tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9669620589058011662024-03-27T00:34:20.462-05:00Live Mindfullyreflections on mindfulness, psychology, and mindful livingRoger Thomson, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/18246248530154377632noreply@blogger.comBlogger55125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-966962058905801166.post-85952237550158721482014-03-24T08:38:00.000-05:002014-03-24T08:38:36.688-05:00Chicago Zen Meditation Community<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirFzUz_v-Rgk4NDhojlooP3MHsSkUBMvoLXF9y06LL1kJxd9FUuafp-QvpOLxrEE7AGd-liQXpID7vbqzutwBJ-QmMxec8jBTv1d_KMwyYbiYxRBuTtfU9IcLThjSPcSnB-9y2lqsrYwg/s1600/header+watercolor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirFzUz_v-Rgk4NDhojlooP3MHsSkUBMvoLXF9y06LL1kJxd9FUuafp-QvpOLxrEE7AGd-liQXpID7vbqzutwBJ-QmMxec8jBTv1d_KMwyYbiYxRBuTtfU9IcLThjSPcSnB-9y2lqsrYwg/s1600/header+watercolor.jpg" height="179" width="400" /></a></div>
The <a href="http://www.zenchicago.org/" target="_blank">Chicago Zen Meditation Community</a> now has two meetings a week for zazen: Wednesday afternoons in the Loop, and Sunday evenings in Lincoln Park. Each meeting has a short instruction in meditation for newcomers, a period of sitting meditation, and a dharma talk by Myoshi Roger Thomson, a teacher in the Soto Zen Buddhist tradition. All are welcome. You can find the details and contact information on their website,<a href="http://www.zenchicago.org/" target="_blank"> www.zenchicago.org</a>. Roger Thomson, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/18246248530154377632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-966962058905801166.post-77089890388802789562013-02-23T10:20:00.000-06:002013-02-23T10:20:00.109-06:00"Low-Dose" MBSR is Highly Effective<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguLsx3I2R7yYY-U0cvYrZUDdA4hXdU_k2Xpp6-FbI4DLyEayl6LpI1PJPecEtGF8dPIV9F5HJ4KhcvpYZ0dZUyM0CfgMr2xpOwUpqHlwVd8mSsoGBCpxamEmoW3aRfobqO_Nh1iJckyvM/s1600/MBSRwords.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="101" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguLsx3I2R7yYY-U0cvYrZUDdA4hXdU_k2Xpp6-FbI4DLyEayl6LpI1PJPecEtGF8dPIV9F5HJ4KhcvpYZ0dZUyM0CfgMr2xpOwUpqHlwVd8mSsoGBCpxamEmoW3aRfobqO_Nh1iJckyvM/s200/MBSRwords.png" width="200" /></a>Another study has recently been published confirming the benefits of an 8-hour version of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. The study by <a href="http://www.integrativehealthpartners.org/downloads/klatt%202012%20mbsr-ld.pdf" target="_blank">M. Klatt et al, (2012)</a> investigated the stress reduction effects of a program for staff of a Surgical Intensive Care Unit. The mindfulness training was given one hour a week (at shift change) for eight weeks. In this wait-list controlled study, self-report measures of depression, anxiety, stress, and quality of sleep all improved for the participants in the MBSR training. Work satisfaction also increased. At the biological level, a salivary stress marker (alpha-amylase) was reduced in the MBSR group. The authors concluded that:<br />
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Given the nature of <span style="background-color: white;">the job, work-related stressful events in the SICU will </span><span style="background-color: white;">not change, but the resiliency tools offered via the intervention </span><span style="background-color: white;">may help maintain wellness and prevent the </span><span style="background-color: white;">deleterious effects of stress.</span></blockquote>
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At Integrative Health Partners, Dr. Becca Meyer has been offering a four-week Mindfulness and Stress Reduction course for a couple of years. Our experience has been that people benefit greatly, and finish the program with an interest in continuing to explore mindfulness practices. Since the shorter program (each class is 2 hours) is more accessible as a time and financial commitment, people who would otherwise not be able to learn MBSR have a chance to develop their mindfulness practice and deal more effectively with the stresses of their lives.<br />
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MBSR-LD is a real-world mindfulness program that can be customized for businesses and for individual needs. <span style="background-color: white;">Our next Mindfulness and Stress Reduction Program will begin in March, 2013. Contact Dr. Meyer for details at meyer AT integrativehealthpartners DOT org.</span>Roger Thomson, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/18246248530154377632noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-966962058905801166.post-65428294568048879352012-05-27T12:05:00.000-05:002012-05-27T12:05:07.018-05:00Millennium Park Zen Group<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOLi0QGxqqMg9QqUtERzkDZePe0XwHWXPV7PmObdILYRmqPL5ttCbFFPDU3Q5H3okXdpcXZbGRrOKN5gSNQQ6o3h1Xu4QlD7nuaAAm6XGyGBPF5mvdku4MKas28ENYS2Rm0_uNKRWJE2Q/s1600/Cloud_Gate_III_by_alierturk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOLi0QGxqqMg9QqUtERzkDZePe0XwHWXPV7PmObdILYRmqPL5ttCbFFPDU3Q5H3okXdpcXZbGRrOKN5gSNQQ6o3h1Xu4QlD7nuaAAm6XGyGBPF5mvdku4MKas28ENYS2Rm0_uNKRWJE2Q/s400/Cloud_Gate_III_by_alierturk.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
The <a href="http://www.zenchicago.org/p/meditation_10.html" target="_blank">Millennium Park Zen Meditation Group</a> is a month old now. We meet every Wednesday afternoon, from 2:15 to 3:30 pm. Each meeting, we practice the Zen tradition of sitting meditation (<i>zazen</i>) and walking meditation (<i>kinhin</i>), and we also have a discussion. I've been trying to post something weekly about the most recent discussion, and you can see these posts in our blog section, if you like. If you are interested in joining us for meditation and discussion of Zen meditation and mindfulness, just contact me at thomson@integrativehealthpartners.org.Roger Thomson, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/18246248530154377632noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-966962058905801166.post-35740384440769487592012-04-18T08:27:00.001-05:002012-04-25T06:51:24.765-05:00Zen in the City<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRZjHlKm8hVmRdA3pV4ArS9yld0poPhD07La-T7pMQAYvuum0ru7M8LLNf8fVA-1fgwilk-xyAzV1ozctJn2KQA6BgfXLcOMRECAGjECFaae67nlrcHWIAN3CxIDT_1OraihjRNiGqDic/s1600/Leaf+%281%29.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="148" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRZjHlKm8hVmRdA3pV4ArS9yld0poPhD07La-T7pMQAYvuum0ru7M8LLNf8fVA-1fgwilk-xyAzV1ozctJn2KQA6BgfXLcOMRECAGjECFaae67nlrcHWIAN3CxIDT_1OraihjRNiGqDic/s200/Leaf+%281%29.jpg" width="200" /></a>I'm hoping that therapists and healthcare professionals who work in downtown Chicago will be interested in a group for mindfulness meditation. On Wednesday afternoons, starting May 2, I'll be leading a Zen meditation group that's open to all, but especially geared toward therapists, MDs, nurses, PTs - people who are engaged in the <i>bodhisattva </i>activity of helping others. We are a group who really need a way to restore and center ourselves so we can be available to our patients and clients. <br />
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The Zen Buddhist tradition has a lot to offer mindfulness practitioners. The instruction for our style of meditation, called <i>zazen,</i> is beautiful in its simplicity: just sit. Wouldn't it be interesting to just do one thing, whatever it might me, without being preoccupied with our typical fog of thought? This is the art of <i>zazen</i>, and in the Zen tradition, we feel that our meditation doesn't end when we stand up. As my teacher is fond of saying, "the world is your monastery." The real impact of meditation is that it reminds us of what it is like to be truly present, and encourages us to find that presence in all of our activities.<br />
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Zen has a 2500 year tradition of encouraging <i>zazen</i>, and I'm happy to share it as best I can in group practice and discussion. Email me if you are interested in sitting with the group sometime: thomson AT integrativehealthpartners DOT org. You can also reach me through my <a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/18246248530154377632" target="_blank">Blogger profile</a> and my website, <a href="http://www.integrativehealthpartners.org/">www.integrativehealthpartners.org</a>. I'll be happy to give you the details and talk to you about your interests.<br />
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Deep bows,<br />
Roger ThomsonRoger Thomson, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/18246248530154377632noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-966962058905801166.post-28438062627337980102012-01-17T12:30:00.001-06:002012-01-17T12:30:40.707-06:00Getting Back to Beginner's MindIn yesterday's Mindfulness and Psychotherapy seminar at the Fourth Presbyterian Church Counseling Center, we were talking about psychological flexibility. So often, we forget that the way we think about our relationships, our jobs - the world - is just the way we THINK about it. Recognizing the limitations of our views is the first step to developing psychological flexibility, which sometimes can be called "Beginner's Mind." Seeing the bigger picture is one way to recognize the narrowness of our typical picture. This video (contributed by Tom Schemper, the director of the counseling center) might help with that. Thanks, Tom. <br />
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<br />Roger Thomson, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/18246248530154377632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-966962058905801166.post-16839209291791349782012-01-01T14:24:00.000-06:002012-01-02T17:05:15.425-06:00Mindful Eating and Weight LossThis winter, our course in mindful
eating will begin soon after New Year’s Day, on January 11. For many people struggling with food and
weight related issues, the New Year is not particularly happy. The holiday
season often leads to overeating and weight gain as people are presented with even
more calorie dense foods and alcohol than usual. Add holiday stress to the equation, such as
internal pressure to secure the “perfect” gift, or to create a memorable
holiday despite financial or time constraints. The often painful discrepancy
between how we think our families and our celebrations ought to be and the way
they actually are can be difficult to tolerate. This stress and negative affect
can result in impulsive overeating and overdrinking, because in the moment the
rest of that cake and the eggnog promise some comfort and relief.<br />
<br />
Overconsumption, increased stress,
and resulting weight gain often propel individuals to a wish for change, such
as making a New Year’s resolution to get control of eating and to lose weight. Unfortunately,
many people make the same New Year’s resolutions year after year because goals
such as “lose 75 pounds” or “get up at 5 a.m. daily to run” are typically not
achievable or sustainable. A large amount of psychological research also
underscores the importance of selecting goals that are realistic and moderate rather
than extreme. An “all or nothing” radical change program frequently results in “nothing”
because it’s not possible to maintain a 500 calorie a day “cleanse” without
binge eating in response to an overly depriving diet.<br />
<br />
Sadly, even if we are being more
moderate about weight goals, more research is finding that, as millions of
people have experienced for themselves, it is very difficult to lose weight and
to maintain the loss (see <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/tara-parker-pope-fat-trap.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=tara%20parker-pope&st=cse">this article in the New York Times</a>). We have known
for some time that only a minority of individuals manage to sustain significant
weight loss, but now we understand more about how and why this is so difficult.
