Mindfulness
Simply put, mindfulness means paying attention on purpose, and without judgement. 1
Why be mindful? We spend much of our lives on ‘autopilot’. We might notice this sometimes when we are driving or walking somewhere – we arrive, but have no real recollection of how we got there. Sometimes we planned to go a different way home (maybe to do some shopping on the way back) and find that we have missed our turning and are heading on our usual route back before we ‘come to’ and recognise what has happened. Autopilot is part of being human and can be really useful. It allows us to do lots of complicated activities without even thinking about it – such as driving a car. Autopilot means our brain’s resources can be directed elsewhere so that we can do a number of different tasks at the same time.
However, autopilot also has its problems: On autopilot you can miss things. Some of those things could really enrich your life. Some of them might even be really important. The awareness that we cultivate by practising mindfulness can help us savour our lives more fully, and help us to enjoy the beauty and richness of life.
Running on autopilot all the time can also end up contributing to our stress, leading to us being overloaded with tasks and activities. It’s a bit like when an old computer has lots of windows open. It ends up running really slowly and then eventually crashes. Our mind can operate in a similar way, so sometimes we need to come out of autopilot and just focus on what’s in front of us. Mindfulness training helps you spot when you’re overloaded before things start going wrong. It helps you come away from automatic routines and focus on each moment as it unfolds.
Autopilot isn’t just about habits that we do. It can also be about mental habits as well – ways of thinking that may not even serve us very well. On automatic pilot, it’s easy to have your buttons pressed by triggers - a situation or a person – and you react immediately without even thinking about it. Mindfulness allows you to have more freedom in how you react. When we are aware, we can recognise our triggers and make more of a choice.
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Mindfulness is paying attention to our experience just as it is in the present moment - our thoughts emotions and physical sensations. 3
Understanding stress from a mindfulness perspective Stressful things happen: we might be stuck in a traffic jam, or having a communication difficulty, or feeling low about something that has happened. That’s our actual, direct experience, and we can’t do very much about it. However, we often cause ourselves extra unnecessary stress by reacting to that experience, with various thoughts, feelings and judgements. For instance, let’s say you are under pressure to finish a job by a certain time. You might have such thoughts as “I’ll never get everything done in time”, “Why did I agree to do this in the first place?” accompanied by feelings of anxiety, inadequacy, resentment, and by judgements such as “this is a stupid job” (judgement about the job) or “I’m useless at this” (judgement about self). These kinds of reactions often then lead to escalation – with one thought leading to another, leading to more feelings, leading to more judgements. They can also be obsessional – trapping us in the problem that we’re trying to solve. Before we know it, we’re drowning in a sea of despair! We call our direct experience primary experience and all the reactions to that secondary experience. Mindfulness helps us to deal with stressful situations by continually coming back to our primary experience. Okay, you might still be under pressure to get that job done, which you may experience as unpleasant, but that’s all. You don’t have to cope with all the extra negative thoughts and feelings that your mind has conjured up.
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Coming to our senses: When we’re stressed we tend to overthink, but this doesn’t always help. In fact it is often actively unhelpful. Thinking about our stress keeps us stressed – and in a constant ‘fight or flight’ reaction. Mindfulness allows us to pay attention to our senses, coming home to our bodily sensations, sights, sounds and tastes. This shift in emphasis brings us to our present experience and gives us a break, reducing stress.
Learning to deal with thoughts:
Thoughts are one of the main causes of stress, trapping us in a loop. Mindfulness allows us to notice thoughts as they arise and just let them go without becoming too involved in their content. Sometimes our thoughts take us back into the past – which we cannot change – or the future, which we can’t fully control. Mindfulness allows us to come back to the here and now instead.
Reacting differently: Life isn’t always easy and mindfulness doesn’t make those difficulties go away, but it does allow us to develop skills and inner resources to cope better in the midst of those difficulties. Learning to be with the difficult experiences without letting them ‘press our buttons’ is one of the skills mindfulness can help with.
What we resist persists:
Much of our stress is made worse by our resistance to unpleasant experiences. But the trouble with this is that what we resist tends to persist. Mindfulness allows us to accept our experience rather than reacting to it, which allows us to let go of it.
Being in the moment: Taking pleasure in small things and being in the present moment when it is a pleasant moment! These micro-moments throughout the day can really add up and enrich your life. Research shows that this small practice can improve our overall wellbeing and increase our resilience.
Being kind:
Mindfulness is a kind awareness – we’re cultivating kindness towards ourselves and our experiences – both good and bad. When we’re stressed, this can be hard, but practising mindfulness regularly can help us to let go of the negative self-talk that can make our stress worse.
