Please be so kind to click here in order to read my new article on mindfulness and nursing, recently posted on Nurse LinkUp. Whether you're a nurse or not, mindfulness and related practices can be powerful tools for personal growth and exploration.
J Nerv Ment Dis. 2008 Jun;196(6):501-503 Usefulness of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Treating Insomnia in Patients With Anxiety Disorders: A Pilot Study. Yook K, Lee SH, Ryu M, Kim KH, Choi TK, Suh SY, Kim YW, Kim B, Kim MY, Kim MJ. The objective of this study was to examine the usefulness of a mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) for treating insomnia symptoms in patients with anx
My single greatest challenge has nothing to do with earning enough money or getting enough sleep (although those two can doubtless be a challenge!). As I struggle with life-long depression and anxiety, my greatest and most pervasive challenge is living in the present moment.Anxiety can be debilitating, and when coupled with depression it's a mental health double-whammy, if you will. I find that it
Problem Solving - Mindfulness Meditation Now, mind you, I do not claim to be a paragon of excellent advice or wisdom, but many of the things I told him would have saved him tremendous amounts of time, frustration and heartaches. As Jonathan [...]
Sitting quietly and trying to meditate, my mind roars with thoughts.While going about my usual business, this must be what my mind does all of the time, although I am so busy with the external world that I don't necessarily notice just how wildly raging my thoughts really are.When my eyes close and my body comes into stillness, I'm shocked by my mind's predilection for staying "mindlessly" engaged
Mindfulness is one of the quickest and easiest ways to reduce stress.It's aim is to bring you into the present, reduce your mind chatter and minimise tension caused from the past or imagined events in the future. Simply you bring yourself into the present. You can also use this technique during your massage to calm your mind and make the most out of your massage. Call us today to book or for more
En riktigt rolig fest blev det! Vi åt och drack gott, tävlade, sjöng Singstar och dansade. Att jag var med i vinnande laget och mannen i jumbolaget var en extra bonus:) Vädret var lika perfekt som humöret på festdeltagarna! Tack Kathrin och Niclas för att ni orkar ordna en toppenrolig fest varje maj!Idag blev det en lång powerwalk i skogen och längs sjön. Jag tränade mig i mindfulness o
Meditation is like watching a riot in my mind. Random thoughts, errant voices, snippets of music---it all rushes into the vacuum created when I close my eyes. At times, a minute or more will go by before I realize I've been sucked into a morass of thought and problem-solving. Then, I have to shake myself loose and start again.Shunryu Suzuki said that meditation is not about turning off your though
What quiets the mind? What is Mindfulness? These two questions are intertwined. For mindfulness itself brings about a quiet mind without trying to control or quiet the mind...and therefore mindfulness can not be a mental activity. Let us explore mindfulness and find out why mindfulness quiets the mind.
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My mind—an undisciplined animal running amok---brings me little comfort. I need to lose my mind. I need to be set loose from my mind. I need to realize that I am not my mind. Not my mind? Lose my mind? Or perhaps loosen my mind?I feel sad that my mind has its way with me so much of the time. It roams freely—perhaps too freely---dragging me violently along, the way a child will pull a puppy down the sidewalk against its will.Sitting for five or ten minutes at a time is enough to give me pause, to realize the wild untamed nature of my mind.I need a retreat.
Mindfulness is a very simple concept, but a skill that escapes a lot of people. Simply put, when we are mindful we act as an observer of our minds, our thoughts and feelings, without judging, or holding onto anything. The object is to be completely present in the moment, mostly focused on our senses, our eyes, ears, nose, and skin. Having complete faith in ourselves, we simply accept whatever comes, assuming we have all we need to cope with anything as best we can. Worry and regret becomes a major distraction from being mindful in that it distracts from our attention to what is happening now.
Jon Kabat-Zinn's stuff in the right sidebar provides great training material.
Mindfulness has wide application in treatment of anxiety, depression, mood regulation as well as crisis stabilization. N
Problem Solving - Mindfulness Meditation Now, mind you, I do not claim to be a paragon of excellent advice or wisdom, but many of the things I told him would have saved him tremendous amounts of time, frustration and heartaches. As Jonathan [...]
