Mindfulness

[CDawg]

Hi Folks,

Here I go again with another topic that I've been thinking about lately. As people who deal with substances and other issues, we tended to spend a lot of time on what I call "Automatic Pilot", where we had preprogrammed responses that usually got us into trouble. So it got me to thinking. How aware are we of the ways that our minds process information and respond to different stimuli? Is our awareness at a level that is conducive to change? What exactly is mindfulness?

Mindfulness is:

"You are not your thoughts. Our thoughts take us away from being here now. If I am thinking about the past, or worried about the future, I am a prisoner of my thoughts. When I take a moment to observe myself having thoughts, I am no longer the thoughts. I get to be and observe at the same time. That's why if I continue to come back to my breath which always occurs in the here and now, it draws me into the present. And from that vantage point I can observe as past and future attempt to draw me away from the moment. This paying attention to the here and now, to the breath, to the observing one's thoughts without being critical or judgmental is what many people call Mindfulness. But what is mindfulness?

Mindfulness is a word. Nothing more, nothing less. As a word it is a symbol or a sign. As a sign or symbol it points to a way of looking at life in general and one's own life in particular. Mindfulness points one in the direction of being aware of the present moment.

Mindfulness points to: Being aware of and paying attention to the moment in which we find ourselves. Our past is gone, our future is not yet here. So what exist between them is the present moment. If I can observe and not get caught up in my thoughts, it is all that I have. The here and now, the present is the link which holds what was and what will be. My past was a series of present moments which brought me to this present moment. My future should it happen will be a series of present moments effected by only present moment in which I am now living, being, doing, observing, being aware or unaware, and attentive or unattentive.

Mindfulness or being mindful is being aware of your present moment. You are not judging, reflecting or thinking. You are simply observing the moment in which you find yourself. Moments are like a breath. Each breath is replaced by the next breath. You're there with no other purpose than being awake and aware of that moment. As John Kabit Zinn says reflecting on a Japanese mindfulness puzzle: "Wherever you go, there you are."

If you start by being aware of your breath, you know it comes and goes. It is like the end of one wave from among the endless ocean waves. They continue to come and disappear to be followed by another and another and another. They come. They disappear. They come, they end, they flow back to be covered by another incoming wave. You can hear the sound. It's rhythm puts the mind into a trance, and you go far away but wherever you go, there you are.

While mindfulness is a generalization about paying attention and being aware in the present moment , it occurs only in the individual. That individual makes a choice to be in the moment and be aware of what is happening in the present moment. In that choice is a realization.

You are not your thoughts. Thoughts take us away from being here now. If I am thinking about the past, or worried about the future, I am a prisoner of my thoughts. When I take a moment to observe myself having thoughts, I am no longer the thoughts. I get to be and observe at the same time. That's why if I continue to come back to my breath which always occurs in the here and now, it draws me into the present. From that vantage point I can observe as past and future attempt to draw me away from the moment. This paying attention to the here and now, to the breath, to the observing one's thoughts without being critical or judgmental is what many people call Mindfulness."

Portions of this post were reprinted from http://www.mindfulness.com/

Peace,

C

[indigo]

Yes I can totally relate thank you.

[CDawg]

As long as we're discussing mindfulness, we probably ought to give credit where it's due and provide the context within DBT that it's used.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
Wikipedia

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is a psychosocial treatment developed by Marsha M. Linehan specifically to treat Borderline Personality Disorder. While DBT was designed for Borderline Personality Disorder, it is used for patients with other diagnosises as well.

The treatment itself is based largely in behaviorist theory with some cognitive therapy elements as well. There are two essential parts of the treatment, and without either of these parts the therapy is not considered "DBT adherent."

1. An individual component in which the therapist and client discuss issues that come up during the week following a treatment target hierarchy. Self-injurious and suicidal behaviors take first priority, followed by therapy interfering behaviors. Then there are quality of life issues and finally working towards improving one's life generally.

During the individual therapy, the therapist and client work towards improving skill use. Often, skills group is discussed and obstacles to acting skillfully are addressed.

2. The group, which ordinarily meets once weekly for about 2-2.5 hours, in which clients learn to use specific skills that are broken down into 4 modules: core mindfulness skills, emotion regulation skills, interpersonal effectiveness skills and distress tolerance skills.

