LAYPERSONS INTRODUCTION TO MINDFULNESS Jim Messina Ph D

LAYPERSON’S INTRODUCTION TO MINDFULNESS Jim Messina, Ph. D. , CCMHC, NCC, DCMHS-T Director COPING. US Training Programs Lecturer, Clinical Mental Health Counseling Troy University Tampa Bay Site

WHAT IS MINDFULNESS Mindfulness involves: • An elemental and spontaneous openness to experience grounded in the body, • Timeless, in not expecting something to happen • Befriending and inhabiting of the present moment for its own sake Resting in mindful awareness, you are: • Participating intimately in life as it is unfolding • Seeing what happens • Experimenting • Allowing the original beauty and mastery of the world and you to speak to you without shying away from wonder, awe and joy • The miracle of being alive in these precious present moments that are available to all of us but that we so often ignore in hope of some “better”

REFLECT ON THESE MESSAGES 1. Intention shapes your thoughts and words 2. Thoughts and words mold your actions 3. Thoughts, words, and actions shape your behaviors’ 4. Behaviors sculpt your bodily expressions 5. Bodily expressions fashion your character 6. Your character hardens into what you look like

THE GOAL OF MINDFULNESS To experience inner happiness through: • Reduction of painful symptoms • Stress reduction • Improved quality of life • Improved coping skills • Greater sense of inner connectedness • Greater sense of unconditional self-acceptance

HOW DOES MINDFULNESS HELP YOU ACHIEVE THESE GOALS? Through mindfulness: • You experience a improved sense of self-control and ease over how you relate to or cope with what is happening in your inner or outer experience • You learn to relate to what is happening with more kindness • You lower your physiological stress response in the process. Metaphor for this process: • Learning to sail in the winds of life: • You can’t change the wind - but you can adjust your sails.

TWO WAYS OF PRACTICING MINDFULNESS Formal Practice: Setting time aside daily to do specific meditations using the recorded meditations available in JKZ Series 1, 2 and 3 or other recorded meditations available on Apps or on the Internet. Recommended body posture for the formal practice is sitting. Informal Practice: When applying mindfulness or self-compassion to something that you are already doing in your everyday life. This involves focusing on the sensations that arise in these situations. Example: Mindful eating: focusing your sight, smell, taste, touch, and sounds that anchor you in the moment of eating. Turns out that you might also focus in on your emotions and thoughts that arise in the moment

INSTRUCTIONS FOR MINDFULNESS PRACTICE 1. Become aware of the present-moment experience: Focus your attention on the “Nowness of the activity” and shutter out all other thoughts if you can 2. Once you notice that your attention has wondered off, gently redirect your attention to the current present moment 3. Do not judge yourself harshly if your attention has been distracted be kind to yourself and re-direct yourself back to the target of your practice’s attention

MINDFULNESS FREES YOU UP TO BE YOU • Mindfulness is a way of learning how to relate directly to your life • Because it is about your life, no one can do it for you or tell you exactly how to do it • It isn’t something you need to get or acquire-You already have it in you, it’s simply a matter of being present • The moment you see that you have been trapped by your thoughts, you gain the freedom to step out of the trap

MINDFULNESS FREES YOU TO BE YOU Mindfulness is awareness cultivated by paying attention in a sustained and particular way: • On purpose • In the present moment and • Nonjudgmentally It is a form of Meditation in which you engage in 1. Systematically regulating your attention and energy 2. Thereby influencing and possibly transforming the quality of your experience 3. In the service of realizing the full range of humanity 4. And of your relationship to others and the world. (Kabat Zinn, J. (2016) Mindfulness for beginners: Reclaiming the present moment-and your life. Boulder, CO: Sounds True)

JON KABAT-ZINN’S DEFINITION OF MINDFULNESS Mindfulness is awareness cultivated by paying attention in a sustained and particular way: -On purpose -In the present moment and -Nonjudgmentally It is a form of Meditation in which you engage in 1. Systematically regulating your attention and energy 2. Thereby influencing and possibly transforming the quality of your experience 3. In the service of realizing the full range of humanity 4. And of your relationship to others and the world.

ANOTHER WAY OF LOOKING AT MINDFULNESS Mindfulness is awareness which is : • Attending with tenderness and patience • Showing up to yourself • Befriending silence intentionally • Smiling – direct transmission of heart to heart presence • Your relationship with your body, mind, and heart • Heart and Mind are the same word in Asian Language • Radical recognition of the realization of just “STOPPING” is a radical action • Focused Meditation: How you live your life relationally by getting out of your own way • Finding your True Way requires that you get out of your own way

ATTITUDES THAT SUPPORT AND STRENGTHEN MINDFULNESS 1. Acceptance 2. Nonjudging 3. Nonstriving 4. Letting go/Letting be 5. Trust 6. Beginner’s mind 7. Gratitude and generosity

3 ADDITIONAL ATTITUDES HELPFUL IN GENERATING MINDFULNESS • Curiosity: is greatly needed in the work of mindfulness since it helps you to turn toward the present-moment experience to better learn about it and to perceive it fully. You become curious about the moment if you choose to by asking questions such as “What is here that I’m not aware of? Or “What is this? ” • Kindness: with kindness present, judgment and harshness receded you see what happens in a different light. Kindness often arises from a deeper more complex understanding of how the heart and mind work – not just for yourself but for everybody. • Humor: Humor allows you to take a step back from a particular situation, to see your habits of mind and find the amusement in your alltoo-human foibles. You can laugh at ourself which allows you to not allow your minds to be petty and stubborn. You are able to not be overidentified with the situations and be better able to create space

