Mindfulness Connect

3 fold breathing

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Category: Connect

Published: Thursday, 13 October 2016 20:28

Written by Hilary Williams

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Group August 4th 2016

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Category: Connect

Published: Friday, 12 August 2016 08:33

Written by Cherry

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We started the session with a mindful self-compassion practice adapted from Germer (mindfulselfcompassion.org). This is a practice which combines mindfulness of sound, bodily sensations, breath awareness and loving-kindness with self-compassion phrases.

'Even the most exalted states and the most exceptional spiritual accomplishments are unimportant if we cannot be happy in the most basic and ordinary ways, if we cannot touch one another and the life we have been given with our hearts' (Jack Kornfield, 'A Path with Heart').

The practice was followed by enquiry. There was discussion around the choice of phrases used and how being flexible with them can help them resonate more personally, and the value of returning to the intentionality of deliberately bringing kindness and compassion to oneself, as a way of working with our inherent vulnerability as human beings, which can so often lead to negativity, self-criticism, even self-loathing. If we neglect compassion toward ourselves, then compassion toward others eventually leads to exhaustion and burn-out.

A personal discovery has been finding that loving kindness can be practiced 'off the mat' - e.g., whilst walking, the repeating phrases seem to flow more effortlessly (less thinking, more being), and in daily moments of challenge, the 'opening' effect of self-compassion and kindness can shift perspective quite dramatically. 

Tara Brach's, 'Waking up from the Trance of Unworthiness' (from 'The Self-Acceptance Project', various authors) begins:

'Many years ago, I began to focus on the urgent need for self-acceptance. In fact, I called it radical self-acceptance, because the notion of holding oneself with love and compassion was still so foreign. It had become clear to me that a key part of my emotional suffering was a sense of feeling "not enough'", which, at times, escalated into full-blown self- aversion. As I witnessed similar patterns in my students and clients, I began to realize that the absence of self-acceptance is one of the most pervasive expressions of suffering in our society.'

An evolutionary perspective shows how self-protection helps survival, but Tara Brach describes how this sense of vulnerability can become highly personal, and childhood experience abetted by our competitive culture can add further messages of unworthiness and inadequacy. This is turn can lead to attempts to defend and promote ourselves and cover our feelings of unworthiness - ending in aggressive behaviour towards ourselves and others.  Sounds familiar to me!

To reconnect to our innate (though often undeveloped) compassionate selves, Tara Brach describes two elements: mindful recognition of what is going on inside us, and a compassionate response.

The practice of R-A-I-N is a way of doing this (N.B. a useful version of this is presented by Judson Brewer at

https://themindfulnesssummit.com/sessions/mindfulness-for-addiction-judson-brewer/  )  

Tara Brach describes RAIN as a practice for 'disentangling from the trance' -  at any moment. Here's a summary:

R is to recognise what is going on. Pause and acknowledge feelings of unworthiness

A is to allow what thoughts and feelings are here. Deepen the pause. Let it just be, without distraction

I is to investigate with kindness and gentle curiosity. You can put your hand on your heart and offer self-compassion. 

N is non-identified where we intentionally don't identify with the unworthy self, but instead inhabit a larger loving awareness and wholeness. (NB Judson Brewer uses the idea of N for Noting whatever body sensations are present at any moment - to gain perspective).

We ended the session with a reading of 'Kindness' by Naomi Shihab Nye from 'Words Under the Words', Eighth Mountain Press, 1995)

Group September 22nd 2016

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Category: Connect

Published: Saturday, 01 October 2016 15:57

Written by Cherry

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Our session started with a walking meditation in the grounds - it was a beautiful mellow September day. Some of us chose a simple walking meditation with the ground as our anchor, 'feeling the earth' through the body and feet, whilst others were open to all the senses as we walked, including the sense of proprioception, sometimes called the 'sixth sense'. This has been described by Oliver Sach's in 'The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat' as 'that continuous but unconscious sensory flow from the movable parts of our body (muscles, tendons, joints) by which their position and tone and motion is continually monitored and adjusted, but in a way which is hidden from us because it is automatic and unconscious', and allowing us to feel our bodies as belonging to ourselves. Through walking meditation we can bring awareness to this 'unconscious' sensory flow.  Some of us practiced incorporating loving kindness phrases into our walking, using the movement to physically 'embed' the intentionality of the compassionate phrases into our beings.