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How can I be more mindful? There are a number of different ways we can incorporate mindfulness into our lives; They include formal meditation practices such as seated or moving meditations; as well as bringing mindfulness to daily activities such as eating and walking. In all of these activities we aim to use the body sensations and the breath to help develop awareness, so that the aim of mindfulness is not to prevent the mind wandering off – which it will do, repeatedly – but to get into the habit of learning to check in with our experience. Formal meditations are a focused practice of learning to check in, and train our brain in focus and awareness. Just like muscle training, it might sometimes be easier to start off small – with short meditations of 5-10 minutes, before gradually building up to longer sessions. Informal mindful activities (such as eating or walking) are means to extend that learning into our daily lives. We do need both. Eventually, with sustained regular practice, we will start to find it easier and easier to be mindful in everyday life.
Just do it! The point of meditation is not trying to reach some trance-like blissful state, or empty our minds. Instead, it’s about just letting things unfold. It’s hard, when we’re goal-orientated so much of the time, to let go of that, but instead just be curious with the techniques. It’s also important to let go of the idea of having to get things ‘right’ or perfect. That ‘striving’ attitude is normal, but it does get in the way of the practices. Remember that learning anything new takes time. This is a training for the brain – and it takes practice. So you might not get much out of a short session like this except a curiosity to try it more. And that’s okay. The mental patterns we will be working to change are likely to have been with us for some time. Such patterns are usually habitual and automatic, and we will only succeed in changing them if we put time and effort into learning new approaches. Practising mindfulness through formal meditation can really help equip ourselves with the equanimity to manage change, challenge and stress. Establishing a regular practice is key – it doesn’t even have to be that long to make an impact. Some studies show that even 10 minutes a day might be enough to make a real difference. However, the brain is a muscle just like any other, meaning that we do need to ‘use it or lose it’. So, if we want to continue feel the benefits of mindful meditation, we do need to establish a regular practice.
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Mindfulness resources Where it all started
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Full Catastrophe Living, Revised Edition: How to cope with stress, pain and illness using mindfulness meditation – Jon Kabat-Zinn
Stress
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Mindfulness in Eight Weeks: The revolutionary 8 week plan to clear your mind and calm your life – Michael Chaskalson (Manchester Mind’s 8 week Mindfulness for Stress course is largely based on this book) Mindfulness: A practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world – Mark Williams and Danny Penman A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook – Bob Stahl & Elisha Goldstein
Self-compassion
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The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion: Freeing Yourself from Destructive Thoughts and Emotions – Christopher K. Germer A Compassionate Mind – Paul Gilbert Self-compassion – Kristin Neff
Mindfulness for Health: A practical guide to relieving pain, reducing stress and restoring wellbeing – Vidyamala Burch and Danny Penman
Depression
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The Mindful Way Through Depression – Mark Williams & John Teasdale The Mindful Way Workbook: an 8 Week programme to Free Yourself from Depression & Emotional Distress – John Teasdale & Mark Williams The Mindful Way Through Anxiety – Susan M Orsillo & Lizabeth Roemer
Mindfulness based CBT
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Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (Second Edition) – Williams, Teasdale, Segal
General
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Mindfulness For Dummies – Shamash Alidina
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Of course, books are great, but reading a book is not a substitute for your own practice! Websites
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bemindful.co.uk – Website with information on mindfulness and online courses www.headspace.com – Online courses, free meditations, great videos http://www.freemindfulness.org/download http://mindfulselfcompassion.org/ http://self-compassion.org/
There are also some great apps to help you meditate. Insight timer is great as it is free and has access to free guided meditations, but can also be used as a timer for when you’re ready to meditate without guidance. https://insighttimer.com/ It’s on Apple and Google Play. Meditation oasis also has some good guided meditations on a few different apps. Not all are free, but they are cheap. http://www.meditationoasis.com/ Their meditations include: Simply Be, Walking meditation, Breathe and Relax, At Ease, Relax and Rest.
Manchester Mind Guided Meditations If you like the Breathing Space meditation (the short one), you can access Manchester Mind’s own version online at:
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https://soundcloud.com/user-932076252/breathing-space-meditation https://soundcloud.com/user-932076252
Our version of the Body Scan and mindfulness of breath is also accessible on the same Soundcloud profile.
Adapted from Breathworks handouts, Mindfulness in 8 weeks book – Michael Chaskalson, and Breathing Space London handouts and Ruth Rosselson, Manchester Mind.
Mindfulness for Stress Most of the benefits of meditation come from regular practice. However, it’s not always easy to start and keep up with a regular and consistent meditation practice. An eight-week course is a really good way of helping you establish this new habit. It gives you the opportunity to support and be supported by the other group members as you share your experiences, challenges and reflections. There’s also something very special about meditating in the company of others. Over eight sessions, you’ll learn different mindfulness techniques, which you will be expected to practice at home. Manchester Mind’s 8-week mindfulness for stress courses take place throughout the year. Visit www.manchestermind.org/mindfulness for more details and dates.
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Manchester Mind is an independent local mental health charity which delivers advice, information and support to thousands of young people and adults every year. Our vision is of a city that promotes good mental health and that treats people with mental health issues positively, fairly and with respect. If you’d like to find out more or to get involved, please get in touch.
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0161 769 5732 info@manchestermind.org @ manchestermind www.manchestermind.org
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