Catalyst Counselling welcomes Jane back to tell us how week 3 of her Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course has been:
Two things stood out for me from this week’s two hour session. The first being a simple exercise we did where we stood outside for 5 minutes and looked at what we could see and hear in the way that a newborn baby would look at what they could see. Instead of just seeing a tree; labelling it a tree in our mind and then moving on, we spent time taking in the colours and shape of an object in our view. Amazing how much detail we miss because we have seen things so many times before.
The other exercise that was really useful to learn was the 3 Minute breathing space. A simple and quick breathing exercise that you can use wherever you are and as often as you like during the day. It is a great way to ground yourself in the present moment and notice when you are worrying about a future you can’t control and a past you can’t change. Interestingly I found it harder to remember to do this simple exercise 3 times a day than to make time to do the longer meditations. So this week I have set an alarm on my phone for 3 times a day to remind me to take a moment. In the exercise you spend some time essentially checking in with what you are thinking and feeling and then taking your attention to the breath to ground you. I noticed that I struggle to identify thoughts when I know that is what I am meant to be doing. So I adapted the exercise slightly and made sure I took a couple of breaths to focus before I started to visualise what thoughts I had. This really helped and I could bring my thoughts to mind much more easily after that.
The formal meditation practice that we were invited to do this week was to alternate between 45 mins of Mindful Movement or a Body Scan. It was fascinating to note the different sensations in your body as you did the simple stretches involved in the Mindful Movement meditation. The meditation shows us that we can still be in ‘Being mode’ whilst ‘Doing’ i.e moving, and also helps us to change our perception of our limits. Typically when stretching we reach a point where we feel tension in a related body part and so our automatic reaction is to stop there. Using the Mindful Movement approach, you would notice that tension sensation and breathe into it to loosen it rather than stopping the stretch. One of the exercises was to balance on one foot for a while and it was amazing to notice how ‘off-balance’ I felt with one foot off the ground and how it consumed my thoughts so that I couldn’t think of anything else. Then when I put my foot down I noticed how stable I felt and how I could think of other things at the same time as standing. I could relate this to how overwhelming it can feel when we feel strong emotions and physical pain. Physical activities like Yoga and Tai Chi are also forms of mindful movement.
We also had to keep an ‘Unpleasant Events Diary’ and remember to break an unpleasant event down into thoughts, feelings and sensations at the time it happens. I found it really difficult to separate thoughts from feelings. It can really help to tune into what thoughts are there because they can often make a huge contribution to the resulting feelings. So I am going to keep working on this!
Over and out for this week!
Thanks Jane for yet another informative insight into the MBSR course.