Today was the first weekday since we returned from vacation. While Mary went back to work, I did the things I needed to do, little of which involved making money. Picking up the car at the shop, a physical therapy session, shopping, banking, making copies, seeing a friend, walking the dog, making dinner---the day was full.Despite the fullness of the day, nagging voices in my head questioned my motives and my commitments. Why didn't I do more? Why wasn't I more productive? What more could be done?A few hours with a dear friend who lives at a Buddhist retreat center helped to quell those voices. My friend reminded me that I only stopped working full-time three months ago after twelve years of working forty hours a week. When I consider twelve years of work in one hand and three months of my
Problem Solving - Mindfulness Meditation Now, mind you, I do not claim to be a paragon of excellent advice or wisdom, but many of the things I told him would have saved him tremendous amounts of time, frustration and heartaches. As Jonathan [...]
Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life (Paperback)By Thich Nhat Hanh
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The Miracle of Mindfulness (Paperback)By Thich Nhat Hanh
Buy new: $14.00$11.2068 used and new from $6.74 Customer Rating: First tagged “gardening” by William E.Beeson Customer tags: mindfulness(6), meditation(5), buddhism(5), spirituality(4), peace(3), search(2), [...]
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for generalized anxiety disorder Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for generalized anxiety disorder Evans S, Ferrando S, Findler M, Stowell C, Smart C, Haglin D. p>Department of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medical College, United States; JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute, New Jersey Neuroscience Institute, United States While cognitive behavior therapy has been found to be effective in the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), a significant percentage of patients struggle with residual symptoms. There is some conceptual basis for suggesting that cultivation of mindfulness may be helpful for people with GAD. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is a group treatment derived from mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) developed by Jon
Today I attended an all-day conference on mindfulness and meditation with Terry Fralich, a former student of H.H. The Dalia Lama and Jon Kabat-Zinn. The conference focused equally on cultivating mindfulness, the neurobiology of mindfulness, and how to impart mindfulness practices and philosophies to patients and clients when appropriate.Here are some nuggets:---Two parents and their teenage son are walking across a barren desert landscape. The father turns to the son and says, "Stop asking when we're going to get there already. We're nomads, for crying out loud."---If you have time to worry, why don't you have time to meditate?---In Tibetan, the word meditation means "to become familiar with"---We live in an age of "data smog" and "techno-stress"---Mindfulness is full-hearted presence, whi
Mindfulness is the English translation of the Pali word 'Sati.' Sati is an activity. Mindfulness is awareness of one's thoughts, actions or motivations.Mindfulness points one in the direction of being aware of the present moment.Mindfulness points to: Being aware of and paying attention to the moment in which we find ourselves. Mindfulness is a generalization about paying attention and being
The label on my tea bag this morning says "Your intuition is your best friend".Sitting in my writing group, I let the words fly and the keyboard sings beneath my fingers. I do let intuition move my fingers, and I allow the paragraphs to form:The wind blows from behind me and the warm sun feels like a balm against my face and chest. The other writers sit inside in the cozy warmth, and we write simultaneously in a chain of support and solidarity. Cars and trucks go by on the street, and I hear the sounds of birds mixed with the traffic. There’s a hum in the air---the hum of life moving along its inevitable trajectory.Now a small plane cuts across the sky, probably on its way to the local airport. The pilot will land his plane, taxi to his parking area, and exit the plane with a smile. He w
Buddhist meditation includes various types of meditation techniques that build concentration, mindfulness, insight and tranquility.
This form of meditation is based on two principles: one is calm meditation and the other is insight meditation.
Basically, this technique is a form of mental concentration depending on the liberation of the mind by giving importance [...]
The practice of mindfulness defuses our negativity, aggression, and turbulent emotions, which may have been gathering power over many lifetimes. Rather than suppressing emotions or indulging in them, here it is important to view them—your thoughts and whatever arises—with an acceptance and generosity that are as open and spacious as possible. Tibetan masters say that this wise generosity has the flavor of boundless space, so warm and cozy that you feel enveloped and protected by it, as if by a blanket of sunlight.---Sogyal Rinpoche
Problem Solving - Mindfulness Meditation Now, mind you, I do not claim to be a paragon of excellent advice or wisdom, but many of the things I told him would have saved him tremendous amounts of time, frustration and heartaches. As Jonathan [...]
