Mindfulness Meditations E-Book

Anna Black

• Herausgeber: CICO Books
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Seitenzahl: 174

Beschreibung

Start paying attention to the moments that make up the everyday and, step by step, begin to change your life for the better. Mindfulness is about opening to all experience: the good, the bad and the neutral. By noticing what is happening in your body and what emotions are arising, you can learn to "simply be" with these experiences and choose how to respond. These 60 short and simple meditations will cultivate the skills you need to improve your relationships, be more contented and fulfilled, enjoy better emotional and physical health, and manage stress. These easy and accessible exercises from highly qualified mindfulness practitioner, Anna Black, can be used by everybody, anywhere, and at any time. From core skills, such as tuning into the breath and the body at the bus stop, to practicing mindfulness during everyday tasks such as eating, showering or walking, to foundational practices for building tolerance, empathy and inner strength, this practical guide demonstrates how to cultivate a mindful attitude that will transform your everyday life.

Leseprobe

Mindfulness

Meditations

Mindfulness

Meditations

Discover a more vivid and connected life

Anna Black

For Scott

This edition published in 2024 by CICO Books

An imprint of Ryland Peters & Small Ltd

20–21 Jockey’s Fields

341 E 116th St

London WC1R 4BW

New York, NY 10029

www.rylandpeters.com

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

First published in 2012 as Living in the Moment

Text © Anna Black 2012, 2024

Design and illustrations © CICO Books 2012, 2024

The author’s moral rights have been asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress and the British Library.

ISBN: 978-1-80065-337-5

E-ISBN: 978-1-80065-359-7

Printed in China

Editor: Ingrid Court-Jones

Designer: Paul Tilby

Illustrator: Amy Louise Evans

CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1

WHAT IS MINDFULNESS?

Chapter 2

TUNING IN TO THE BODY

Chapter 3

CULTIVATING WELL-BEING

Chapter 4

MAKING CONTACT

Chapter 5

WEAVING YOUR PARACHUTE

Chapter 6

BEING WITH THE DIFFICULT

Where to go next

Acknowledgments

INTRODUCTION

Many of us operate on automatic pilot. How many times have you left the house and then later have no recollection of your actions since then—to the extent that you even might return to check you have actually shut or locked your front door? (And yes, I have done that!) To a certain extent we need to operate that way to get things done in the time we have available. But problems arise when we spend the majority of our life in this way—zoning out of the small, everyday experiences that add color and texture to life. Our lack of attention means we don’t notice or we miss much that is going on and this affects our relationships. We multitask so much that we never stop to take stock of where we are—we are constantly leaning forward to move on to the next thing. Or we might be stuck; paralyzed with thoughts of “what if” or “if only” that prevent us moving forward and dealing with what is going on now. The negativity that arises out of these states of mind affects us even more and we may become anxious or depressed, or we may self-medicate with drugs and alcohol, and so the cycle continues. Very often the cycle is broken only by a major life change—an illness or an accident, a bereavement, a relationship breakdown. These are the type of events that jolt us awake and make us question the way we live. It is often only when everything falls apart that we are prepared (and forced) to make radical changes.

I discovered mindfulness by chance—browsing the local library’s shelves I came across Jon Kabat-Zinn’s book Full Catastrophe Living. Despite its thickness, the sub-title of “How to cope with stress, pain and illness using mindfulness meditation”, sounded promising for someone who was struggling to cope with stress. Reading it was one of those “light bulb” moments as I realized how much energy I was expending trying to keep my life exactly how I thought it should be rather than accepting how it actually was. The realization that I could stop struggling and start from where I actually was, gave me a huge feeling of release—even though the acknowledgment of the size of the gap between reality and expectations was painful.

At the same time I was already interested in meditation, but I was not drawn to any traditional Buddhist orders. I was struggling with the practicalities—for example, in my yoga class the teacher would fold elegantly into the Lotus position and we would go into silence for 20 minutes. I would close my eyes for what seemed an age only to open them and realize that the second hand of the clock had barely moved. I would sit cross-legged, in agony, without a clue what I was supposed to be doing, and wonder how everyone else managed to sit there so serenely. One thing led to another, in the way it does if you let things unfold in their own time. I discovered there was no need to contort myself into an uncomfortable position; gradually, two minutes extended to five, then a few more, and so on.