HOW DO YOU DISPLAY THESE ATTITUDES WHEN YOU GO OFF TARGET? When you notice your mind goes off • Notice where you drifted off to • Don’t criticize yourself • Lovingly draw your attention back to the focus of your breath, belly, body, senses etc. • Give caring attention by reeling back your mind to the present • Help your mind to accept itself as it is • Don’t take it personally • Try to stay away from the personal pronouns: I, me, mine etc. when talking about the experience of the now

COMPASSION & LOVING KINDNESS • Compassion is to “sympathize” or “to feel with” especially to feel the pain of others • Compassion is defined as the wish or impulse to alleviate suffering in another living being-which is different than just to “feel with” the other. • If the suffering is within yourself, you can call this self-compassion • Compassion arises out of the foundation of a general well-wishing and benevolence toward all living beings-this is called loving-kindness • Compassion arises out of loving kindness as a natural response to suffering or pain

MINDFULNESS IS AN ACT OF LOVING SELF • A goal of mindfulness is to grow in love for yourself – Do not exclude yourself from your love • Choose every day to find what is good in your life • Be grounded in yourself • Live your life for you • Do not let your life be diminished by the negatives of others • Do not let others’ negative beings diminish you either

HOW DOES MINDFULNESS WORK • The only way you can influence the future is in the present • By being fully human you influence your future • Recognize that life is bigger than you and that what is going on in life is a gift with which you will grow and be fully nourished if you just let it be – allow life the freedom to be life the way it is rather than how you want it to be • Ethically the goal is to do no harm to self through mindfulness practice • Goal is to recognize the beauty in self and in others • So the motto is: DO NO HARM … DO A LITTLE GOOD

COPING WITH PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL PAIN • Pain is distracting and conflicts with the present moment • Desire relief from physical pain • Desire relief from the unpleasant sensations • Healing – is coming to grips with it in the now Decide how you are to develop a relationship with pain – which is intense unpleasantness • Befriend the emotion – as it is • Turn toward the unpleasantness • Treat it as a guest freely • Don’t shy away from it

WHAT YOU CAN LEARN ABOUT MINDFULNESS BY EMBRACING PAIN Whatever you do to be attentive is mindful as long as it’s nurturing in the here and now This is the heart of thousands of years old tradition It is pure awareness It is not a distraction It is a way to attend to whatever is going on in the mind or body It is profound and transcends the essence of suffering, pain, anxiety and comes into awareness of our full humanity Tune into the feelings at the moment • Inhabit Awareness • Let each moment arise so you will feel fully integrated

THE FOUR FOUNDATIONS OF MINDFULNESS 1. Mindfulness of the Body: the starting point and anchor of mindfulness practice. The meditations used are: Body Scan, Mindful Eating, Mindfulness of Breathing, Mindfulness of Sound and Mindful Walking. 2. Mindfulness of Feeling Tones: There are three distinct feeing tones; unpleasant, pleasant or neutral. Feeling tones are not emotions they accompany them 3. Mindfulness of the Mind: This practice turns attention to mental activity like thought or emotions as mere objects that can be observed in a nonreactive way 4. Mindfulness of how the Mind Operates: This focuses on the classification of related experiences into specific categories or lists. Such as this lest of the four Foundations of Mindfulness

AWARENESS IS THE PATHWAY THAT MAKES YOU HUMAN • Embrace your thoughts in awareness • Get the first person pronouns out of the story of me • Embrace life as a journey which needs to be experienced with full awareness • Healing comes from being present • Healing comes from being Heartful - which takes you out of the center of your focus • Awareness allows you to always be “Here” • Being Here allows you to find the center of awareness which is an integral part of your human repertoire • To engage in awareness take a lot of motivation and commitment to self to be whole • You are already whole … So your practice allows you to embrace your wholeness • Mindfulness allows you to see your wholeness – You are already OK – This is

COMPONENTS OF THE FOCUS OF MINDFULNESS As a human you have: Breath, Body, Mind, Senses and Emotions You have all these processes in your DNA and the way to get there is by “Not Doing” You too often over focus on the past, but you in mindfulness focus on the present So you need to work through awareness at cultivating your capacity for: knowing, hearing, seeing, feeling, smelling, tasting so that you can become fully humanly heartful Practice of Mindfulness is living your life fully: • I feel more in my body • I know how to regulate myself • Through my Body Scans I am in this together • Awareness becomes my default state - for coming to terms with life as it is • Kindness and self-love grows as I grow in my practice of mindfulness

SUMMARY Mindfulness is present-moment nonjudgmental awareness • Mindfulness=Wisdom and Compassion • Learning there is more right with us than what is wrong with us • Learning we are already perfect • Don’t talk about it – BE IT! Compassion is an active and kind turning toward suffering – your own and that of others – with the aim of relieving it to whatever degree possible. • The only hero of the moment is you as long as you don’t say it

BIBLIOGRAPHY • Kabat-Zinn, J. (1990 & 2013). Full Catastrophe Living: using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain and Illness. Ba. Ntam Books: New York, NY. • Kabat-zinn, J. (1994 & 2005). Wherever you go there you are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday life. Hachette Books: New York, NY. • Kabat-Zinn, J. (2005). Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the World through Mindfulness. Hachette Books: New York, NY. • Kabat-Zinn, J. (2012 & 2016). Mindfulness for beginners: Reclaiming he present moment and your life. Sounds True, Inc: Boulder, Colorado • Kabat-Zinn, J. (2018). Meditation is not what you think: Mindfulness and why it is so important (book One). Hachette Books: New York, NY. • Kabat-Zinn, J. (2018). Falling Awake: how to practice mindfulness in everyday life (Book two). Hachette Books: New York, NY. • Kabat-Zinn, J. (2018). The Healing Power of Mindfulness: A New way of Being (book Three). Hachette Books: New York, NY.