Session Two#
Opening#
Let’s have 3–5 minutes of silence at first, closed eyes, going through one’s experience:
First opening attention to all perception, both external senses and mind/heart: knowing about them just as sense perceptions or feelings or thoughts, without following their content, just seeing them come and go.
Putting attention just on breathing in a relaxed way, without forcing the mind to stay tightly focused; if the attention goes elsewhere, simply coming back to breathing.
Opening the mind again to perceive everything happening; with the attitude that anything arising in the experience is welcome to come, is okay to be here, and welcome to go. Why? Because it is already happening that way, by itself.
Labeling#
Labeling (noting, naming) is a “tool” to strenghten mindfulness. It consists in giving a mental note to the perception in body/feelings/mind I am currently giving attention to. The mental note is a single generic word serving as a highlight or underline that particular phenomenon, supporting clarity of knowing. E.g. during the bodyscan, when the mind wanders, noting (saying silently in the mind) perhaps “thinking” and then moving the attention back to the body. If impatience arises, noting “impatience”; “remembering”, “boredom”, “lightness”, “disliking” etc.
The first word coming to mind is good enough, it is not necessary to get sophisticated. In the moment of noting, I know that I am noting this current experience. The label is of secondary importance.
Try expanding the next bodyscan practice by naming where attention wanders.
Bodyscan#
We practiced the full bodyscan. Use guided audio from MBSR exrcises page :)
We followed with a detailed sharing on home practice, and also the practice in the session; some common themes in the sharing are summarized below.
Falling asleep comes up frequently. The body and mind fall asleep, sometimes suddenly, sometimes with transition through wandering and waning consciousness.
Occasional dozing off or dreamy state during the bodyscan are normal; it is beneficial to meet all that mindfully, to stay mindful within those states as much as possible. It is also important to notice what happens when coming back. Frequent reactions include: thoughts of failure; disappointment; self-judgement; joy of having rested; doubts about meaning of the practice when I sleep; etc.
If extended periods of sleep happen with regularity (e.g. half an hour sleep in every practice), it might be necessary to adjust to external conditions to be less conducive to sleep: practice in the morning instead of late hours, opening the eyes (for the whole time, or sometimes), practice on the floor instead of the bed, use thinner blanket, or no blanket at all, use confortable seated posture instead of the horizontal.
Wandering mind is relevant for everybody, and it is in fact an opportunity for mindful attention: bringing the mind back (learning to let go).
Perhaps also seeing reactivity when the mind becomes aware of the wandering; what reaction was there, perhaps in one particular case? Judgement? Irritation? Increase of effort? Analysis and looking for tactics? Resignation? All those processes, when they arise, are to be seen with mindfulness. Seeing them when they come, as feelings or thoughts; and moving the attention back to the body.
The same is true for difficult feelings (e.g. sadness) or physical pain.
Judgmental mind might have arisen, depending on whether the practice was pleasant or relaxing. Bodyscan is not the practice of relaxation or pleasant states; when they arise, they are welcome, but it can be different the next time, which is also welcome. Let’s meet the judgement mindfully; we are cultivating openness to the present moment, letting the reality unfold as it already does, without intervening.
Distinguishing sensations, feelings (emotion) and thoughts is another important aspect to be cultivated. We don’t physically sense sadness (that is a feeling), rather we may sense tension or heaviness in the body; those two qualities may co-exist. Hands don’t perceive “energy” but perhaps warmth of lightness. We are also leaning not to confuse direct body perception with visual image of the body part. The body speaks in a language which is not visual.
Practice revelas auto-pilots: habituated patters of perceiving, thinking, acting; automatically produced by the mind in certain situations.
Auto-pilots are like ruts, the mind follows them, often helplessly, though mostly unconsciously. Leaning to recognize the ruts is the practice; awareness itself gives us, little by little, the ability to step out of the inertia of the habit, as much as mindfulness allows.
Like being at a large railway station with many trains coming and going; the mind gets on, by natural inclination, and wants to travel away; upon realizing that, we always jump back to the station. Just observing the trains passing through and passing by, without getting on, or jumping off quickly. Various thoughts, feelings, sesnsations passing around our attention; learning to see them as mere mind impulses; in the practice, dropping them, letting them go (in real life, deciding what to do with clarity).
Bodyscan reveals processes known from daily life (such as self-judgement). It is valuable to have the opportunity to meet the unpleasant in the practice, with mindful attention. It contributes to taking them easier, being less driven by them, in daily life as well.
Whether a feeling/thought/sensations is pleasant or unpleasant (or neutral, in-between) is in the practice irrelevant. The mind naturally seeks pleasure and avoids pain (which are again, rather strong, auto-pilots), the practice is a safe space to meet the negative with accepting attitude. Mindful attention to negative qualities is an opportunity to develop positive qualities which were mentioned in the first session (attitudinal foundations): e.g. mindfulness of impatience automatically develops patience; mindfulness of self-doubt develops self-confidence; etc.
Nine points#
Try this exercise (also in the workbook) for 5 minutes:
Connect all nine points with a continuous line (i.e. drawn without lifting the pen) composed of four straight segments.
Continue reading after 5 minutees, whether you found a solution or not.
The focus is again on what was happening during those 5 minutes. What feelings and thoughts were present for you? Judgement? Despair? Memories? Time pressure? Analysis? Rebellion? Etc. Perhaps you notices some body sensations (tension, dry mouth, involuntary tapping with fingers)? It is natural that such reactions occur. The task staged probably somewhat stressful situation, giving us an opportunity to see some auto-pilots taking over.
You might have experienced pleasant feelings as well, especially if you found the soltuion. That is also okay, also something we learn to meet with clarity.
There is more to be said about stress, as this course progresses; but we already see, especially if the practice is done in a group setting, that stress is not determined solely by the outer situation. The same exercise will elicit different reaction from different people. Thus we may distinguish a “stressor”, the trigger, and the inner stress reaction; the reaction only comes when the key of the stressor fits into the right lock in the mind.
Considering stressors alone to be responsible for stress (external circumstances, other people, body state, …) robs one of an important source of autoregulation. If the stressor is completely out of our control (such as weather or ageing process of the body), no intervention is possible on that side. Nevertheless, it is always possible — gradually and patiently — to cultivate mind’s reaction to the stressor: from mindless, reactive, automatic, to more mindful.
Sitting meditation#
Try to do 5–10 minutes of sitting meditation using these instructions [NOTE: not yet written in English] (use the labeling technique as described above); it is one of the home practices before the next session, and we will look at it in more detail later.
Conclusion#
Appreciation and gratitude for the time devoted to one’s own being.
Home practice is described in the workbook. Follows a more detailed explanation of daily mindfulness.
Daily mindfulness#
Pick one or two activites you do repeatedly and which don’t require full attention. E.g. going to bathroom, taking shower, brusing one’s teeht, unlocking the phone, getting onto bike/tram/bus/car. Try doing this activity mindfully — that means being attentive to one’s own experience in that moment (body and sense perception, feelings, thoughts). Use the labeling technique as a support.
For example, checking one’s phone could look like this: “touching”, “lifting”, “unlocking”, “looking”, “pressing”, “putting”. There might be feeling or thoughts which you may also label, should they become prominent. It is not about labeling everything, or as much as possible. It is not even about doing the activity slowly. Attention can be light and swift at the same time; just accompanying what is happening with the awareness of it happening. Don’t strive for perfection (label: “striving” or “craving” if it happens). Each and every waking up to oneself is valuable; it is a contribution to the development of the habit of mindfulness