Taking one step at a time (and a few backward), I began to walk the path of mindfulness, keeping my attention firmly placed in my feet, while retaining an overall sense of the direction I was heading in. My experience of each step encouraged and informed the next. Mindfulness now influences and guides my whole life. Its effects are not always easy to live with, and I often stumble and go off track, but connecting to one’s own inner wisdom and strength takes you to a place of richness. We discover that we have to learn the same lessons over and over again—and that’s okay—one never “arrives,” but instead constantly learns and grows.

I have been influenced and taught so much by so many. Much of that is passed on here in the spirit of sharing that underpins Buddhist teachings, but any mistakes are mine. I hope this book will serve as a taster for the possibilities that mindfulness meditation can bring into your own life and encourage you to explore the subject further (see pages 142–3). The emphasis is on experimenting with ways to bring mindfulness into your everyday life, and doing this in small steps at a pace that feels right for you. You have a lifetime of moments filled with opportunity ahead of you.

CHAPTER 1

____________

WHAT

IS

MINDFULNESS?

Before trying any of the meditations in the book, it may help to have some understanding of what mindfulness is, where it comes from, and how it is being used today. Although its roots are over 2,500 years old, it is only in the last 30 years or so that it has been used therapeutically and become more mainstream. In this chapter I also highlight the benefits of mindfulness and explain how any one of us can draw out and cultivate these inherent qualities, as well as dispel some common misconceptions about meditation.

The book is designed for dipping in and out of, but before you begin practicing I recommend you read “How to Make the Most of this Book” on pages 12–15. This section has some important information about how to approach the practices and get the most from them, while always looking after yourself. To that end, there is also some guidance on posture and how to assume a position of alert attention that is safe and relaxed. Many of the meditations, though, can be done while you are out and about in daily life.

In mindfulness meditation we are deliberately cultivating particular attitudes that will support our practice and in this chapter I will explain what these are and how they can benefit us—in everyday life as well as in the practices themselves.

MINDFULNESS DEFINED

To begin with, it is helpful to have a clear understanding of what mindfulness is: deliberately paying attention to things we normally would not even notice, and becoming aware of our present moment experience as it arises, non-judgmentally, and with kindness and compassion. When we practice mindfulness, we pay attention to what is happening in our mind and our body; to our thoughts—the stories we tell ourselves—as well as to emotions and physical sensations as they are arising.

ORIGINS OF MINDFULNESS

Mindfulness meditation has its origins in Buddhist practices that are over 2,500 years old. Prince Siddhartha, who became the Buddha, dedicated his life to finding the cause of suffering and he recommended mindfulness as a way of overcoming grief, sorrow, pain, and anxiety, and of realizing happiness.

In 1979 mindfulness began to be used therapeutically by Dr Jon Kabat-Zinn and colleagues at the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Hospital, USA. Kabat-Zinn developed the eight-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program as a way of helping people learn to live with chronic medical conditions. These were people who the doctors could do nothing more for—for example, those with terminal illness, chronic back pain, or who had HIV. Many of them were suffering from depression and anxiety as a result of their condition.

In MBSR, mindfulness is cultivated through formal meditation practices, such as sitting and the body scan, as well as mindful movement, such as yoga, and informal practices in which participants bring mindfulness meditation into their everyday lives. Through these practices participants discover a different way of being with their suffering. The program cultivates qualities such as patience, acceptance, and equanimity, which enable them to deal with stress, chronic pain, and illness with greater ease, skill, and wisdom. Clinical research has shown that beneficial physical changes occur in participants completing the course, including a stronger immune system, lower blood pressure, and shifts in the way the brain deals with difficult emotions. The benefits of the MBSR program spread by word of mouth and through the media, and it was soon offered to people of all ages in all walks of life. Today, MBSR programs are popular in schools, prisons, and in the sports and business worlds, as well as in healthcare, where they are practiced as much by healthcare providers as by patients themselves.

In 2001 Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) was developed by Mark Williams, John Teasdale, and Zindel V. Segal. Based on MBSR, MBCT was developed specifically for the treatment of depression, but has since been adapted for other clinical conditions, including anxiety, eating disorders, and addictions. MBCT is recommended by NICE (the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) in the UK for the treatment of depression in individuals who have suffered three or more episodes.