Grief moves like a subterranean stream through my life, and its liquidity is a constant yet frequently unconscious presence. Days can pass wherein I dip nary a toe in the rushing waters. Yet other days, the waters rise, and the briny fluid reaches the wells of my eyes.These past few weeks, that subterranean tributary is quite less than subterranean. Its level has risen, and the melting winter snows seem to have swelled the stream, feeding its depth, its breadth, and its velocity of movement.This month of March brings with it the dying breaths of Winter, as well as the birthdays of three dearly departed loved ones. Grief is natural at this time of year, and the lack of sun in this New England late winter only adds to the challenge.So, what to do in the face of grief's rise? Watch, breathe,
Is mindfulness possible during periods of depression? Is it possible to be mindfully depressed? Can you experience depression but still remain aware that that state is only a transitory one akin to a veil draped over one's mind and heart?I do believe that this is possible, and I believe that this is what I have experienced during the past week. After decades of suffering from depression, I am hyper-aware of its effects on my life, and with my condition in relative remission at this time, it's power over me is significantly diminished and I find that I can actually observe it with some level of detachment.If I can observe my states of depression with detachment, then one would have to assume that there is also some modicum of attachment to depression as well. When the pall of depression mak
Mindfulness is so very easy to write about. It's just as easy to talk about. But it's when the mindful rubber meets the road that the going gets tough.I've been reading Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn and working on cultivating a mindfulness practice in my daily life. Sitting meditation has always been a struggle for me, and it's been something that I have particularly avoided over the last twenty years or so. Reading Kabat-Zinn's book and looking over the website of his Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program, he makes it very clear that a commitment to forty-five minutes per day of sitting meditation is a reasonable amount of time to devote to such practice.Forty-five minutes?I am still struggling with meditating for five-minute increments, and I am amazed at the veritable r
Problem Solving - Mindfulness Meditation Now, mind you, I do not claim to be a paragon of excellent advice or wisdom, but many of the things I told him would have saved him tremendous amounts of time, frustration and heartaches. As Jonathan [...]
In this new iteration of my life, one of my most sincere areas of focus is the development of mindfulness, which Jon Kabat-Zinn simply describes as "knowing what you are doing while you are doing it". He also states that mindfulness "is cultivated by purposefully paying attention to things we ordinarily never give a moment's thought to. It is a systematic approach to developing new kinds of control and wisdom in our lives, based on our inner capacities for relaxation, paying attention, awareness, and insight."Interestingly, when I began writing the previous paragraph, I rose from my chair in front of the computer to search for my copy of Full Catastrophe Living in order to find the quotes by Kabat-Zinn that I wanted to use. Apropos of the subject of mindfulness versus mindlessness, I ended
You heard me. Of course some of you might vehemently disagree with me that “mindfulness” can occur in business - it’s just that… that isn’t happening where you work. If that’s the case, I’m very sorry to hear that, but have hope. Mindfulness in Business is very possible and in fact, can make that business [...]
Not into meditation? Relax! There are other ways to develop mindfulness, and you’re free to find the ones that work for YOU. If meditation tastes like vanilla and you’re really just longing for chocolate, find out how your mindfulness practice can include playful, powerful, eyes-wide-open ways to get calm, clear and creative.
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Can’t find the right brand of mindfulness? Looking for the best label of compassion?
Here’s a cheer for going generic and developing your own favorite kind of human goodness.
More: continued here
What is Mindfulness Meditation? In the same way that a fast from food can provide rest and healing for the body, meditation is a fast for the mind. Mindfulness is a non-religious technique practiced by people from many different faiths. It provides valuable space in which withdraw from often demanding external interaction. Mindfulness Meditation is [...]
Wouldn’t it be nice if at the end of this remodeling process not only the house looks beautiful but I am more enlightened too? And with that I mean -simply put- experiencing more peace. I know how to practice mindfulness…, but I forget. Instead of being mindful and observing feelings and thoughts I catch myself being completely immersed in them. For example I allow myself to get caught up in the thought and urge of having to get it done. And that is not a peaceful state of mind. And where peace is absent, fear must be present. Fear is very interesting in that that mostly it is not experienced as what it is. We disguise it as anger, impatience, judging, craving…, I do want to be the observer and this is a good opportunity to practice just that.
In our modern society it may be difficult to get time for self reflection and stillness. We don't give much thought or awareness to what is going on in our minds and bodies. And what is happening beyond our bounderies, we probably give even less thought. When we go from a to b we usually don't see and experience the surroundings in a present and aware way. Most of the time our minds are detached from the outside world. In this state we tend to be careless of how we treat our environment. A good way to become more aware is to practice mindfulness meditation. Mindfulness meditation is the practice whereby a person is intentionally aware of his or her thoughts and actions in the present moment, non-judgmentally. Mindfulness is applied to both bodily actions and the mind's own thoughts and feelings. When we are aware of our thoughts and feelings we can experience our surroundings in a more clear way, seeing things in a new window.Mindfulness (sati) Mindfulness in Plain English by Henepo