Humans evolved in a “feast or famine” environment, and our bodies developed
numerous mechanisms designed to ensure our survival. We seem to be hard wired
to prefer sweets, fat, and lots of variety, all of which were adaptive in our
ancestral environment. Diets tend to be viewed by the body as alarming
indicators of potential starvation that must be abated by a metabolic drop, and
actual weight loss seems to result in ongoing secretion of chemicals designed
to increase food intake and restore the lost weight.<br />
<br />
Does this mean it’s hopeless to try
to lose weight? Not at all; I know many people who have done it and maintained
their loss. Individuals who binge eat and respond to negative emotions by
overeating can frequently change these patterns and gradually lose weight.
Also, stress is a significant contributor to weight gain; stress results in the
secretion of cortisol, which promote abdominal weight gain. Research is
demonstrating that mindfulness based interventions can be very helpful with
such issues. <a href="http://integrativehealthpartners.org/downloads/dalen%202010%20mfn%20eating%20weight.pdf">Dalen et al. (2010)</a> conducted a six week mindfulness class that
showed numerous beneficial outcomes on eating variables as well as emotional
factors. Participants reported weight loss, reductions in binge eating,
increases in feelings of control around food, and improvements in their levels
of stress and depression. <a href="http://integrativehealthpartners.org/downloads/daubenmier%202011%20mfn%20eating.pdf">Daubenmier et al. (2011)</a> conducted a four month
mindfulness based program for stress eating. Obese treatment participants
showed large decreases in cortisol secretion. Although they did not lose weight
over the course of the study, they maintained their weight, whereas control
group participants gained weight and showed no changes in cortisol. Finally, a
one day mindfulness and acceptance workshop (<a href="http://integrativehealthpartners.org/downloads/lillis%202011%20eating%20EA.pdf">Lillis et al., 2011</a>) was found to
decrease self reported binge eating in a three month follow up.<br />
<br />
Mindfulness based interventions
enable individuals to become more accepting of internal experiences rather than
avoidant. Being able calmly and compassionately to sit with a painful feeling and
to recognize it as a transient mental event lessens the urge to self-medicate
with food. Becoming more aware of what hunger and satiety feel like promotes
more attuned responses to these signals from the self. Such attunement fosters the development of an
sensible eating program that may result in weight loss. Feel free to read more about <a href="http://integrativehealthpartners.org/pages/mindfuleating.html">Integrative Health Partners’ six week Mindful Eating Class</a>, designed for people
who want to find a way to actually live their New Year’s resolutions. <br />
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</div>Mary Connors, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06958751607410290743noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-966962058905801166.post-63526133790328993072011-12-23T08:21:00.000-06:002012-01-02T17:05:30.637-06:00Mindful Eating Class Begins Jan 11Integrative Health Partners' next class in Mindful Eating, taught by Mary Connors, Ph.D., will begin on January 11, 2012. We know that the new year is a time in which we reflect on our goals and our health, and we want to provide this support for people who want to move in a positive direction around issues of eating, weight and nutrition.<br />
<br />
Our mindful eating class is a six-week program. In it, Dr. Connors will help you clarify your needs and goals and provide really useful information on eating, dieting, nutrition and psychology. She will teach a variety of mindfulness techniques to help you find
emotional balance and respond more effectively to the stresses that can
trigger emotional overeating. This class can help you learn to be more aware of your real needs regarding food, and
more capable of being truly self-nurturing. Mindfulness provides a way
to actually be present with your eating, and so helps you experience
greater enjoyment and reduces the ‘automatic’ nature of overeating
problems.<br />
<br />
The class is a great chance to learn to develop a mindfulness practice and to apply it to a really important area of daily life. Be sure to call Mary if you are interested or have any questions: her phone is 312-372-5501. You can also read more about our program on the <a href="http://integrativehealthpartners.org/pages/mindfuleating.html" target="_blank">Integrative Health Partners website</a>. You can also send an email through our <a href="http://integrativehealthpartners.org/pages/contactus.html" target="_blank">Contact page</a>.Roger Thomson, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/18246248530154377632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-966962058905801166.post-11188305483956207872011-04-22T09:35:00.000-05:002011-08-26T05:49:49.736-05:00Mindful Breathing and EMDRAn ongoing discussion in the <a href="http://integrativehealthpartners.org/pages/education.html">Mindfulness and Psychotherapy Study Group</a> has investigated the similarities of mindfulness-based psychotherapy and EMDR. We've noted that the EMDR protocol asks the client to become deeply aware of present moment experiences, including thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations, and to track those experiences as they change over time. Clearly, in this moment-by-moment awareness, a substantial degree of mindfulness is being elicited in EMDR treatment. Even the act of tracking a moving finger with the eyes requires a sustained contact with present moment visual sensation, and can be considered a mindfulness practice.<br />
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Now, there is some interesting research exploring the therapeutic mechanisms in both EMDR and mindfulness practice. <a href="http://integrativehealthpartners.org/downloads/vandenhout%202011%20mfn%20emdr.pdf">Marcel van den Hout and colleagues (2011)</a> have just published a paper whose title says it all: "EMDR and mindfulness: Eye movements and attentional breathing tax working memory and reduce vividness and emotionality of aversive ideation."<br />
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This study demonstrated that putting one's attention on either breathing or eye movement essentially takes up some of the available mental bandwidth. The authors at Utrecht University suggest that this is a possible explanation for the increased emotional stability found in mindfulness and EMDR practices. While attending to breathing or eye movements, they argue, we just don't have the mental capacity to pay as much attention to emotions or distressing imagery. They found that breathing and eye movements taxed working memory to the same degree, and had similar (but not identical) effects on a person's experience of emotional distress.<br />
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This makes a lot of sense, and this finding dovetails with another discussion we have been having, about the way the brain processes different kinds of information. We know from the work of <a href="http://integrativehealthpartners.org/downloads/farb%202007%20mfn%20neuro.pdf">Farb and colleagues (2007)</a> that different areas of the brain are involved in processing sensory experience and abstract thought or imagery. Thus, adding eye movements or mindful breathing to an emotional experience would shift the location of brain activity away from the "narrative" areas responsible for "aversive ideation," and instead engage areas dedicated to a more sensory level of processing. With a greater "experiential focus," we are less able to generate an emotionally reactive state because we are more grounded in the realistic, sensory, and non-ideational level of experience. It may be that the stabilizing effects of mindful breathing or eye movements come not simply by "overloading" the brain's information processing capacities, but by actually processing experience in a different way.<br />
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Buddhist psychology (or what modern psychology is beginning to refer to as the "<a href="http://integrativehealthpartners.org/downloads/grabovac%202011%20budd%20mfn.pdf">Buddhist Psychological Model</a>") suggests that mindfulness keeps us in contact with things as they really are by interrupting the processes of mental proliferation that create misunderstanding and reactivity. In mindfulness, we are grounded in what is "really real," as it were, and less carried away in our imagination, prejudice, and reactivity. Current scientific research into the psychology of mindfulness is beginning to suggest ways in which this process is supported at a neurobiological level. In future discussions in the study group, we will be exploring ways to bring this scientific knowledge into the consulting room, and find more effective ways of modelling and evoking mindfulness in the therapeutic relationship.Roger Thomson, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/18246248530154377632noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-966962058905801166.post-23378106059790979882010-09-19T12:36:00.007-05:002011-08-26T05:48:39.533-05:00Unlimiting the Mind<span class="zemanta-img separator" style="clear: right;"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bhavachakra.jpg" style="clear: right; display: block; float: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Bhavacakra (Sanskrit; Devanagari: भवचक्र; ..." height="200" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/21/Bhavachakra.jpg/300px-Bhavachakra.jpg" style="border: medium none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="146" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution" style="clear: both; float: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; width: 300px;"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bhavachakra.jpg"></a></span></span>Andrew Olendzki's book, <i>Unlimiting Mind</i> (2010) is the first text we will read in this year's study group in mindfulness and psychotherapy. Olendzki is one of the foremost American teachers of <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vipassan%C4%81" rel="wikipedia" title="Vipassanā">Vipassana</a>, a Buddhist school which emphasizes mindfulness. His writing is wonderfully clear and he makes some of the ancient Buddhist texts and ideas very accessible.<br />
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For the next meeting of the study group (October 8), I'm recommending that we focus on the sections that are most directly related to <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_and_psychology" rel="wikipedia" title="Buddhism and psychology">Buddhist psychology</a> and the underpinnings of mindfulness: section 4, "The Practice;" section 5, "Understanding the Teachings;" and section 8, "The Emergence of Mindfulness".<br />
<br />