In essence MBSR and MBCT are very similar. There is a difference in that MBSR is usually taught to generic groups of people suffering from a variety of physical and psychological conditions or disorders and/or general life stress, whereas MBCT is usually taught to a group suffering from a specific condition, such as depression or anxiety, and so would include course content appropriate for that condition. However, the emphasis on the deliberate and non-judgmental present-moment awareness of one’s own experience is at the core of both MBSR and MBCT.

The evidence base for the therapeutic uses of mindfulness-based approaches to health is growing all the time. Research is commonly done with participants on a structured eight-week course, incorporating a daily practice of both formal and informal meditations, as well as classroom teaching. The practices in this book are predominantly informal and, although they are not a substitute for therapeutic care, they are a good place to start practicing mindfulness if you are a beginner.

If you already have some experience of mindfulness meditation, I hope this book will encourage you to bring it more into your daily life. While the formal practices are without doubt important, the more we can weave mindfulness into the fabric of our lives, the more we will reap the benefits.

HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF THIS BOOK

The book has been divided into different chapters. If you are new to mindfulness, I recommend you start with some of the body-focused practices in Chapter 2, Tuning in to the Body. These will introduce some core skills, such as breath awareness and moving the attention around the body, which are needed for practices in which we learn to “be with the difficult,” such as pain or anxiety. It is always best to take small steps rather than jump in at the deep end. Chapter 5, Weaving Your Parachute has some foundational practices that underpin and cultivate attitudes and skills, which will help you get the most out of all the meditations. Once you are used to focusing on the breath, it is fine to dip in and out of the different sections.

A key component of mindfulness is the willingness to turn toward the difficult—uncomfortable sensations in the body, painful emotions, or unwanted thoughts. As our awareness increases we notice much that previously we have tuned out from because it was unpleasant or painful, either physically or psychologically. Paying attention to the body can also bring old emotions to the surface. All of this means that, while mindfulness meditation can have many benefits, it can also be stressful and, at times, difficult. If at any time you feel overwhelmed, it is important that you stop immediately. It does not mean that you will never be able to practice mindfulness, but perhaps it might be better to do it with the support of a teacher or at a time when things are less stressful for you. If in doubt, always seek the advice of your doctor.

I recommend that you take the time to read through the following guidance before embarking on any of the practices. When you come to do a practice, I suggest you read it through a few times and then set aside the book and have a go. There is never just one way to do something and the instructions are for guidance only. The more you do the practices the more you will make them your own, using your own words, phrases, and rhythms that will have a particular resonance for you. Feel free also to make practices longer or shorter as you wish. Many of them can be extended to whatever time you have available.

REMEMBER

Mindfulness is about deliberately paying attention to your experience, without judgment, as it unfolds—noticing what is happening physically in the body and where. It also involves being aware of what emotions are arising and the tone of these feelings, as well as noticing the stories we tell ourselves.

The emphasis is always on what is happening, not why it is happening.

We use our senses—sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell—to explore our experience.

We never look for a particular experience. There is no right or wrong experience. Whatever your experience is, this is your experience in this moment.

If at any time you get lost in a practice, just bring your attention back to the physical sensations of breathing.

QUESTIONS YOU MIGHT ASK YOURSELF WHILE PRACTICING ARE:

What am I feeling physically in my body? Notice what the sensation is, where it is located and its particular characteristic—for example, whether it is constant or changing, and so on.

What am I feeling emotionally? If you identify a particular emotion—for example, anger—ask yourself: How do I know I am feeling angry? Where am I experiencing anger in my body? What do the physical sensations of anger feel like? How would I describe them?

What thoughts are arising? What stories am I telling myself about my experience?

You can do many of the practices while you are out and about in your daily life—standing in lines, or sitting in your car or a waiting room. But for others you will need to find a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed. I have known students who retire to the bathroom at work in order to have a few minutes undisturbed meditation time!

Wherever you are, I suggest you turn off or unplug your phone. If you are worried about finishing at a particular time, I would recommend setting your phone to vibrate or using a timer or alarm clock, but perhaps put it under a cushion or a pillow so that the sudden ringing does not startle you too much. There is some guidance about posture on pages 31–3.

