Mindfulness for Wellbeing and Peak Performance
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WEEK 2: Mindful Stress Reduction
Curiosity Exercise In this exercise, we're going to cultivate curiosity by bringing it to something mundane and everyday, which is the breath. So just take a few moments now to sit comfortably. You might like to allow your eyes to close or just to adopt a soft gaze. Take a few moments to check in with yourself-- just noticing what's happening in the body, what's happening in the mind. If you notice your mind wandering off into thoughts, you can just bring it back to the body, to the sensations there. You might feel the chair underneath you, your feet on the floor—a sense of groundedness. And then when you're ready, just bring in the attention to the breath, without consciously changing your breathing in anyway-- just starting to notice the natural expansion and contraction, rising and falling, the movement of the breath in the body. You might feel it entering and leaving at the nostrils, and just noticing where in the body you feel the breath the easiest and resting the attention there. And rather than taking the breath for granted, see if you can bring an attitude of genuine interest and curiosity to it. Not thinking about it or visualising it or imagining anything, but just feeling it-- noticing what it really, actually feels like to take this breath right now. Aware when you're breathing in, when you're breathing out. Simply noticing the movement of the breath. Noticing the pauses between the breaths, that moment where the breath turns around. And if you can start to notice those pauses, then you'll be able to notice the very beginning of the next breath-- and just following it all the way through to the end, to the pause, and then the beginning of the next one. In any moment that you notice that your mind's become bored and wandered off, just bring it back to the breath once again-- just becoming interested in this breath right now, this moment. And just coming back over and over and over again, as many times as you need to. You might start to notice certain qualities of the breath. Noticing whether it's deep or shallow. Might notice its texture, whether it's rough and course or smooth and silky-- or
Š Monash University 2015
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something else. You may have noticed that the breath is slightly cooler on the way in and warmer on the way out. And what else can you notice about your breath-- right now, in this moment-- when you pay attention to it in this way? And so here, we're just noticing when the mind gets bored and wanders off, and very simply becoming interested in the breath once again. And just doing that over and over, as many times as we need to. And just taking a moment now to notice what happens when you become genuinely interested in the breath, when you start to engage with it in this way. What effect does that have? Just take a moment now to check back in with the body and the mind and just with that sense of curiosity, noticing what's happening there. Noticing what the effect of simply engaging with the breath in this way over the last five minutes has been. And then whenever you're ready, just allowing the eyes to open.
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