Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction Workshop.
What is mindfulness
Mindfulness is about being fully aware of whatever is happening in the present moment, without filters or the lens of judgement. It can be brought to any situation. Simply put, mindfulness consists of cultivating awareness of the mind and body and living in the here and now. The present moment is the only place where life may be fully lived. Herein lies one of the greatest benefits of mindfulness: helping us live in the here and now – and helping us become more aware of ourselves.
Mindfulness: a simple and direct practice of moment-to-moment observation of the mind-body process through calm and focused awareness without judgement. As you come to see life as a process of constant change, you can begin to acknowledge all aspects of experience – pleasure and pain, fear and joy – with less stress and more balance.
It is said that intention is the crux of all actions – that our intentions shape our thoughts, words, and deeds. If the intentions are wholesome, the results will be fruitful and skillful. Conversely, if the intentions are unwholesome, the results will be unfruitful and unskillful. In this way, our minds, through our intentions and thoughts, are the creators of our own happiness and unhappiness.
Read over the following progression a couple of times and take a moment to reflect:
1. Intention shapes our thoughts and words
2. Thoughts and words mold our actions
3. Thoughts, words, and actions shape our behaviors
4. Behaviors sculpt our bodily expressions
5. Bodily expressions fashion our character
6. Our character hardens into what we look like
Mindfulness is a way of learning how to relate directly to your life. Because its about your life, no one else can do it for you or tell you exactly how to do it. Fortunately, it isn’t something you have to get or acquire. You already have it within you; its simply a matter of being present. In fact, in the very moment you recognized you aren’t present, you’ve become present. The moment you see that you’ve been trapped by your thoughts, you gain the freedom to step out of the trap.
The key link between mindfulness and stress reduction is the mind-body connection. When you experience stress, your body produces:
Hormones—such as: Cortisol and
Neurotransmitters—such as: epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine
These chemicals prepare your body either to
Accelerate—get ready for fight or flight, or
Brake—get ready to slow down and go into a calm state
These physical reactions are important for survival. For example, when we lived in the jungle they helped us prepare to fend off attacks from animals, tribes, and other stressful events. When the event was over, our bodies calmed down and we were at peace again. Under these circumstances, there is a helpful balance between accelerating and braking. That is, we react in ways that are helpful to us in responding to our environment, and that do not cause us, or our bodies, excessive stress. This is still the case when, for example, we see a car coming toward us and we jump to get out of the way.
As we developed into a more organized society, there were fewer situations in which we were under direct physical threat. However, along the way we developed ways of thinking and responding that made it seem like less intense threats were as important as the life-threatening ones we encountered in the jungle. A boss criticizes us, and we react as if he’s threatening our survival. A significant other responds insensitively to something we say, and we react as if it’s the end of the world. When we do things like this, we add stress to our bodies, causing it to go into a fight-flight mode even when there is no physical threat that needs to be addressed. “Our brain doesn’t distinguish between psychological and physiological danger.” Being in this state is like having our foot stuck on the accelerator, and when it persists it can be detrimental to our health and well-being, with research showing a negative impact on such things as: anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, psoriasis, depression, addictions, and quality of life.
Reactions such as this develop over time and usually become so automatic that we think they are normal, and we no longer see that our own thinking and behavior either creates them, or makes them worse than they need to be. When this happens, we say we are on autopilot. We have lost the ability to be aware of our own thoughts, feelings and behaviors, and the impact they have on us. The balance between accelerating and braking then becomes lost, and the cost is excessive physical and mental distress.
Mindfulness is a way of learning to pull back so that we once again become aware of what is going on in our thoughts, feelings and behaviors. As you will be learning throughout this stress management course, it is a way of stepping back and focusing awareness on what is going on in the present so that we can more clearly see what is happening internally, and the connections between internal and external events. Being mindful doesn’t tell us whether what we are doing is good or bad, right or wrong; it simply allows us to be aware of what is going on nonjudgmentally. “Awareness is like bringing a light to the darkness of mindless reactions… [once there] you can choose a more skillful response.”
At the level of mind-body connections, mindfulness is thought to increase activities in the frontal areas of the brain that are associated with positive affect and emotion regulation. If we practice mindfulness regularly, it is likely that we can re-wire our brains in ways that re-establish a healthy balance between accelerating and braking. The ability to change our brains is referred to as neuroplasticity.
Traumatic Reactions.
The general process noted above also applies to trauma responses. That is, patterns of thinking, feeling, and physical reactions get conditioned in ways that become automatic, sometimes in response to internal and external triggers that evoke portions of the traumatic reactions that haven’t been sufficiently processed yet, and sometimes in response to patterns of thoughts and behavior that have developed around these reactions. Mindfulness is also helpful here, as one of the tools that allows you to step back and become more aware of what is going on internally, from a nonjudgmental perspective, so that you can start to learn new responses to old ways of responding that have become automatic.
8 attitudes of mindfulness
1. Beginner’s mind - awareness that sees things as new and fresh, as if for the first time, with a sense of curiosity.
2. Nonjudgment - cultivating impartial observation in regard to any experience, not labelling thoughts, feelings or sensations as good or bad, right or wrong, fair or unfair but simply taking note, in each moment.
3. Acknowledgment - quality of awareness that validates and acknowledges things as they are.
4. Non-striving - with this quality there is no grasping, aversion to change, or movement away from whatever arises in the moment. In other words, not trying to get anywhere other than where you are.
5. Equanimity – This quality of awareness involves balance and fosters wisdom. It allows a deep understanding of the nature of change and allows you to be with change with greater insight and compassion.
6. Letting be - with this quality you can simply let things be as they are, with no need of trying to let go of whatever is present.
7. Self-reliance - awareness that helps you see for yourself, from your own experience, what is true or untrue.
8. Self-compassion - quality of awareness that cultivates love for yourself as you are, without self-blame or criticism.
Lets practice!
Living with stress and anxiety is part of life, we simply can’t live without them. Whether they come from everyday events, important relationships, or past problems that are still with us, anxiety and stress are part of being a human being in a complex world. As much as we might want to ignore them, or pretend they don’t exist, the unfortunate truth is that we can’t control the world around us, and there will always be situations capable of provoking worry, stress, and anxiety.
Rather than turn away, or avoid our reactions to such situations, mindfulness suggests that we turn toward them. It’s like anyone who knows how to drive in slippery conditions has learned, the way out of a skid is not to turn away from it, no matter how tempting this feels, the way out is to turn into the skid, which helps bring the car back under control.
Similarly, in mindfulness we open up to our anxiety and stress, and the way we react to them, so that we can get to know them better, and how to work with them. When we do this mindfully, we simply observe whatever we encounter, without judgment, or without trying to change anything. Doing it this way allows us to become more familiar with our stress and anxiety, and to increase our tolerance for it so that it is not overwhelming or paralyzing, before we try to come up with how we want to deal with it.
Today, we will do a series of brief exercises to help each of us reflect on a challenge or problem in our lives that we are carrying around. You can choose any challenge you like, it can be a hard one, or an easy one. It is often useful to start out with one that is not your most challenging, but that will be up to you. We will go through four steps, with each step involving a 3-minute mindfulness meditation, followed by 5 minutes of processing whatever emerged as a group to see what we can learned about that step.
Step 1. Take 3 minutes to mindfully reflect on what challenge or problem you want to focus on in this exercise. Recall that doing something mindfully means to pay attention to your thoughts, feelings, and sensations without judging them, or being critical. If you come up with the problem you want to work with right away, let yourself contemplate it without judgment, and see where you mind takes you. If you find your mind wandering, or being judgmental, just remind yourself that our minds do these things all the time, and then bring your awareness back to the problem. If you have difficulty choosing a problem to work with, that’s okay too, just allow your mind to wander, until you come to something that seems useful to work with. The leader will let you know when there are 30 seconds left, and if you haven’t chosen anything by then, that’s the time to make a choice. You likely can learn from working with any problem, so you might not want to worry too much if the problem you’ve chosen doesn’t seem to be one of extraordinary importance.
After the 3-minute reflection, spend 5 minutes as a group discussing the experience you had while choosing, and the problem you came up with, while the leader records some of the responses on the board.
Step 2. Take the next 3 minutes to mindfully reflect on the question, “What have I done in the past that has helped in addressing this problem, or in addressing other stressors in my life?” For example, you might have talked with friends, exercised, eaten a healthy snack, or watched a funny movie. As you are doing this, notice any thoughts, feelings, or sensations that you encounter inside of you. Let whatever arises be there, without judgment.
After the 3-minute reflection, spend 5 minutes as a group discussing what the experience was like for you, and what you came up with, while the leader records highlights of what is said on the board.
Step 3. Take the next 3 minutes to mindfully reflect on the question, “In dealing with your problem, or other stressors in life, what have you tried that ultimately didn’t help, even though you might initially have thought it would?” For example, you might have over eaten, worked too much, spent hours on TV, the Internet, or texting; or excessively engaged in sex or substance use. As you are doing this, notice any thoughts, feelings, or sensations that you encounter inside of you. Let whatever arises be there, without judgment.
After the 3-minute reflection, spend 5 minutes as a group discussing what the experience was like, and what you came up with, while the leader records some of the highlights on the board.
Step 4. Hope can reduce suffering and support resiliency in the face of life’s challenges. It is a potential asset that all of us have inside of us. Take the next 3 minutes to mindfully contemplate the following questions, “What do you hope for?” “What do you hope will be different?” “What kind of life do you want for yourself?” As you are doing this, notice any thoughts, feelings, or sensations that you encounter inside of you. Just let whatever arises be there, without judgment.
After the 3-minute reflection, spend 5 minutes as a group discussing what the experience was like, and what you came up with, while the leader records some of the highlights on the board.
Problems
Helpful Solutions
Un-helpful Solutions
Hope for Future