Topic Tuesday: NOW OPEN!!! Special guest - Mindfulness expert & psychologist Jordan from Mindfulgym!

[NikNik]

"as soon as you judge something it takes you out of the present moment so you are not able to experience mindfulness, and your mind usually wanders down an emotional track finding some kind of past story to back up your original thought. Then your mind goes around in circles and never gives you peace!"

Wow - that really resonates with me!

[BeMindful]

Hi Tam63

Meditation is a formal mindfulness technqiue. So is tai chi and yoga if practiced properly. In fact any technique which fosters an internal awareness of the present moment and has the ability to develop the self-reflective capacity can be considered a mindfulness technique. This is why the informal mindfulness technqiues, such as mindful eating are still determined to be important mindfulness techniques. I hope this clarifies your concerns a little more! Mr Harris writes quite a lot about the concept of mindfulness without meditation also if you are interested in his work.

[BeMindful]

Hi NikNik

We never stop thinking, otherwise we would not be alive! We don't actually want to stop thinking either (a Buddhist monk counted his thoughts and had 65000 in one day). Mindfulness practices help us to recognise our thought patterns and help us understand ourselves better. With new insights perhaps we can respond differently to events and cope with stress a bit better. That is all it is, we are not trying to change or avoid anything, just be aware of what our usual habitual patterns are. 

[NikNik]

I can't even imagine counting how many times I think (mostly because I'd lose count after 100 )

Is mindfulness connected to cognitive behavioural therapy in any way?

[BeMindful]

Hi NikNik

Recently cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) and mindfulness have found a way to co-exist. There are a few mindfulness and CBT programs one is known as Mindfulness-Integrated CBT (MICBT). The premise of MICBT is that one is trying to change their reactions to their thoughts, (throught a variety of technqiues whcih include formal mindfulness practices) not the thoughts themselves. This makes it different from CBT whereby one tries to change their thoughts.  

[BeMindful]

Technqiues to keep your mindfulness practice going!

1. make a regular time to practice and try to stick to that time!

2. designate an area for you to practice in, if you are doing sitting meditations buy a cushion

3. start with 5 minutes and build it up slowly, never push yourself

4. be realistic with your expectations of practice, nobody would expect you to run a marathon without any running training

5. you do have time to practice, assess what you do in the morning/evening, find times when you waste time and be efficient 

6. kids love to be around a more calm energy, you might find your children sitting quiet next to you when you are practising

7. get an app and set the time you need to practice so there will be no distraction

8. just do it, practice all is coming!

[NikNik]

All these practical exercises are great!

May I ask Jordan, how did you stumble across mindfulness and decide to make it your career?

[Jackson]

Thanks Jordan,

What do you say to the role that diversity of external environment plays in midfulness.

That is, when considering the portfolio of excercises midfulness clusters about, is it an opportunity to level experience to a standard internal consistency irrespective of the external environment? Or is it an opportunity to see how it changes the internal experience based on a standard excercise?

Cheers,

Jack

[BeMindful]

Thanks NikNik! When I was doing my masters year I found out that some talk therapies were using mindfulness, yoga and meditation. I have always practiced and loved yoga and so I decided to become a yoga teacher I also travelled overseas and lived in Buddhist monasteries. I wanted to combine what I knew about yoga and mindfulness into the psychology field as I feel it is so beneficial for long lasting good mental health.

[kenny66]

I have schizophrenia so concentration and commitment to a regime is difficult .I spent some time in a Buddhist learning and meditation centre in Cambodia for a stint and it was very regimented with the monks making sure you kept to a timetable.

This worked very well for me in that environment. However keeping a regime out of a controlled environment has been hard, with not much success doing it at home. Its not practical for me to travel to a mindfulness centre as I live way out of town. What are the best resources for mindfulness strategies for people who have no access to face to face learning.

Kenny