Engaging mindfulness and compassion during a period of crisis by Anna Woo, RP Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, I found myself experiencing suffering. Overwhelmed by anxiety and worry about the state of the world, I felt sad, lethargic, and lacked motivation. I recognized this to be a state I shared with my clients.
Tears flowed when I explored the heaviness in my chest, a feeling I identified as sadness. I stayed up late at night watching television and dragged myself through each day with low energy and little motivation to engage in activities.
I personally find the practice of mindfulness — being, rather than doing, and accepting and allowing what is — to be of benefit during times of distress. Two approaches inform my mindfulness-based practice. I would like to share these with you, offering my thoughts with regard to their benefit in reducing stress and anxiety clients may be experiencing concerning COVID-19.
Recognizing that a depressive mood was setting in, I tried to engage in behavioural activation as I suggest to my clients. I sought to restore my motivation and self-compassion. In CFT six qualities of compassion are developed: sensitivity, sympathy, distress tolerance, empathy, nonjudgment, and care for well being. These are developed through the training of skills, including mindfulness, which promote selfcompassion, allowing one to engage with and alleviate distress (Irons & Beaumont, 2017).
Based upon Jonn Kabat-Zinn’s mindfulnessbased stress reduction programs, Zindel Segal, Mark Williams, and John Teasdale helped develop Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) (Segal et al., 2012). We can teach mindfulness to our clients through both our presence and instruction (Woods et al., 2019). Having an embodied presence means that, through meditation practice, we have an understanding of the causes of our suffering and acceptance of their presence. Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT), meanwhile, helps clients deepen their sense of compassion, defined as a sensitivity to suffering — one’s own as well as that of others — with a motivation and commitment to alleviate the suffering (Kolts et al, 2018). COVID-19 put both practices to the test. During meditation, my attention was frequently pulled away by overwhelming thoughts. My embodied presence was difficult to sustain as I experienced difficulty accepting my problems.
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Now during my own meditation practice I connected to my compassionate self. In particular, I brought to mind three core qualities of compassion: wisdom, courage/ strength, and the motivation and commitment to be helpful (Irons & Beaumont, 2017). I allowed these qualities of compassion to expand and grow within me with each breath. For clients, I offer the following instructions to the responsive breathing space script (MBCT). After the exploration and allowing for intense sensation in the body, continue as follows: And now to further assist you with this difficulty, this challenging problem, I’d like to invite you to connect to your compassionate self. Perhaps placing a hand on your chest or your heart or your belly. Bringing to mind the qualities of compassion such as wisdom (pause), strength, courage (pause), commitment and motivation to work with this difficulty (pause). And as you breathe, allow these qualities of compassion to grow and expand within you.