Olendzki has chosen a great title for this work, because it addresses the central question of Buddhists and psychologists alike. How do we get free of the limitations which stand between us and a fulfilling, worthwhile life? Olendzki turns to ancient Buddhist sources (the scriptures recorded in the <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pali" rel="wikipedia" title="Pali">Pali language</a> about 300 years after Buddha's death) for his answer, and so gives us a window into the wisdom and traditions that have preserved mindfulness to this day. He writes insightfully about the conditioning which leads all of us to go through our lives on automatic pilot, concerned primarily with how to accumulate the things we like and get rid of the things we dislike. We are hardly aware of the psychological processes that restrict our happiness, and Olendzi's great contribution is to make those mental functions accessible to our western consciousness.<br />
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One very interesting approach to <i>Unlimiting Mind</i> is to read it while reflecting on our modern applications of mindfulness. It is especially illuminating to consider the connection between values and mindfulness in <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acceptance_and_commitment_therapy" rel="wikipedia" title="Acceptance and commitment therapy">Acceptance and Commitment Therapy</a> (ACT) while reading Olendzki's account of "Changing your mind" in section 4. Also, in section 5, Olendzki discusses one of my favorite concepts from Buddhist psychology: <i>Papanca</i>. Referring to our tendency to "mentally proliferate" on our experience, and to become absorbed in our reactions to the point of being completely out of touch with our basic experience, <i>papanca </i>is the Buddhist forerunner of ACT's core concept of cognitive fusion.<br />
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I'm hoping that reading <i>Unlimiting Mind</i> will develop a familiarity with Buddhist psychology that will help us see the roots of the ACT processes that were rediscovered though <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relational_frame_theory" rel="wikipedia" title="Relational frame theory">Relational Frame Theory</a>. I'm looking forward to a stimulating and wide-ranging discussion on October 8th.<a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://www.zemanta.com/" title="Enhanced by Zemanta"><img alt="Enhanced by Zemanta" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_e.png?x-id=7108f2ee-b149-487c-ac52-02a200c94df0" style="border: medium none; float: right;" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related pretty-attribution"><script defer="defer" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" type="text/javascript">
</script></span>Roger Thomson, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/18246248530154377632noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-966962058905801166.post-53169396528001384082010-04-29T06:30:00.003-05:002011-02-24T13:53:22.839-06:00Making MBSR More Accessible<div class="zemanta-img" style="display: block; float: right; margin: 1em; width: 250px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/20521043@N03/3183573084" rel="nofollow"><img alt="Mindfulness" height="160" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3490/3183573084_682ef28858_m.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block;" width="240" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution">Image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/20521043@N03/3183573084">kenleyneufeld</a> via Flickr</span></div>Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is the best studied method of offering mindfulness in a group format. It is often given in eight week courses, with some programs requiring 28 hours of class time and about 40 hours of home practice. Costs for these courses can exceed $500.00. Thus, participation in a traditionally-structured MBSR course can require a commitment of time and resources that many are unable to make.<br />
<br />
One interesting thing about MBSR is that we don't expect to emerge from our first course as mindfulness experts. Hopefully, we have learned some foundational skills and attitudes that we can develop and explore in our ongoing lives. The spirit of investigation is probably the most important thing to cultivate in our first exposure, because that is what will sustain our practice in the long run. <br />
<br />
Now, research is emerging about the optimal way of introducing mindfulness, exploring the possibility of <a href="http://integrativehealthpartners.org/index.html">mindfulness and stress reduction</a> courses which are shorter and therefore more available to people with difficult schedules and/or limited financial resources. It seems that outcomes from shorter courses are quite similar to those of longer courses.<br />
<br />
Here are some statistics from a recent review by <a href="http://integrativehealthpartners.org/downloads/carmody%202009%20mbsr%20ld.pdf">James Carmody and Ruth Baer (2009)</a>:<br />
<blockquote>A recent report by Jain and colleagues (Jain et al., 2007) of a randomized trial of an MBSR program with 12 hours of class time found a pre- and post-MBSR <a class="zem_slink freebase/en/effect_size" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effect_size" rel="wikipedia nofollow" title="Effect size">effect size</a> of 1.36 (Cohen’s d) in the General Severity Index (GSI)... a measure of overall psychological distress. In a recent report of outcomes from an 8-week program comprising 26 hours of class time, Carmody and Baer (2008) found an effect size of .65 for the same measure. Participants in these two studies reported similar levels of distress at preprogram assessment (T score range 62–64)... A recent trial by <a href="http://integrativehealthpartners.org/downloads/klatt2008%20MBSR-LD.pdf">Klatt, Buckworth, and Malarkey (2008)</a> found an effect size of .61 in a program consisting of 6 in-class hours. Finally, in a recent meta-analysis of MBSR outcomes, Grossman, Niemann, Schmidt, and Walach (2004) reported a mean between-groups effect size at posttreatment for all mental health scales of .62 for a trial in which MBSR included 20 hours of class time (Shapiro, Bootzin, Figueredo, Lopez, & Schwartz, 2003) and a similar effect size (.56) for a trial in which MBSR included 28 hours of class time (Williams, Kolar, Reger, & Pearson, 2001).</blockquote><br />
In this review, it was found that shorter programs (sometimes referred to as MBSR-ld, or "lower dose") have comparable or even greater impact on stress than the traditional MBSR program. Also, it seems that participants completing the shorter course have a high degree of interest in mindfulness and are motivated to continue to develop their practice. <br />
<br />
At Integrative Health Partners, we have decided that our next course in <a href="http://integrativehealthpartners.org/pages/stressreduction.html">Mindfulness and Stress Reduction</a> will conform to the emerging "LD" model. We will offer a 4 week program modeled on the research of <a href="http://integrativehealthpartners.org/downloads/olivio%202009%20mbsr-ld.pdf">Olivio <i>et al</i> (2009)</a>. Our hope is that people who have felt daunted by the typical 8-week time commitment will find it possible to participate. If you are interested, feel free to contact Dr. Becca Meyer (312-372-2880) about the details of the next course.<br />
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</script></span></div>Roger Thomson, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/18246248530154377632noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-966962058905801166.post-43360292643884674782010-02-16T15:30:00.001-06:002011-02-24T13:56:34.522-06:00Mindfulness and Stress Reduction Class Begins February 23We can all relate to the idea of being "stressed out." Whether caused by relationships, work, or illness, stress takes a very real toll on our minds and bodies. So when we cannot eliminate external sources of stress, we must find a different, healthier way to relate to them. And the practice of mindfulness is such a way. <br />
<br />
The practice of mindfulness is the practice of being present---truly, intentionally, and nonjudgmentally present---with experiences as they unfold. Through the practice of mindfulness, we make a decision to engage with life, developing a greater appreciation for and enjoyment of everyday experiences that might otherwise be minimized or missed. Mindfulness practice also offers us tools to cope with difficult or challenging experiences. We use mindfulness practice to center ourselves and create serenity and stability in the midst of emotional turmoil. Mindfulness develops our cognitive and emotional adaptability & flexibilty, allowing us to respond more skillfully to the challenges we face, rather than reacting reflexively in ways that are both unproductive and compound our stress. <br />
<br />
In our Mindfulness & <a href="http://integrativehealthpartners.org/pages/stressreduction.html">Stress Reduction</a> course, students will learn the fundamentals of formal mindfulness practice, including mindful breathing, body scan, sitting meditation, and walking meditation. The class also encourages informal practice by helping students bring nonjudgmental attention to everyday experiences. The class will focus on using mindfulness to develop a healthier relationship with experiences that cause chronic or acute stress. Each class is composed of a brief educational lecture, group mindfulness practice, and an opportunity to process experiences in the class and discuss ways in which students have applied mindfulness in their everyday lives. <br />
<br />
Integrative Health Partners’ <a href="http://integrativehealthpartners.org/pages/stressreduction.html">Mindfulness and Stress Reduction</a> begins on Tuesday, February 23 and runs for 8 consecutive Tuesday evenings, from 7-8:30pm. The class is held in downtown <a href="http://integrativehealthpartners.org/">Chicago</a>, at 180 North Michigan Avenue. <br />
<br />
Please contact Becca Meyer at (312) 372-2880 or meyer@integrativehealthpartners.org if you are interested in registering for the course or if you have any questions. There's also more information on our <a href="http://integrativehealthpartners.org/pages/stressreduction.html">website</a>.<br />
<br />
-Becca Meyer, Psy.D.Roger Thomson, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/18246248530154377632noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-966962058905801166.post-32317722448669602172010-01-31T21:02:00.000-06:002010-01-31T21:01:58.154-06:00Is Mindful Eating Right for You?<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Starting March 3, 2010, we will be offering another course in Mindful Eating (for those of you in the Chicago area). We developed these classes to help people who feel caught in compulsive eating or dieting patterns, and who want to find their way to a more natural and satisfying relationship with food. You might be asking yourself, Are mindful eating classes the right approach for me? To find out, try considering these statements:<br />
