for Times of Difficulty,