The effects of being mindful or mindless can be aptly summed up by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn’s expression, “Wherever you go, there you are”. Kabat-Zinn is a Western-trained doctor who is credited with bringing mindfulness meditation to the West by integrating the Eastern traditions with the backings of Western science.
Do you relate to the following:
- Find yourself repeating the same bad habits, even when you say you want to break those habits
- Crave peace yet the chatterbox inside your head keeps going, especially when you want to go to sleep
- Find you are regularly stressed, frustrated, disappointed, depressed, anxious or overwhelmed
- Find yourself on an emotional rollercoaster snapping over the littlest of things or bursting into tears
- Rehash the past over and over again and find yourself getting more upset, angry or down
- Avoid certain people, topics, situations, or conflict
- Are a wriggler and can’t sit still or are in pain
- Have the attention span of an gnat and can’t concentrate on what you are reading, watching, meant to be doing
- Want greater abilities to focus to make better decisions and perform more effectively
Mindfulness
If you do relate to any of the above points, then you might find that you’d benefit from learning the skills of mindfulness. Mindfulness can be thought of as a state of mind where a person is able to sustain their attention on a chosen object from moment to moment without judgement or reaction. Developing a mindfulness practice results in a greater acceptance of how things are (a state of equanimity), rather than struggling with how we think things should be. With equanimity, old reactive habits become extinguished; after all, such unhelpful habits only perpetuate or exacerbate the issue at hand.
Mindlessness
Mindfulness is quite the opposite of when a person is in a state of mindlessness. Mindlessness is often characterised by when a person puts their foot in it by speaking before thinking and then later regretting what they mindlessly said! Too often, mindlessness develops as an unthinking habit from living on autopilot or a result of too many things to do and wanting to zone out.
Mindfulness Benefits Grow with Practice
Whilst mindfulness is not necessarily easy to do, it is relatively simple and its effects can be long-lasting and far-reaching. As with any skill, it requires practice: to become truly skilful with mindfulness, it requires regular focussed practice daily. In the same way that making regular deposits of money in the bank capitalises on the benefits of compound interest, so too are the benefits of mindfulness which grow with regular practice. Mindfulness approaches have been shown to be beneficial for regulating emotions, managing stress, anxiety, depression, time, improving concentration, improving immune functioning, coping with pain, and assisting in the recovery process with a number of significant health conditions. Mindfulness practices generally result in feeling a greater wellbeing and sense of satisfaction with one’s own life.
Mindfulness-integrated Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (MiCBT)
Patrea facilitates the learning of mindfulness skills in a series of 8-10 sessions, in either individual or group settings. These sessions are aimed at helping people to better understand and manage difficult, challenging or unpleasant experiences. The approach Patrea uses is Mindfulness-integrated Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (MiCBT), developed by Dr Bruno Cayoun. MiCBT combines both mindfulness and the principles of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) with the aims of fundamentally shifting how you respond to life’s experiences to facilitate a more harmonious resolution of the issues and challenges you face in life.
During the 8-week process, participants learn the basics of a variety of mindfulness-based skills and approaches that encourage you to focus on your breathing and your body, rather than the thoughts that are likely triggering reactive behaviours and escalating your emotions. The course looks at the interactive effect between your own emotions and those of other people and what you can do to better manage interpersonal challenges.
Mindfulness Groups
Patrea periodically runs an 8-week Mindfulness group programs using MiCBT. Learning in a group setting can accelerate the development process by hearing different perspectives, gaining support, and giving and receiving encouragement from your fellow participants. Each mindfulness session in the 8-week group programs cover some theory, mindfulness practices, and exercises that give you an opportunity to apply mindfulness in your life so that you experience more clarity, calmness, self-confidence and improvements to your relationships as a result of your ability to better understand and manage your emotions.
If you are interested in attending or arranging on online group, please click the following to online contact form.