Some people find keeping a meditation journal helpful so that they can record their experiences, and nowadays there are even phone apps that allow you to do this.

It is easy for your mindfulness practice to be relegated to yet another item on your list of things to do, so I suggest you keep it simple and perhaps focus on just one practice to start with. It’s best to do one practice several times a week, or whenever you remember, before experimenting with something new. Congratulate yourself on what you do manage to do rather than berate yourself for what you don’t accomplish.

HOW CAN MINDFULNESS HELP US?

The body has a built-in alarm system, which is called the “stress reaction” and it also has a corresponding “calming response.” This alarm system, known as the “fight-or-flight” mechanism, has ensured our evolutionary survival, but nowadays too often it is triggered repeatedly by everyday stresses rather than the life or death situations of our ancestors. However, mindfulness can help to switch off the stress reaction and to activate the calming response.

We all suffer from stress, so it is useful to have some understanding of what stress is and the role it plays in our lives. It is a complex subject and the following explanation has been greatly simplified, but there are plenty of books in which you can read about the stress response in more detail (see pages 142–3).

The human body is hot-wired for stress. The effectiveness of our stress reaction has ensured our survival and consequently our default setting is one of hyper vigilance. The “enemies” we face today may be different from those our hunter-gatherer ancestors encountered, but the way in which we process danger remains the same. In fact, the fight-or-flight mechanism is operated by the amygdala, one of the most primitive parts of our brain.

The brain is constantly processing information received through our senses. If something or someone is perceived as a threat, the body’s alarm system is activated instantly, preparing it to fight or flee by diverting all the body’s resources to deal with the emergency.

Energy, as epinephrine (adrenaline), is released – as well as other stress hormones that activate the body’s emergency systems – to help you run faster or fight the danger.

The heart speeds up, beating three or four times faster than usual to pump blood around the body as quickly as possible, so that the arms and legs can function optimally to fight or run.

Long-term bodily functions, such as growth, digestion, and the reproductive system, are shut down—the rationale being that if you are killed by the threat, you won’t need to grow, digest your food, or reproduce.

The body evacuates any waste matter, which is extra weight, so that it is as light as possible to flee. This is why we may feel the need to visit the bathroom when we are stressed.

You may notice how your skin goes clammy in stressful moments. This is because blood is being pulled away from the body’s surface to support the heart and muscles, and to reduce blood loss in case of injury. You also feel butterflies in the stomach as the digestive system is shutting down, and your heart begins beating rapidly as it pumps faster. In addition, your pupils dilate so that you can see better; the scalp tightens and your hair seems to stand on end (your body hair does this, too) so that you can sense danger through vibrations; your mouth goes dry because fluid is being diverted from nonessential locations; and in some people, the throat goes into spasm.

Simultaneously, while the body is activated for action, the brain continues to gather information from the senses about the alleged threat, as well as from the higher centers of the brain, accessing memories and comparing the threat against any previous, similar experiences, including those we may have experienced second-hand. What the brain discovers determines whether it deactivates or maintains the alert. If we respond negatively to what we are experiencing, the brain will determine that something bad is happening to us and keep the body on alert. Therefore, although our thoughts and our memories have an important role to play in safeguarding us from danger, they can also work against us and perpetuate an unfounded threat.

When the fight-or-flight mechanism is repeatedly and needlessly activated through everyday stress, the consequences can be serious and our long-term body systems can become vulnerable to disease. The constant increase in blood pressure heightens our risk of heart disease; the stress hormones affect insulin activity and thereby increase the risk of diabetes; our immune system can be compromised; and our memory and our thought processes are disrupted, so we operate less efficiently. The presence of the stress hormone cortisol can cause long-term damage by overactivating the amygdala, thereby promoting fear and negativity. It also reduces neural branching and inhibits the growth of new neurons, so we remain stuck in old, fearful beliefs. The mood we are in affects our interpretation of events—a low mood is more likely to produce a negative interpretation of a neutral event. Excessive cortisol also causes the area of the brain that produces new brain cells to wither and die. Chronic stress strengthens the negative networks in the brain and weakens the positive ones.