</span></span></div><ul><li><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">I sometimes binge or eat compulsively</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">I’ve tried restrictive diets and they don’t work for me</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">I know I sometimes eat because of stress or emotional needs</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">I’d like to feel less guilty about my eating and my weight</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">It would be easier to deal with my eating if I could manage my stress better</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">I want to learn to eat in a way that nourishes and respects my body</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">I really value health and wellness, and would be willing to spend a half hour a day to develop this area of my life</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">I’ve been interested in meditation, yoga, or tai chi</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">I have a spiritual side</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">I’d like to develop more patience, acceptance, and forgiveness</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">I’ve been able to apply myself to activities that require home practice, like music lessons, workouts, or schoolwork</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">I would like to give and receive help with others in my situation</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">I’m open to taking a new approach to eating</span></span></li>
</ul><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">The more you agreed with these statements, the more likely you are to find mindful eating classes helpful. For more information, call Dr. Mary Connors at 312-372-5501, or visit <a href="http://www.integrativehealthpartners.org/pages/mindfuleating.html">our website.</a><br />
</span></span><br />
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</script></span></div>Roger Thomson, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/18246248530154377632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-966962058905801166.post-71041062906666551202009-11-28T10:27:00.001-06:002011-08-26T05:53:21.428-05:00Mindful Parenting<div class="zemanta-img zemanta-action-dragged" style="display: block; float: right; margin: 1em; width: 254px;">
<a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:ParentChildIcon.svg"><img alt="An icon illustrating a parent and child" height="244" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/85/ParentChildIcon.svg/300px-ParentChildIcon.svg.png" style="border: medium none; display: block;" width="244" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution"></span></div>
One of the topics for the December 18 meeting of our Study Group in Mindfulness and Psychotherapy will be Mindful Parenting, with a presentation by Jacqueline Herbstman, LCSW. <br />
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It's hard to think of a situation in which Mindfulness might be more important - and more helpful - than in the parent-child relationship. From our clinical practice, we know a lot about the positive effects of a nonjudgmental, attentive presence on children's sense of well being, attachment, and self-esteem. Being with another, without distraction, is really what we mean when we talk about "quality time." It's the basis of intimacy in any relationship.<br />
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Here are some research reports about mindfulness in the perinatal period <a href="http://www.integrativehealthpartners.org/downloads/duncan%202009%20mb-parenting.pdf">(Duncan, 2009)</a>, and about mindfulness in parenting relationships (<a href="http://www.integrativehealthpartners.org/downloads/coatsworth%202009%20mb%20parenting.pdf">Coatsworth, 2009</a> and <a href="http://www.integrativehealthpartners.org/downloads/macdonald%202008%20parenting.pdf">Macdonald, 2008</a>). <br />
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Roger Thomson, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/18246248530154377632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-966962058905801166.post-62273382605488896742009-11-14T07:00:00.006-06:002011-08-26T05:50:40.712-05:00Minding Our Mindfulness<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Next Friday (November 20) the Mindfulness and Psychotherapy Study Group will be reflecting on the issue of the therapist's mindfulness. I thought I'd like to suggest that, between now and then, we might experiment with deliberately finding our mindfulness before we begin some of this week's therapy sessions. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Here's a guide for a brief, pre-session mindfulness exercise for therapists. In composing it, I've tried to touch on all of the elements of the <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acceptance_and_commitment_therapy" rel="wikipedia" title="Acceptance and commitment therapy">Acceptance and Commitment Therapy</a> "hexaflex" model. I've also </span><span style="font-size: small;">remembered Shauna Shapiro's suggestion that we think of mindfulness as a matter of intention, attention, and attitude. <br />
</span></div>
<ul style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Find the intention to take a few mindful breaths, and do it.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Am I willing to be open to any experience being offered right now? (Actually check in with yourself: What is your level of willingness? Can you rate it from 0-10?)</span><span style="font-size: small;"> <br />
</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Why </i>do I want to be mindful right now?</span><span style="font-size: small;"> <br />
</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">What can I be aware of right now: in my body, in my thoughts and feelings, in my sense of pleasure or discomfort, in my experience of being in this room? </span><span style="font-size: small;">Am I completely open to having this experience? </span><span style="font-size: small;">If not completely, do I want to open up more, be more accepting? Why?</span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">What am I aware of about the person I'm meeting? Am I open to "not knowing" much more than I actually know right now? Am I willing to let go of what I already know in order to be open to whatever I am about to experience? <br />
</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">What are my thoughts, judgments, and feelings about this person? Am I aware of them as experiences I am having, rather than facts about this person? Am I able to be fully accepting of all these aspects of my experience?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">What are my intentions in this particular meeting?</span></li>
</ul>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">It might also be useful to get in touch with any overarching intentions you have, and articulate them briefly. I sometimes find it grounding to remember the very traditional Buddhist dedication: "May all beings be happy, joyous, and live in safety." Your own values or faith tradition might suggest a similar intention.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">I'm looking forward to our discussion of our experiences on Friday!<br />
</span></div>
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Roger Thomson, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/18246248530154377632noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-966962058905801166.post-3701038300994621652009-09-08T09:21:00.000-05:002011-08-26T05:51:20.452-05:00Study Group Resumes September 18<div class="zemanta-img" style="display: block; float: right; margin: 1em; width: 310px;">
<a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Tipitaka_scripture.jpg"><img alt="Ancient style of scripture used for the Pali Canon" height="219" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f2/Tipitaka_scripture.jpg/300px-Tipitaka_scripture.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block;" width="300" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution">Image via <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Tipitaka_scripture.jpg">Wikipedia</a></span></div>
Our study group in mindfulness and psychotherapy will resume on September 18 at 10:00 am. In our first meeting, we will investigate early <a class="zem_slink freebase/guid/9202a8c04000641f80000000055ae09f" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_and_psychology" rel="wikipedia" title="Buddhism and psychology">Buddhist psychology</a> and the transformation of negative states through mindfulness.<br />
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If you did not participate in the study group last year, but would like to join us this year, please give me a call at 312.263.8034.<br />
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Roger Thomson, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/18246248530154377632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-966962058905801166.post-67972512672848792692009-06-08T10:05:00.008-05:002009-06-09T07:52:04.948-05:00Mindfulness as Stability and Investigation<div class="zemanta-img zemanta-action-dragged" style="margin: 1em; display: block; float: right; width: 190px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/42773169@N00/3513694394"><img alt="Margaret Lieder" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3650/3513694394_0daf34e5d3_m.jpg" style="border: medium none ; display: block;" width="180" height="240" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution">Image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/42773169@N00/3513694394">speakingoffaith</a> via Flickr</span></div>Mindfulness has sometimes been said to be a function of RAIN: Recognition, Acceptance, Investigation, and Nonidentification (Kornfield, 2008). Each of these four processes make its own contribution to the quality of mindful awareness, and I'd like to explore them today with an emphasis on "investigation."<br /><br />Sometimes it's not clear that mindfulness is more than relaxation. It's true, mindfulness can often be relaxing, because we get less caught up in the thought patterns that agitate us. This stabilization of attention is referred to in the traditional meditation texts as <i><a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samatha" rel="wikipedia" title="Samatha">samatha</a></i>, and it is a feature of all mindfulness processes. If we think of mindfulness as constructed of RAIN, we can see that Acceptance and Nonidentification are largely <i>samatha</i> processes. Acceptance eliminates the nearly constant tension that we generate by judging and attempting to control our experiences. "I don't like this, this is bad, I want to change this, what can I do to eliminate this experience, what if that doesn't work..." is a familiar train of thought that can be pretty agitating. With Acceptance, we no longer get involved in that source of stress. Acceptance is a process that encourages <i>samatha</i>, or stabilization.