Week 2 – Keeping the Body in Mind

​

Practices for week 2:

1. Body scan meditation 

2. Continue doing a daily routine mindfully   (other daily mindfulness possibilities)

​

Habit Releaser for week 2: go for a mindful walk, at least 15 minutes, at least one day, use all your senses to apprecite the present moments while walking

 

Week 2 Summary

Week one began the process of building mindful concentration and awareness. You may have caught a glimpse of how your mind works and how much "chatter" there is. While you can't stop the chatter, you can learn to recognize it, modify how you respond to it, and potentially stop vicious cycles from happening.

This process may not be easy. Rewiring long term patterns in your brain takes time, like a fitness program for your body takes time to reset your body's baseline. Remember to go easy on yourself and try not to have preconceived notions of what meditation is supposed to be like - let your meditation experience unfold over time without striving - simply trust the process.

Week two is about becoming aware of your body and how it may be affecting your overall well being. The body does not just react to what the mind is thinking, it also feeds back information to the brain that can end up enhancing fears, worries, and overall angst and unhappiness. This feedback loop is experimentally observable and is only now beginning to be understood. What we think, feel,  and do moment to moment can be significantly affected by the state of our body. Yet, most people spend most of their time in their heads, oblivious to how their body may be contributing to their states of mind. 

Over the course of the week, develop the capacity to be aware of your body and how it may be contributing to your state of mind. The body scan meditation helps build mindful attention to the body and enhances the ability to read cues from the body that may be correlated with unhappiness, anxiety, and stress. 

Set aside 15 minutes twice a day 6 of 7 days for the body scan meditation for week 2- remember, this is your time to take care of yourself and 15 minutes twice a day really isn't that much in the big picture - wake up 15 minutes earlier, take time before going to bed, before working out, before showering, incorporate while taking a bath, etc.

Optional: when each section of the body is "released," you can add "Thank you _____ " (feet, etc) on inhale and "Relax ____" (feet, etc.) on exhale (or something similar). 

(back)

(all meditations)

 

Week 3 – The Mouse in the Maze

​

Practices for week 3

  1. Daily meditation = mindful movement meditation followed by breath and body meditation

  2. 3 minute breathing space meditation (twice a day, or whenever possible or you feel troubled in body or mind, can also be done with the daily meditation above or added to the beginning or end of stretching, exercise, etc.)

​

Habit Releaser for week 3: valuing the television: only watch a specific show or shows and consciously begin and end the shows at their specific times. 

​

Week 3 Summary

The spirit in which you do something is often as important as the act itself.

If you carry out a task with negativity, you activate your mind's aversion system, narrowing the focus of your life and becoming more anxious, less flexible, and less creative. If you do the same task in an open hearted, welcoming manner, you activate your mind's "approach" system and your life has a chance to become richer, warmer, more flexible, and more creative.

Nothing activates the mind's aversion system (and depresses the approach system) as much as feeling trapped- trapped in work, perfectionism, sense of responsibility, etc. - whatever leads to a feeling of no escape (a mouse trapped in a maze). When you feel trapped, the world seems to present fewer alternatives for action, whatever the reality- the result is "demobilization" (getting "stuck"). This can be a huge burden. And if trying to get free backfires, anxiety, stress, fatigue, etc. are perpetuated and amplified. Although this spiraling effect is powerful, becoming aware of this spiraling and simply turning towards and observing the spirals helps to dissolve them- because they are maintained by the mind's "doing mode."  The practices of week three are intended to enhance your awareness of your body and mind and enable you to recognize your "doing mode" and help to break free from spirals of feeling trapped.

(back)

(all meditations)

​

Week 4 – Moving Beyond the Rumor Mill

​

Practices for week 4:

1. Breath and body meditation followed by sounds and thoughts meditation 

2. 3 minute breathing space meditation (whenever possible or you feel troubled in body or mind)

 

Habit Releaser for week 4: going to the movies- go to the movies at a specific time but do not have a movie picked out ahead of time - pick one that appeals to you after you've gotten there

​

Week 4 Summary

Our thoughts are like rumors in the mind- they might be true, they might not be true. When we feel stressed and life is frantic, the "rumors" in our mind can exhibit strong negativity and even feel like absolute truth, but we need to see such things as symptoms of stress and exhaustion and not as facts. Recognizing this allows you to step back and decide whether to take them seriously. In time, you can learn to notice them, acknowledge them, investigate them, and let them go. 

This week we learn to refine our awareness to be able to sense when the mind and body are signaling that things are turning negative and self-attacking and when our reactions may be pulling us into a vortex. A sound and thoughts meditation is added to our mindfulness toolbox. 

The mind is our organ for thoughts as the ear is to sounds- the sounds and thoughts meditation shows us how similar sounds and thoughts are- arising and disappearing beyond our control, triggering, etc. You can relate to thoughts, the "sense" of the mind, as you do to sounds, the sense of the ears.

(back)

(all meditations)

​

Week 5 – Turning Towards Difficulties

​

Practices for week 5:

1) Daily meditation = 

breath and body meditation followed by

sounds and thoughts meditation followed by 

​exploring difficulty meditation

 

2) 3 minute breathing space meditation (twice a day or whenever possible or you feel troubled in body or mind)

 

Habit Releaser for week 5: plant some seeds or take care of a plant - the act of caring for another living being can greatly improve our own lives.

​

Week 5 Summary

Week 5 is about exploring difficulties in life and approaching them with mindfulness. Mindfulness is not about detachment or suppression- it’s about reframing difficulties and rewiring neural networks.

​

An acronym that has been found useful in mindfulness and meditation practice is RAIN (recognize, acknowledge/accept, investigate, non-idenftification/non-attachment): 

​

The first step is Recognizing an unwanted or difficult thought, feeling, emotion, or sensation and any temptation to suppress what is happening.

The second step is to Acknowledge what is happening and face it head on.  Some people say "There you are fear" or "Hello fear" or something similar (as opposed to "I am afraid"). Acceptance is a pause, a period of allowing, of letting be, of clearly seeing things as they are – this can allow us to respond skillfully rather than react based on previous conditioning.

The third step is to Investigate- What are you feeling/ thinking? How is it felt in your body? Is it (fear, etc.) founded in truth/reality or misperceptions, is it self imposed (ruminating on something in the past that is over, worried about a future which may or may not happen, etc.)? Is this part of a cycle of 1) trigger, 2) behavior, 3) reward/reinforcement that you've been conditioned to experience and continue to reinforce without realizing it? Investigation is about awareness, feeling, and processing, it is NOT about solving, judging, or ruminating - simply be aware of and observe what you are experiencing without judgment. 

The fourth step is Non-identification/ Non-attachment

Non-identification- there is anger v I am angry, there is anxiety v I am anxious - see things as fleeting experiences that don't define you unless you allow them to. Non-attachment is about letting go- this isn't suppression, it's only letting go after facing and acknowledging the issue. This doesn't mean passive resignation either- if you need to act in the present moment, act, but do so skillfully and mindfully (and perhaps contemplate HALTS- are you Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired, Stressed or Self centered). 

​

Using RAIN you may gain useful insights and break potentially spiraling patterns of thoughts or behaviors. Always try to focus on the present moment and don't attach to issues in the past that you have no control over or to a future which is ultimately unknown. 

​

In this week's meditation, we learn to be aware of difficulties and investigation includes turning attention to the bodily sensations which be associated with difficulties.

(back)

(all meditations)

​

Week 6 – Trapped in the Past or Living in the Present

​

Practices for week 6:

1. Befriending meditation (lovingkindness meditation) 

2. 3 minute breathing space meditation (whenever possible or you feel troubled in body or mind)

 

Habit Releaser for week 6: two options

1) reclaim your life - do something you did and enjoyed before your life became more frantic

2) do a good deed for someone else

​

Week 6 Summary

Week 6 is about cultivating empathy and kindness, towards yourself and others. This week introduces a lovingkindness meditation which helps to dissolve negative ways of thinking and helps you relate to yourself and the world with kindness and compassion. After the meditation, set an intention to carry over any kindness and compassion into the rest of your day. 

Optional: silently well wish everyone you encounter- see others as extensions of yourself, expressions of the divine, etc., and let compassion arise while silently saying "may you be at peace and free from suffering" 

(back)

(all meditations)

​

Week 7 – When Did You Stop Dancing

​

Practices for week 7:

1. Two previous meditations of your choice on six of seven days - pick one meditation because you felt it gave you something positive- relaxation, positive outlook, etc., choose another that you felt you had difficulties with or you just didn’t seem to grasp

2. 3 minute breathing space meditation with the two meditations of your choice or as needed as a standalone meditation, particularly at times of stress

​

Week 7 Summary

This week explore the connections between your daily routines, activities, behaviors and moods and pay attention to which activities throughout the day deplete you and which nourish you (perhaps keep a journal). The more we get sucked down the exhaustion funnel, the more we stop doing things that used to nourish us (hence, when did you stop dancing?). Awareness of such things helps us make more skillful choices and do more things that nourish rather than deplete us. This week is about finding ways to incorporate nourishing activities into your day. Perhaps talk with or do this together with a family member, friend, or colleague. 

When you realize you're stressed this week, do the breathing space meditation then ask yourself:

- what do I need for myself right now?

- how can I best take care of myself right now?

Courses of action:

1) do something relaxing/pleasurable

2) do something that gives you a sense of mastery, satisfaction, or achievement

3) continue to act mindfully         

Pay attention to what you end up doing, how it made you feel, and how to incorporate anything that nourishes you into your daily routine.                                

(back)

(all meditations)

​

Week 8 – Your wild and precious life - decide which meditation(s) fit best for you and incorporate them into your daily routine

​

Week 8 Summary

Week 8 is about weaving mindfulness into your daily life such that it is sustainable. The most difficult aspect of mindfulness is just remembering to be mindful or getting to meditate. But, if you recognize you're not being mindful, you're actually being mindful :).

Ideas to possibly help:

1) start the day with mindfulness

2) use your breath, breathing space mediation, or some other focus to center and calm yourself throughout the day

3) maintain your mindfulness practice with any of the previous weeks ideas, habit releasers, or meditations

4) befriend your feelings, whatever you feel

5) whatever you do, see if you can remain mindful throughout

6) increase your level of activity/exercise

7) remember RAIN (Recognize, Acknowledge/Accept, Investigate, Non-attachment)

8) be mindful of what you consume, try to eat healthier, walk/exercise, practice mindful movements, consider Yoga, Qigong, Tai Chi, etc.

​(back)

(all meditations)