WELCOME to Your Stress Reduction Blog!

"Mindfulness is the miracle by which we master and restore ourselves."
Thich Nhat Hanh

Welcome to the lunchtime meditation for stress reduction course. Please take a moment to congratulate and thank yourself for taking this course!

What Will I Learn in the Course?

We all know that knowledge is useful, and we also know perhaps that its usefulness has limits. After all, we all know a lot, but are we always able to put what we know into practice? Doesn't what we know even hinder us sometimes, when we feel we can't live up to certain standards...or when our minds are so full that we can't think straight?

During this course we will cultivate a different kind of knowledge, one that is grounded not so much in ideas, but in direct experience. We can think of the content--mindfulness and meditation--not as information to be gained in the usual sense, but as a few simple practices that will support a shift of perspective. Our greatest challenge perhaps is not to acquire more information, but to learn to embody--to live--what we know. This is what the course is about. This kind of knowledge, which cannot be forced into being but only consciously allowed to unfold, links us to our innate wisdom and kindness.

We will learn to look beyond our habits of avoidance and into our (at least sometimes) scattered and stressed selves. This simple practice can be profoundly liberating. The good news is that we all have the ability to do it, and that doing so has many health benefits. A very few examples: clinical studies have shown that practicing mindfulness regularly over a period of time lowers blood pressure, increases immunity, and promotes positive changes in brain structure. The challenge is remembering to do it! That's also much of the purpose of this course, to help us to remember.

So...life is short, and this class is A LOT shorter than that! We will have less than five hours together. Hopefully in these hours we will ignite a lifelong love affair--between you and your inherent capacity to be aware. All it takes is remembering to open to the present moment, whatever it contains, tuning in to the body and mind, moment by moment.

This blog is to support you in this endeavor. May it be of benefit.

Can I Look at an Outline of a Course?

Some courses are longer or shorter than five weeks, and some include a free orientation. So there is some variation, but in general, this blog is the course outline!

Finding Out More

If you would like to prepare a bit more for the course, please listen to this excellent 28-minute audio introduction from Oprah magazine, "Learning to Exhale"

http://tinyurl.com/4k6w2tr

Or read (much the same content) in this article on my website:

http://tinyurl.com/4tvjld3

Or read Jon Kabat Zinn's Full Catastrophe Living or something else on the Recommended Reading List.

Or read more about mindfulness here: What is Mindfulness?

What is NOT mindfulness?

Only Total Calm

Somehow in order to meditate, that is, in order to be with actual experience as it unfolds, we have to let go of the idea that we want to be calm. It's counter-intuitive!

We may certainly be calm sometimes, but that will arise in dependence on the right conditions. Trying to force ourselves to be calm, thinking we should be calm when we're not, are not the right conditions! These kinds of attitudes not only do not help us meditate, but they in fact add an element of struggle to our situation, thereby making it more difficult. Why try something when it already seems like we've failed?

Practicing mindfulness means we simply acknowledge what is happening. We do not pick and choose (ideally) what we are willing to acknowledge. We accept it all. Over time we will learn to trust the practice and notice the calming effect that happens naturally.

Only Positive Thoughts

Positive thinking is a way of using our thoughts to put a positive spin on a situation that we otherwise might interpret negatively. Positive thinking includes visualizing a positive outcome for example, or focusing on constructive, happy thoughts. It's the difference between 'problem' and 'opportunity'. Positive thinking also disregards or ignores negative thoughts. Research suggests there are health benefits to positive thinking. So by saying that mindfulness is not positive thinking, I am not saying that it is useless or that one shouldn't do it - I'm simply saying that mindfulness is not the same as positive thinking. Why not?

Because mindfulness does not mean being optimistic or thinking positively. It means being realistic. What is happening right now is what is realistic. Thinking, This is never going to end, or, I really LOVE this traffic jam, are probably not realistic. It's just layering interpretations over interpretations.

One morning looking out my window I saw that it was overcast and foggy, and I had heard it was going to be raining a lot that weekend, so I put on my rain boots. When I walked outside I noticed the ground was completely dry, and the clouds were not rain clouds. This is because I can only see the sky from my window, I could not see the ground. In the same way, when we pay attention to thoughts and their effect, we connect more with what is actually happening, rather than a rumor.

At least sometimes we have positive thoughts, and we can be mindful of them. We can be mindful of negative thoughts. Ideally we would be mindful of both a thought as it appears, and our response to the thought.

Check out this video from RSAnimate: "Smile or Die."

Only a Blank Mind

This relates again to our ideas about how meditation is supposed to be. In order to meditate we have to empty our mind yes? Otherwise we're not really meditating, right? There may be certain schools or philosophies of meditation that teach this view. In our system of meditation, we are training ourselves to be with actual experience as it unfolds.

One thing that characterizes human experience is that we can think. If we couldn't, we could not survive. So thinking can be helpful but it can also cause us stress. It can come between us and direct experience. We can be mesmerized by it! So we need to be aware of it.