We held a period of enquiry following the practice, with some discussion around the idea of trusting to a kind of innate sense of physical 'wisdom' when it came to 'being in our bodies' (as opposed to our heads, as per usual!).

In walking meditation being in contact with the 'outside world' can bring challenges and choices - e.g., an external object such as a sailing boat can carry us away into a personal 'story' - pleasant or unpleasant, and we can get caught up with the narrative, but we can also make a choice to bring the attention back to 'pure seeing', or to move the focus elsewhere, or maybe back to an anchor such as the ground beneath us or the breath.

We followed with a period of general enquiry and reflection. Mindful awareness seems to bring a shifting of perspectives on both historical and contemporary situations and emotional states, sometimes with new insights, sometimes offering new ways of looking at otherwise difficult, personally challenging life situations, with compassion and humour helping frame and support.

We had further discussion around the value of developing bodily awareness through some form of physical practice (such as yoga, tai chi) to help with the reconnection of body and mind - especially important if there has been an experience of trauma. This is sensitive work and for some it could mean individual therapy, but for others a gentle, kind and curious exploring of the body through, for instance, a simple yoga practice, can be hugely healing. (See 'The Body Keeps the Score' by Bessel Van der Kolk' and 'Trauma and Memory' by Peter Levine for more information on trauma therapy).

The first chapter from Jon Kabat-Zinn's ' Wherever you go there you are' seemed a useful way to 'ground' us to what mindfulness is about - in a secular though reverential way - acknowledging the Buddhist origins whilst emphasising the extreme relevance to our society today:

'The habit of ignoring our present moments in favour of others yet to come leads directly to a pervasive lack of awareness of the web of life in which we are embedded. This includes a lack of awareness and understanding of our own mind and how it influences our perceptions and our actions. It severely limits our perspective on what it means to be a person and how we are connected to each other and to the world around us.' (p. 5)

Group on July 7th 2016

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Category: Connect

Published: Thursday, 14 July 2016 21:54

Written by Cherry

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We began with a Mountain Meditation taken from Jon Kabat-Zinn.

This was followed by enquiry followed by a larger enquiry concerning how people were in a period of intense political & emotional turmoil and the place of mindfulness practice in the midst of this. There was discussion around the primary need for personal stability and emotional safety and the importance of a sense of connection with others as well as a personal sense of control through basic lifestyle choices such as a good diet, adequate sleep and exercise. Usual mindfulness practices may need to be changed or adapted rather then struggled with - being flexible and self-compassionate helping to reduce that tendency to negative self-judgement.

Working with difficult emotions was discussed - such emotions are to be acknowledged and their expression can be healing (as with extreme sadness). Of interest, in 'A Force for Good - The Dalai Lama's vision for Our World', Dan Goleman describes how the Dalai Lama advises "well-guided anger" where one will, "Keep a calm mind, study the situation, then take a countermeasure. If you let a wrongdoing happen, it might continue abd increase, so, out of compassion, take appropriate countermeasures." "Muscular compassion" is the term Dan Goleman gives to this approach by the Dalai Lama to wrongdoing in the world. 

For all of us, simply taking a breath or a space to help with our tendency for emotional reactivity & unthinking behaviour is the first step to wiser and kinder action - however small - or great - the context may be. 

There was some discussion around the 'rightness' of using distraction at times of strong emotion and stress. We try to use our thinking minds to solve emotional states and often this just makes things worse. So, when dealing with difficult mind states, a meditation practice where we set the mind on something else like the breath or the body can open up a spaciousness around the thinking and loosen it up. Equally, simply taking a walk or doing some gardening or going for a swim will take the focus from the tyrannical thinking mind and into the body and its connection with the space and environment surrounding it. 

We concluded this session with the poem 'The Garden' by Harry Clifton (from 'Being Human' edited by Neil Astley).