<br /><br />Similarly, Nonidentification also brings stability. If we refrain from identifying with an experience, we don't get so worked up about it. It's not so personal, and therefore not so important that we change it or control it. In Nonidentification, we learn to take our experience as it is, and our reaction to it is gentler and more flexible because we are not so driven by our narcissistic strivings. So Acceptance and Nonidentification both function to increase our stability, and they help mindfulness practices feel relaxing to us.<br /><br />But mindfulness goes beyond relaxation and arrives at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vipassana"><i>vipassana</i></a>, or insight. Once we have established some stability and nonreactivity, mindfulness can help us to see our experience for what it is (Recognition) and to explore our lives more deeply (Investigation). Mindfulness can be thought of as asking the gentle question "What is it?" in a way that is continually supported by our breathing and our willingness to be present.<br /><br />A Zen Buddhist story tells us that a monk was going on a pilgrimage, and another asked him, "Where are you going on your pilgrimage?" The monk replied, "I don’t know." The other monk commented, "Not knowing is most intimate."<br /><br />Actually, intimacy depends on our ability to have an ongoing conversation with what is present. In intimacy, there is acceptance, of course, but also openness to what’s next, to what we don’t know. When we think we know something, we stop investigating it. There is a saying, “In the beginner’s mind, there are many possibilities; in the expert mind, there are few.”<br /><br />What kind of investigation is mindfulness? Here’s a part of what TS Eliot said about it:<br /><br /><blockquote>We shall not cease from exploration<br />And the end of all our exploring<br />Will be to arrive where we started<br />And know the place for the first time.<br />Through the unknown, remembered gate<br />When the last of earth left to discover<br />Is that which was the beginning;<br />At the source of the longest river,<br />The voice of the hidden waterfall<br />And the children in the apple-tree<br />Not known, because not looked for<br />But heard, half heard, in the stillness<br />Between the two waves of the sea.<br />Quick now, here, now. Always<br />A condition of complete simplicity<br />Costing not less than everything</blockquote><br />We are talking about a kind of investigation into what’s been there all along, but we have been unable to appreciate. An investigation into the source of the longest river of the endless present moment. We hear the waterfall of thought as it is, and recognizing it for what it is allows us to see through it, to hear the children in the apple tree.<br /><br />Mindfulness tries to approach all moments and events with Beginner’s Mind - we are calm enough that we can be open to not knowing what it is, or what happens next, or how things are supposed to be. We approach each experience as if it were the only time we encountered this thing. Because it is! We might even say that the essential feature of mindfulness is the understanding that we are missing something: mindfulness starts with the premise that there is always more to discover. Because mindfulness is a process of ongoing exploration, it brings a richness to our lives that would otherwise be lost in our shopworn ideas and mental habits.<br /><a href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/fa3a1867-de7b-4bd9-a648-de423a657d09/"></a><br /><br /> <div style="margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;" class="zemanta-pixie"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/1cebdc9c-979c-48ec-a4f0-fb839ee0d273/" title="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]"><img style="border: medium none ; float: right;" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=1cebdc9c-979c-48ec-a4f0-fb839ee0d273" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related pretty-attribution"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>Roger Thomson, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/18246248530154377632noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-966962058905801166.post-38045224019295340502009-05-03T13:05:00.003-05:002009-05-03T21:09:56.024-05:00Daily Mindfulness<div class="zemanta-img" style="margin: 1em; display: block; float: right; width: 220px;"><span style="font-size:small;"><p class="zemanta-img zemanta-action-dragged" style="margin: 1em; float: right; display: block; width: 220px;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Present-Moment-Retreat-Practice-Mindfulness/dp/159179126X%3FSubscriptionId%3D0G81C5DAZ03ZR9WH9X82%26tag%3Dzemanta-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D159179126X"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/414YK13KW5L._SL200_.jpg" alt="Cover of " the="" present="" a="" retreat="" on="" style="border: medium none ; display: block;" width="210" height="200" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Present-Moment-Retreat-Practice-Mindfulness/dp/159179126X%3FSubscriptionId%3D0G81C5DAZ03ZR9WH9X82%26tag%3Dzemanta-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D159179126X">Cover via Amazon</a></span></p><span class="zemanta-img-attribution"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Present-Moment-Retreat-Practice-Mindfulness/dp/159179126X%3FSubscriptionId%3D0G81C5DAZ03ZR9WH9X82%26tag%3Dzemanta-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D159179126X">Cover via AmaH</a></span></span></div><span style="font-size:small;">Here's some really good advice from <a href="http://zenhabits.net/about/">Leo Babauta</a> on <a href="http://zenhabits.net/2009/04/the-mindfulness-guide-for-the-super-busy-how-to-live-life-to-the-fullest/">Zen Habits</a>:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:small;"><strong>1. Do one thing at a time</strong>. Single-task, don’t multi-task. When you’re pouring water, just pour water. When you’re eating, just eat. When you’re bathing, just bathe. Don’t try to knock off a few tasks while eating or bathing or driving. Zen proverb: “When walking, walk. When eating, eat.”</span><br /><span style="font-size:small;"><strong>2. Do it slowly and deliberately</strong>. You can do one task at a time, but also rush that task. Instead, take your time, and move slowly. Make your actions deliberate, not rushed and random. It takes practice, but it helps you focus on the task.</span><br /><span style="font-size:small;"><strong>3. Do less</strong>. If you do less, you can do those things more slowly, more completely and with more concentration. If you fill your day with tasks, you will be rushing from one thing to the next without stopping to think about what you do. But you’re busy and you can’t possibly do less, right? You can. I’ve done it, and so have many busy people. It’s a matter of figuring out what’s important, and letting go of what’s not. Read more: <a href="http://zenhabits.net/2009/01/the-lazy-manifesto-do-less-then-do-even-less/">The Lazy Manifesto: Do Less</a>.</span><br /><span style="font-size:small;"><strong>4. Put space between things</strong>. Related to the “Do less” rule, but it’s a way of managing your schedule so that you always have time to complete each task. Don’t schedule things close together — instead, leave room between things on your schedule. That gives you a more relaxed schedule, and leaves space in case one task takes longer than you planned.</span><br /><span style="font-size:small;"><strong>5. Spend at least 5 minutes each day doing nothing</strong>. Just sit in silence. Become aware of your thoughts. Focus on your breathing. Notice the world around you. Become comfortable with the silence and stillness. It’ll do you a world of good — and just takes 5 minutes!</span><br /><span style="font-size:small;"><strong>6. Stop worrying about the future - focus on the present</strong>. Become more aware of your thinking — are you constantly worrying about the future? Learn to recognize when you’re doing this, and then practice bringing yourself back to the present. Just focus on what you’re doing, right now. Enjoy the present moment.</span><br /><span style="font-size:small;"><strong>7. When you’re talking to someone, be present</strong>. How many of us have spent time with someone but have been thinking about what we need to do in the future? Or thinking about what we want to say next, instead of really listening to that person? Instead, focus on being present, on really listening, on really enjoying your time with that person.</span><br /><span style="font-size:small;"><strong>8. Eat slowly and savor your food</strong>. Food can be crammed down our throats in a rush, but where’s the joy in that? Savor each bite, slowly, and really get the most out of your food. Interestingly, you’ll eat less this way, and digest your food better as well.</span><br /><span style="font-size:small;"><strong>9. Live slowly and savor your life</strong>. Just as you would savor your food by eating it more slowly, do everything this way — slow down and savor each and every moment. As I type this, for example, I have my 3-year-old daughter, Noelle, on my lap. She’s just sitting here quietly, as the rain pours down in a hush outside. What a lovely moment. In fact, I’m going to take a few minutes off just to be with her now. Be right back. :)</span><br /><span style="font-size:small;"><strong>10. Make cleaning and cooking become meditation</strong>. Cooking and cleaning are often seen as drudgery, but actually they are both great ways to practice mindfulness, and can be great rituals performed each day. If cooking and cleaning seem like boring chores to you, try doing them as a form of meditation. Put your entire mind into those tasks, concentrate, and do them slowly and completely. It could change your entire day (as well as leave you with a cleaner house).</span><br /><span style="font-size:small;"><strong>11. Keep practicing</strong>. When you get frustrated, just take a deep breath. When you ask yourself, “What should I do now, Self?”, the answer is “keep practicing”.</span><br /><blockquote><span style="font-size:small;">“When you drive around the city and come to a red light or a stop sign, you can just sit back and make use of these twenty or thirty seconds to relax — to breathe in, breathe out, and enjoy arriving in the present moment. There are many things like that we can do.” <strong>- Thich Nhat Hanh</strong></span></blockquote> <div style="margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;" class="zemanta-pixie"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/98119250-eed4-4c09-8c78-a8887863502c/" title="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]"><img style="border: medium none ; float: right;" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=98119250-eed4-4c09-8c78-a8887863502c" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related pretty-attribution"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>Roger Thomson, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/18246248530154377632noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-966962058905801166.post-62380707850025595582009-04-16T06:14:00.001-05:002009-04-16T06:14:00.603-05:00Desk Dining<span style="font-size: small;"></span><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">An interesting opportunity for mindful eating: turn a mindless lunch at your desk into a mindful meal or snack. An <a href="http://integrativehealthpartners.org/downloads/RMIT%20eating.mp3">mp3 to guide mindful eating</a> is available here.<br />
</span></div><blockquote style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><h1><span style="font-size: small;">Mindfulness and Eating: Divine Desk Dining</span></h1><span style="font-size: small;">Are you stuck eating lunch at your desk again?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Lucky you.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">You see, staying put can be surprisingly soothing compared to making a mad dash to the cafe for a sandwich and running back to your office, all the while worried that you’ll miss an important call.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">If you feel chained to your desk, try viewing it instead as a powerful anchor that keeps you from drifting mindlessly.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Desk dining can be the epitome of mindlessness—or a remarkable opportunity to slow down, reconnect, and enjoy a delicious moment or two. You can choose a chug-and-chew cubicle lunch or settle in for a session of mindful mastication.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Mom always told us to slow down and chew our food properly. She was more worried about choking, indigestion and bad manners than she was about the possibility that we would grow up to be disconnected from our experience of dining.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">As usual, Mom made good sense. New research indicates that becoming more mindful of every mouthful is a powerful way to reduce our food intake, increase our meal satisfaction, and savor more than just the taste of our veggie on rye.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Jean L. Kristeller, Ph.D., is professor of psychology and director of the Center for the Study of Health, Religion and Spirituality at Indiana State University. Over the last ten years, she has been working on ways to help overweight individuals develop greater awareness of their eating triggers using <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindfulness" rel="wikipedia" title="Mindfulness">mindfulness meditation</a>. Her program is being applied in a number of different settings, and the results have been quite promising.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">There’s even a fancy term for her technique of paying attention to what you put into your mouth—Mindfulness-Based Eating Awareness Training, or MB-EAT for short. It’s not rocket science—just a simple way to assess your needs and attend to the process of eating slowly.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Even if you don’t have an eating disorder, chances are you’ve had more than a few meals on the go. Perhaps you are a practiced drive-and-diner, grabbing your order from the drive-thru window and perfecting your food balancing technique. More likely, you’ve eaten an entire lunch while simultaneously answering phones and typing out email messages—and not really tasting a single bite.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Don’t curse your go-go lifestyle. Instead, choose to savor a slow-slow moment—even if it’s just a two-minute yogurt break.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Your divine desk dining experience starts with a couple of deep breaths and a commitment to focusing for two—count ‘em, TWO—minutes. Feel your belly, and pay attention to any hunger pangs. Check in to see if you are eating now because it’s lunch time, because you are ravenous, or because you know you won’t get a chance to eat for several more hours. Take note.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Then, take a bite. Put down your fork, spoon or sandwich, and simply chew your food slowly, relishing the flavors and textures, just like Mom taught you. Do this for one minute, and then pause. Feeling better now? Sometimes the simple act of chewing mindfully for just a moment can help us slow down enough to recognize that we’re not that hungry.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Savor another minute of mindful mastication without getting wrapped up in thoughts of work or anything else. Come back to “just this bite” until your two minutes are up. After that, feel free to eat at your normal pace, and even if you get caught up in the type-and-swallow routine, simply note it.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">We spend a lot of time and energy bemoaning our busy lives. Instead, spend two minutes tasting mindfulness right there at your desk.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">It’s simply divine.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">-Maya Talisman Frost<br />
</span> </blockquote><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/573d8cdf-23b5-495c-931f-b5ef5dc3cd44/" title="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]"><img alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=573d8cdf-23b5-495c-931f-b5ef5dc3cd44" style="border: medium none; float: right;" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related pretty-attribution"><script defer="defer" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" type="text/javascript">
</script></span></div>Roger Thomson, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/18246248530154377632noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-966962058905801166.post-42102841303979365112009-04-14T07:00:00.002-05:002009-04-14T07:37:50.093-05:00The Emptiness of Humans and Raisins<p class="zemanta-img" style="margin: 1em; float: right; display: block; width: 210px;"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Muriwai_gannets.JPG"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/10/Muriwai_gannets.JPG/200px-Muriwai_gannets.JPG" alt="Nesting Gannets ( Morus serrator species) at t..." style="border: medium none ; display: block;" width="200" height="133" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution">Image via <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Muriwai_gannets.JPG">Wikipedia</a></span></p><div id="poem" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Sometimes mindfulness is taught by guiding people to <a href="http://integrativehealthpartners.org/downloads/RMIT%20eating.mp3">eat a raisin mindfully</a>. When I do this, I often ask the person to notice whether they can tell what it feels like to be one raisin heavier. This poem is <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Oliver" rel="wikipedia" title="Mary Oliver">Mary Oliver</a>'s sublime answer.<br /><br /></div><div id="poem" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Gannets<pre style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></pre><pre style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I am watching the white gannets<br />blaze down into the water<br />with the power of blunt spears<br />and a stunning accuracy--<br />even though the sea is riled and boiling<br />and gray with fog<br />and the fish<br />are nowhere to be seen,<br />they fall, they explode into the water<br />like white gloves,<br />then they vanish,<br />then they climb out again,<br />from the cliff of the wave,<br />like white flowers--<br />and still I think<br />that nothing in this world moves<br />but as a positive power--<br />even the fish, finning down into the current<br />or collapsing<br />in the red purse of the beak,<br />are only interrupted from their own pursuit<br />of whatever it is<br />that fills their bellies--<br />and I say:<br />life is real,<br />and pain is real,<br />but death is an imposter,<br />and if I could be what once I was,<br />like the wolf or the bear<br />standing on the cold shore,<br />I would still see it--<br />how the fish simply escape, this time,<br />or how they slide down into a black fire<br />for a moment,<br />then rise from the water inseparable<br />from the gannets' wings.</pre></div> <div style="margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;" class="zemanta-pixie"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/61be1b24-a0f5-44ab-9122-c2580cbf62f4/" title="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]"><img style="border: medium none ; float: right;" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=61be1b24-a0f5-44ab-9122-c2580cbf62f4" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related pretty-attribution"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>Roger Thomson, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/18246248530154377632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-966962058905801166.post-21109192384303537352009-04-11T07:33:00.010-05:002009-04-14T16:44:28.061-05:00Mindfulness of Thoughts and Thinkers<div class="zemanta-img zemanta-action-dragged" style="display: block; float: right; margin: 1em; width: 212px;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Cartesian_Theater.jpg/202px-Cartesian_Theater.jpg"><img alt="{{Potd/2007-06-10 (en)}}" height="159" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Cartesian_Theater.jpg/202px-Cartesian_Theater.jpg" style="border: medium none; display: block;" width="202" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Our normal relationship to our thoughts is that we <i>identify </i>with them - that is, we fail to see any difference between our thoughts and ourselves. We do not actually recognize that we are in <i>any </i>relationship with our thoughts because we are completely fused with them. We create our sense of self out of our thoughts. Needless to say, once we do that, we are very reluctant to question them. We are narcissistically invested in our private experience, committed to it in a way that can actually have negative consequences. What war could be fought if we are willing to question whether we actually believe our thoughts about our ‘enemies’? A lot of the harm we do springs from our failure to recognize that thoughts are, at best, only partially reflective of reality. Apparently, thousands of years ago, Buddha taught that if we did not “delight” in our mental creations, enmity would be ended.<br />
<br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">In point of fact, we <i>do</i> delight in our ideas and imaginations. So when ACT suggests that the self is more like the context of our experience than the experience itself, we can feel confused, and somehow threatened.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
Normally, we hold the opinion that thought is self. This is completely untenable, since thought is the most ephemeral of all phenomena. Are you currently thinking the same thing that you were thinking when you began to read this essay? If not, are you a different person now? Most of us are unwilling to admit that our ‘self-nature” is so ephemeral (even though it is).<br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
One of the reasons we identify so strongly with our thoughts is that thought seems to be in the same family as speech. But while speech is frequently an effort to communicate about something we really believe is true – a need, an evaluation, whatever - thought is much more experimental! Most of our thinking is our brains trying out possible connections between experiences or ideas. A moment’s reflection will tell us that realism is not a prominent component of most thought. Thought is simply what it is: it’s “just a thought.” It’s worthwhile to remember that sometimes brains secrete thoughts, just as stomachs secrete gastric juices, and it’s important not to take them too seriously (not to delight in them). It’s often useful to be rather tentative in believing what we think.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
It’s also important to recognize that there are a couple of psychological difficulties that go along with identifying too strongly with our thoughts.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">We believe we are <i>responsible for</i> our thoughts. This results in all kinds of judgments about ourselves. “I must be a bad person to think such things.” And yet, how much conscious control do we have of thought? Can we predict what we will think next? Does thought follow our direction? In order to avoid self criticism, we can become very involved in suppressing thought (experiential avoidance), an activity which usually has a negative impact on mental health. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">We fail to appreciate the ways in which we can be <i>responsive to</i> our thoughts. We have some choice over how we treat ourselves in response to our thoughts. Caught up in a distressing chain of thought and emotion, we can breathe ourselves into mindfulness of our wholeness in the present moment and cultivate an attitude of compassion for ourselves. We are carried along in a karmic stream which often brings us to painful and distressing experiences – a karmic stream for which we have limited personal responsibility. As such, we deserve our compassion and kindness, much as we would extend the same to our friends and family who have come on bad times.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">If our self is not composed of our thought, then of what is it composed? The key to establishing mindfulness of our thinking is our willingness to accept a certain amount of indeterminacy in our sense of self. Self is not completely knowable. One way of thinking of self is that it is the complete range of experience, actual and potential. In this view, self is so vast as to be impossible to categorize. Alternatively, in the ACT view, self is skillfully conceptualized as the <i>context</i> of our experience, without being confused with the experience itself. In this view, self is a subject without being any particular object.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><br />
<div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/d9b2eaed-804b-4fed-8d5f-ae6efa236166/" title="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]"><img alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=d9b2eaed-804b-4fed-8d5f-ae6efa236166" style="border: medium none; float: right;" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related pretty-attribution"><script defer="defer" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" type="text/javascript">
</script></span></div>Roger Thomson, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/18246248530154377632noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-966962058905801166.post-2323331953653470362009-03-29T08:33:00.002-05:002009-03-29T09:16:58.135-05:00Support for Mindfulness Practice<p class="zemanta-img" style="margin: 1em; float: right; display: block; width: 250px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/23179744@N03/3394067977/"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3464/3394067977_00b06046d2_m.jpg" alt="ON THE TULIPS TOP" style="border: medium none ; display: block;" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution">Image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/23179744@N03/3394067977/">ainasa</a> via Flickr</span></p>Many people have difficulty establishing a daily practice of meditation, or with remembering to act mindfully on a regular basis. There is <a href="http://37days.typepad.com/37days/">a blog called 37 Days</a> that might be able to help. This blog (by Patti Digh) grew out of the author's experience of caring for her stepfather during his last 37 days. Her resulting "vow" has taken the form of a question: "What emerged was a renewed commitment to ask myself this question every morning: 'what would I be doing today if I only had 37 days to live?'" And the practice that emerged from that question has been to write a wonderful book and blog.<br /><br />A couple days ago, she started a project of encouraging her readers to <a href="http://37days.typepad.com/37days/2009/03/could-you-change-your-life-in-just-37-days.html">commit to doing something </a>- anything they felt was worthwhile - for 37 consecutive days. <a href="http://37days.typepad.com/37days/2009/03/today-is-day-one.html">Beginning with a personal contract</a>, she and her readers will be exploring the ins and outs of living an intentional life through one simple daily activity (like mindful breathing or mindful anything) . <a href="http://37days.typepad.com/37days/2009/03/today-is-day-the-third.html">Today's post (day 3)</a> has a really nice discussion of all the doubts that can derail us. It caught my attention because it resonates with all the things we think when we first try to meditate daily. <br /><br />So I'm encouraging you to check out this blog, and, if you're moved to do so, join in (late starters are totally welcome). Maybe the practice of doing something with a community (as happens in our mindfulness courses) will be just right for your mindfulness practice.<br /><br /><span class="zem-script more-related"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span>Roger Thomson, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/18246248530154377632noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-966962058905801166.post-91014364852243767662009-03-28T09:59:00.001-05:002009-03-28T10:41:47.003-05:00Mindfulness and Vow<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">One of the things that develops as we deepen our practice of mindfulness is that our inner dialogue changes, and more and more it includes a coaching toward awareness, a remembering of our intention to turn toward our life, rather than away from it. The practice of mindfulness encourages us to adopt the value of living an engaged and intentional life. Mindfulness supports us in actualizing the vow of living fully, with intimate presence.<br /><br /></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">When I was practicing in Tassajara monastery, I sometimes worked with the <i>Shika</i>, the person who was responsible for providing a lot of the necessities for monks and visiting teachers. Her job was a busy and absorbing one, but from time to time, she would stop in the middle of doing some task, breathe, and say: "I don’t want to waste this one precious life."<br /><br /></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">To me, that one move is the gateway to mindfulness. The activity of breathing with full awareness is a way to get in touch with the actual present and most importantly, to find our deeper purpose in all this activity. I think there is no mindfulness without the intention to be mindful, the vow to live this life. It’s what the ancient texts call <i>ekayana</i>, the one path. <br /><br />Have you ever read a book while you were sitting outside, in the garden or at the beach? You know how absorbing and pleasant it can be. But at some point, you close the book and look out at the world. How rich it is, and how real! Mindfulness is actually a process of reclaiming our life. It is closing the book and looking out to the world.<br /><br /></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The most useful thing I’ve learned to do is to remind myself that I want to live <i>this </i>life. I might chose to stay preoccupied with my inner reveries (what the Baha'i texts have called "vain imaginings") but to tell you the truth, they are not nearly so varied and vital as the life that exists beyond this mirrored curtain of mental absorption. I could try to avoid this life (these feelings, these thoughts, etc), but the only result is having this life plus a lot of unnecessary and pointless suffering. I could hold out for some life that I imagine, but then what do I do in the meantime? Life is constantly being offered to us, and it is not really something that we can profitably refuse. We aren’t normally aware of wanting to reject this life, but that is what we are doing when we avoid certain feelings or experiences. “I don’t want to do that, it makes me anxious.” I don’t want this life, I want a different one.<br /><br /></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Our true life is not the one we wish for, it is the one we truly have, right now. I’ll repeat something I wrote in <a href="http://livemindfully.blogspot.com/2009/03/conditions-of-mindfulness.html">a previous post</a>: Mindfulness is the practice of loving exactly what is. It’s not simply being willing to have this experience, to accept this experience, but it’s actively <i>choosing </i>to have this experience, even if we don’t particularly like it. It’s choosing to have our dislike as well. We choose completely this very life. We put our effort into realizing and affirming who we actually are, with our shortcomings and anxieties. </div><span class="zem-script more-related"><script defer="defer" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" type="text/javascript"></script></span>Roger Thomson, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/18246248530154377632noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-966962058905801166.post-57237819734294897242009-03-21T16:55:00.004-05:002009-03-21T17:11:18.689-05:00Mindfulness in Australia<p class="zemanta-img" style="margin: 1em; float: right; display: block; width: 212px;"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Location_Australia.svg"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/00/Location_Australia.svg/202px-Location_Australia.svg.png" alt="Locator map for Australia" style="border: medium none ; display: block;" width="202" height="103" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution">Image via <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Location_Australia.svg">Wikipedia</a></span></p>Here are some interesting mindfulness handouts from Australia's Centre for Clinical Interventions:<br /><ol><li>A brief but surprisingly comprehensive <a href="http://integrativehealthpartners.org/downloads/mindfulness.pdf">introduction to mindfulness practice</a>.