Don't try not to think - what's more productive and enjoyable is to explore your relationship to your thoughts and your mind!

What is Mindfulness?

"Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally. This kind of attention...wakes us up to the fact that our lives only unfold in moments. If we are not fully present for many of those moments, we may not only miss what is most valuable in our lives but also fail to realize the richness and depth of our possibilities for growth and transformation."
- Jon Kabat Zinn (wherever you go, there you are)

"Mindfulness is the energy of being aware and awake to the present moment. It is the continuous practice of touching life deeply in every moment of daily life. To be mindful is to be truly alive, present and at one with those around you and with what you are doing. We bring our body and mind into harmony while we wash the dishes, drive the car or take our morning shower." - Thich Nhat Hanh

Mindfulness is an intelligent, responsive awareness to ever-changing conditions.
- Sangharakshita

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Mindfulness is the faculty of being more deeply present with our body, our thoughts, our emotions, and our actions. It is about inhabiting our lives more fully, and waking up to our life, moment by moment.

Practicing mindfulness can lead to very deep levels of relaxation, calmness, and inner balance, as well as to more effective coping with stressful situations. Mindfulness also helps us to respond creatively to pressures and demands, rather than blindly reacting out of habit.

Although many people automatically assume they cannot practice meditation or mindfulness, this is a skill that we all already have - we are all aware sometimes! - and we can develop, the same way one can develop a skill playing music, building muscle, or learning a language. Mindfulness is a way of learning to directly relate to whatever is happening in life, a way of doing something for yourself that no one else can do for you — consciously and systematically working with your own stress, pain, illness, and the challenges and demands of everyday life.

When we are mindful, we are moving...

• From acting blindly out of habit (that can cause more stress), to acting skillfully with awareness.
• From isolation to empathy.
• From being frustrated and trying to control, to trying to be aware, to be open to experience.
• From knee-jerk reactions to conscious choice.

Lifestyle--Stress Reduction Tips

The focus of this class is reducing stress through mindfulness and meditation. Of course, there are lots of other things we can do to help reduce stress.

Based on past experience, I suggest thinking in terms of small adjustments rather than dramatic lifestyle shifts. It is also more helpful to be very specific rather than general (see the example in #1 below.)

How about choosing one day per week to focus on one of the following? This will keep you going for many weeks!

1. Less input. (Example: On Tuesday evenings this month I'm going to 'unplug'!)
2. More doing one thing at a time. Eating, talking on the phone, listening to music, driving, watching a movie at home - we often feel these things do not warrant our full attention. How about choosing one and simply be aware of it for a day or a week without doing something else at the same time? (Example: At work, choose a time of day - or during a specific task - that you will try to do only one thing.)
3. More fresh food. (Example: On Sundays I will eat more fresh fruits and vegetables, no fast or processed food.)(And look up 'slow food' on Wikipedia!)
4. Look into my habits/reactions related to 'things to do'. These may include procrastination, overwhelm, avoidance tactics. Look into/really experience and reflect on these habits. (Not necessarily trying to stop them!)
5. Look at one or two of the things I tend to do during 'downtime'. Are they relaxing, nourishing?
6. Cultivate friendships/connections. Or solitude/reflection. Whichever will balance your particular tendency!
7. If you don't get regular exercise, bring in a little more movement into your routine. Sometimes stress is just 'extra energy' in the body which needs to move more than our American lifestyle allows. (Example: if you drive somewhere regularly that is in walking distance, put it in your schedule to walk once a week or ride a bike. And/or walk for 15 minutes during lunch hour.)
8. Don't do anything for a certain period of time. Five minutes or two hours, whatever you can manage.
9. Reduce caffeine intake? Try having a little less than usual throughout your day and see what the affect is.
10. Sign up for a weekend meditation retreat, daylong retreat in the city, or a family class. It takes a lot less effort to incorporate new habits into our routine. Another idea is to plug into a routine that's already set up - all we have to do is show up!
11. Read a book about meditation, slowing down, or mindfulness. (And check out slowdownnow.org).
12. Make a list of activities you find relaxing. Schedule them into your week or month.
13. Check in once a week with a 'mindfulness/relaxation buddy' to keep you both on track. Again, having a break on individual exertion!
14. Try to be more 'other regarding' in your life. Or more self regarding. Whichever will balance your particular tendency!

Recommended Reading

Books

Any of these books or websites will support your journey in this course, and beyond. (The first one is 'required reading' for the eight-week course.)

Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and IllnessJon Kabat-Zinn

Change Your Mind: A Practice Guide to Buddhist Meditation

Paramananda

A Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Workbook

Bob Stahl and Elisha Goldstein

Breath by Breath --The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation

Larry Rosenberg

Living Well With Pain and Illness

Vidyamala Burch

One Breath at a Time: Buddhism and the Twelve Steps

Kevin Griffin

The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness

Mark Williams, John Teasdale, Zindel Segal, Jon Kabat-Zinn

On The Web

Research and News about Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction