Week 1 - Mindfulness & learning to choose

The aim this week is to introduce you to the concept and experience of mindfulness.

We will also practice activities designed to increase your awareness of the breath in the body, and to help you understand how this awareness can begin to transform your experience of and your relationship to stress and difficulty.

Key concepts we touch on this week are:

  • mindfulness

  • autopilot (the raisin exercise!)

  • primary and secondary experience

  • reacting and responding

  • choice

 Jon Kabat-Zinn’s definition of Mindfulness

“Mindfulness is awareness that arises through paying attention,

on purpose,

in the present moment,

and non-judgmentally”

Home practice - week 1

  • Body scan twice a day - click here to download a 10mins guided body scan practice.

    A word on posture: we all know how to lie down and get up, but I would invite you to spend some time making sure you are comfortable before starting a body scan practice. For example: you might find that resting your head on a pillow is too high, and try a rolled up towel to support your neck instead.

    It is also another opportunity for being mindful, in this case with your movements, as you gently move into position.
    Here is some video guidance on how to get down on the floor (or bed) and on getting back up safely.

  • This week’s Mindfulness in Action practice is to do one routine activity mindfully every day.

    Choose an activity - something that you normally do at least once every day, such as cleaning your teeth, having a shower, eating a meal, opening or closing doors, walking up or down stairs, drinking a cup of tea or coffee. 

    • Whatever activity you choose, don't do it on autopilot, but pay full attention to it. For example, if you choose cleaning your teeth, paying attention means first of all, just cleaning your teeth and not doing something else as well, such as cleaning the sink at the same time or sorting the laundry. It means not multi-tasking.

    • It also means paying attention to what it feels like: the feeling of the brush on your teeth and gums, of the toothpaste in your mouth, of the fresh water as you rinse your mouth at the end, and the taste of the toothpaste of course. Taste it!

    • It means bringing your mind back to what you're doing whenever it wanders on to something else, which it will probably do over and over again!

Enjoy your practice!

 

Primary and secondary experience

The goal of this mindfulness course is to enable us to be with our primary experience, and substantially reduce our secondary experience. When we keep returning to our primary experience, it can be truly transformative and can change how we relate to our experience.

If you have any questions or comments about this week's key concept, or you want to share your experience, you can post it in the FB group.

Optional activities

  • Our course book is The Little Mindfulness Workbook by Gary Hennessey. If you haven’t received it in the mail yet, please let me know.

    • you can review the key concepts from our first live session by reading chapters 1 and 2 of the book.

    • you can download a 20mins body scan (meditation 1) from the playlist that accompanies the workbook by clicking here.

    • you can download journal templates for the body scan by clicking here.

  • Read more about the anatomy of breathing by clicking here.

  • Explore how you like to disengage from autopilot. You can repeat the raisin exercise, or try it with any other food. Click here to try the ice cream meditation by Vidyamala Burch.

  • Reflect on your practice and learning: notice what your experience is, jot down some notes in a journal, or share some reflections in the FB group to help your learning.

Poem

Come as you are, come with your quiet strength or shaky confidence.
Both take bravery & practice.
Don’t let fear stop you from saying yes to life’s invitations.

Come as you are,
come with your mistakes, your goofiness, your humanness.
Being yourself frees others to be themselves with you.

Come as you are,
come with what you love about yourself,
even on days you can’t find anything.
By showing up, you’ll make an important discovery.

Come as you are,
come with what you want to hide.
Come with what makes you insecure.
I promise, that person sitting next to you has insecurities too.
Those fears and insecurities can be what connects you.

Come as you are,
come with your obnoxious laugh, your funny sneeze, your out-of-tune voice.
Come with what makes you YOU.
You might not realize it, but someone breathes a sigh of relief at the sight of you.

Come as you are,
come with your decision to pay no mind to haters.
Refuse to let their jealousy or toxicity sabotage this moment in your life. Keep shining.
Someday you’ll look back and be glad you didn’t let someone else dim your light.

Come as you are,
and offer the same acceptance to everyone.
Come with one kind thing to say, especially when others are staring and talk is cruel.
Come with kindness and it will come back to you in ways unimaginable.

Come as you are,
come with your dreams, no matter how silly or outlandish.
You are capable of those dreams (I’ve seen you in action)
- there is no limit to what you can do.

Come as you are, just as you are.
Resist the pressure to conform.
Resist the pressure to be like someone else.
Be your beautiful, radiant one-of-a-kind self.
There is nothing more freeing than being yourself “as is”.

Come as you are, just as you are.
The world might say you don’t fit in.
But I beg to differ – I think you are the missing piece.

 

by Rachel Macy Stafford from Only Love Today (click here for an audio version)