</li><li>Some <a href="http://integrativehealthpartners.org/downloads/letting%20go.pdf">information on Letting Go</a> and a <a href="http://integrativehealthpartners.org/downloads/ws-let%20go.pdf">Worksheet to practice with</a>.</li><li><a href="http://integrativehealthpartners.org/downloads/uncertainty.pdf">Information on Accepting Uncertainty</a> and a <a href="http://integrativehealthpartners.org/downloads/WS-Accepting%20Uncertainty.pdf">Worksheet to practice with</a>.</li></ol>And by the way, for a treasure trove of therapy worksheets, check out the blog by that name: <a href="http://therapyworksheets.blogspot.com/">Therapy Worksheets</a>. <br /> <div style="margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;" class="zemanta-pixie"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/985f84c1-d283-403a-9a9f-4bba66cd72aa/" title="Zemified by Zemanta"><img style="border: medium none ; float: right;" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=985f84c1-d283-403a-9a9f-4bba66cd72aa" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>Roger Thomson, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/18246248530154377632noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-966962058905801166.post-13350068190596448552009-03-10T16:24:00.004-05:002009-03-16T07:33:17.941-05:00The Conditions of Mindfulness<div class="zemanta-img zemanta-action-dragged" style="margin: 1em; display: block; float: right; width: 141px;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Wise-Heart-Universal-Teachings-Psychology/dp/0553803476%3FSubscriptionId%3D0G81C5DAZ03ZR9WH9X82%26tag%3Dzemanta-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D0553803476"><img a="" alt="Cover of " guide="" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41PwDuus4VL._SL200_.jpg" style="border: medium none ; display: block;" the="" to="" wise="" width="131" height="200" /></a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Wise-Heart-Universal-Teachings-Psychology/dp/0553803476%3FSubscriptionId%3D0G81C5DAZ03ZR9WH9X82%26tag%3Dzemanta-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D0553803476">Cover via Amazon</a></div><o:p></o:p>In the recent “Living Mindfully” conference at Fourth Presbyterian Church, we were discussing the characteristics of mindfulness. Jon Kabat Zinn (1994) has famously said that “Mindfulness is a way of paying attention: on purpose, in the present, and non-judgmentally.” In his recent book, <i>The Wise Heart</i>, Jack Kornfield (2008) discusses mindfulness as a function of Recognition, Acceptance, Investigation, and Non-identification (RAIN).<br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal">My own summary of the nature of mindfulness is that it depends on our <b>WILLING</b>ness to be completely present.<br /><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal"><b>Welcoming</b>. This refers to our openness to experience, and is the opposite of experiential avoidance (EA - see<a href="http://livemindfully.blogspot.com/2008/10/mindfulness-and-experiential-avoidance.html"> this previous post</a>). Our typical response to difficult experiences is EA: we try to avoid or reject the experience. This actually increases our distress, since experiences cannot really be “erased” once they have occurred. It turns out that EA adds insult to injury: we have our original distress and we have the damage done by our misguided attempts to refuse it. Being welcoming is not simply passive acceptance, but a deliberate choosing of this very experience, regardless of whether it is pleasant or unpleasant. </li><li class="MsoNormal"><b>Intentional</b>. Our ability to be mindful depends on forming and sustaining the intention to be mindful. We make a commitment to cultivate mindful awareness, and encourage ourselves in this direction throughout the day. Without our intent, (what Jon Kabat Zinn talked about as being mindful “on purpose”) we would not be able to take advantage of the opportunities we have for mindfulness.</li><li class="MsoNormal"><b>Letting go</b>. To be mindful, we have to develop the ability to extricate ourselves from the proliferation of thought (<i>papanca</i>) that results in mental grasping or clinging (<i>upadana</i>). Letting go of a train of thought, once we have become involved in it, is the psychological process that lets us turn dreaming into wakefulness. Letting go is required for that ability to take a fresh relationship to what is happening that we call “beginner’s mind.” </li><li class="MsoNormal"><b>Loving</b>. Being loving means accepting what is, as it is. We could call this, taking good care of the experience. “Loving exactly what is” is non-striving in nature, and it is the essential condition of intimacy.</li><li class="MsoNormal"><b>Inclusive</b>. We bring our whole self to our encounter with the world, and we are aware that there are always vast dimensions of both self and the world that we cannot experience at any given time. Mindfulness is willing to include the aspects of the world that we normally exclude with our habits and prejudices.</li><li class="MsoNormal"><b>Non-reactive</b>. Gradually, in the practice of mindfulness, we come to realize that an experience is not necessarily a call to action. We are descriptive rather than evaluative. Learning to be non-reactive is necessary condition for being welcoming. It opens the way for us to be <i>responsive</i> to our problems rather than simply reacting in an automatic way.</li><li class="MsoNormal"><b>Grounded</b>. To be grounded in the present moment is to know our experience for what it is. A synonym for “grounded” might be “realistic.” Thoughts are not fused with reality, and we do not mistake our thoughts, concepts, or linguistic conventions for the actual world. When we are grounded in our experience (present moment awareness) and realistic about what it is (thoughts are just thoughts, not facts) we are in the best position to respond with skillfulness.<o:p><br /></o:p></li></ul><div class="MsoNormal">This is a brief outline of the factors of mindfulness. I’d appreciate your thoughts, questions, and feedback.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.25in;"></div><br /> <div style="margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;" class="zemanta-pixie"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/d45c9ffe-974d-4a1a-a68a-3644093223e2/" title="Zemified by Zemanta"><img style="border: medium none ; float: right;" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=d45c9ffe-974d-4a1a-a68a-3644093223e2" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>Roger Thomson, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/18246248530154377632noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-966962058905801166.post-10518636968219870842009-03-05T13:56:00.000-06:002009-03-05T13:56:54.400-06:00Getting mp3s from blog to iPod<div class="zemanta-img" style="display: block; float: right; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 1em; width: 196px;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Wmp_mm.PNG"><img alt="Windows Media Player 11 running in mini mode s..." height="166" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1c/Wmp_mm.PNG" style="border: medium none; display: block;" width="186" /></a><span>Image via <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Wmp_mm.PNG">Wikipedia</a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;">People have asked for guidance in the process of using the mp3s in the right-hand column. Here are some step-by-step instructions for transferring the meditation mp3s to your ipods and computers.<br />
<br />
</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;">If you want to save it directly to iTunes here are the directions:</span><br style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><ol face="arial" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><li><span style="font-size: small;">Right click on the mp3 link</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Choose the option to "Save Target As"</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Go through the drop-down menu while you're "Saving Target As" and select these folders:</span></li>
</ol><ul face="arial" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><li><span style="font-size: small;">My Documents</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">My Music</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">iTunes</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">iTunes Library<br />
</span></li>
</ul><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;">This will drop the mp3 directly into your iTunes library. If you have a lot of music and can't find the file immediately, choose the "Recently Added" option on the left hand side of your iTunes library screen. The mp3(s) should be at the top.</span> <div class="MsoNormal" face="arial" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" face="arial" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">If you don't have </span><span style="font-size: small;">iTunes </span><span style="font-size: small;">or want to save it in a different fashion, just choose "Save Target As" and save it wherever it is most convenient for you. (Desktop, C Drive, etc.) This way, they can be opened in any media player that you use (</span><span style="font-size: small;">iTunes</span><span style="font-size: small;">, Real Player, Windows Media Player).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" face="arial" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" face="arial" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" face="arial" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">Files can also be downloaded to locations such as the desktop and then dragged into an open </span><span style="font-size: small;">iTunes</span><span style="font-size: small;"> window, which will give you the same end result as putting them in your </span><span style="font-size: small;">iTunes </span><span style="font-size: small;">library in the first place.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" face="arial" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" face="arial" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><br style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /> <div class="zemanta-pixie" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/1ee013bb-f5fb-4bd2-9382-c632c21eb5a2/" title="Zemified by Zemanta"><img alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=1ee013bb-f5fb-4bd2-9382-c632c21eb5a2" style="border: medium none; float: right;" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related"><script defer="defer" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" type="text/javascript">
</script></span></div>Roger Thomson, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/18246248530154377632noreply@blogger.com0