The four modules

Mindfulness

The essential part of all skills taught in skills group are the core mindfulness skills.

Observe, Describe, and Participate are the core mindfulness “what” skills. They answer the question, “What do I do to practice core mindfulness skills?”

Non-judgmentally, One-mindfully, and Effectively are the "how" skills and answer the question, “How do I practice core mindfulness skills?”

Mindfulness comes from the Zen tradition and can be read about in more detail in the book The Miracle of Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh ISBN 0807012394 (among others).

Interpersonal Effectiveness

Interpersonal response patterns taught in DBT skills training are very similar to those taught in many assertiveness and interpersonal problem-solving classes. They include effective strategies for asking for what one needs, saying no, and coping with interpersonal conflict.

Borderline individuals frequently possess good interpersonal skills in a general sense. The problems arise in the application of these skills to specific situations. An individual may be able to describe effective behavioral sequences when discussing another person encountering a problematic situation, but may be completely incapable of generating or carrying out a similar behavioral sequence when analyzing her own situation.

This module focuses on situations where the objective is to change something (e.g., requesting someone to do something) or to resist changes someone else is trying to make (e.g., saying no). The skills taught are intended to maximize the chances that a person’s goals in a specific situation will be met, while at the same time not damaging either the relationship or the person’s self-respect.

Distress Tolerance

Most approaches to mental health treatment focus on changing distressing events and circumstances. They have paid little attention to accepting, finding meaning for, and tolerating distress. This task has generally been tackled by religious and spiritual communities and leaders. Dialectical behavior therapy emphasizes learning to bear pain skillfully.

Distress tolerance skills constitute a natural development from mindfulness skills. They have to do with the ability to accept, in a non-evaluative and nonjudgmental fashion, both oneself and the current situation. Although the stance advocated here is a nonjudgmental one, this does not mean that it is one of approval: acceptance of reality is not approval of reality.

Distress tolerance behaviors are concerned with tolerating and surviving crises and with accepting life as it is in the moment. Four sets of crisis survival strategies are taught: distracting, self-soothing, improving the moment, and thinking of pros and cons. Acceptance skills include radical acceptance, turning the mind toward acceptance, and willingness versus willfulness.

Emotion Regulation

Borderline and suicidal individuals are emotionally intense and labile – frequently angry, intensely frustrated, depressed, and anxious. This suggests that borderline clients might benefit from help in learning to regulate their emotions. Dialectical behavior therapy skills for emotion regulation include:

* Identifying and labeling emotions
* Identifying obstacles to changing emotions
* Reducing vulnerability to “emotion mind”
* Increasing positive emotional events
* Increasing mindfulness to current emotions
* Taking opposite action
* Applying distress tolerance techniques

Books

The Miracle of Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hahn ISBN 0807012394 Skills Training Manual for Treating Borderline Personality Disorder by Marsha M. Linehan ISBN 0898620341

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Dialectical Behavior Therapy".



Mindfulness

The purpose of mindfulness training is to learn to better observe your experiences and your environment. The objective is to welcome experience rather than to control it. So it is not a process that leads to solutions. It is a skill that makes solutions easier to identify and learn.

The goals of teaching mindfulness skills are

--improve one's ability to recognize internal vs. external sources of distress;

--to help learn to observe rather than evaluate experiences;

--learn solution-focused coping instead of emotion-focused coping

Our scientific traditions emphasize analysis rather than extended observation. Mindfulness is learning to observe fully without judgment. We try to observe without analysis, as if the experience or emotion is new. Detach and describe as fully as possible.
This can be hard to do! We instinctively analyze, and in fact such analysis is part of how we function day to day. The goal is simply to get more practice at observing: to sometimes choose to be mindful on purpose.

An exercise can be based on the mnemonic ONE MIND:

Focus on One thing in the moment;
Focus on the Now;
Pay attention to the Environment;
Pay attention to the Moment;
Increase sensations (touch, taste, hearing, vision);
Strive to be Nonjudgmental;
Describe, don't prescribe or proscribe.

One reason for practicing mindfulness is that many people automatically turn to escape and avoidance strategies when dealing with distress. This may include drinking, drug use, cutting, eating behaviors, etc. When someone learns to control one coping behavior, but still instantly moves from distress to escape/avoidance, that person may simply adopt another self-harming behavior. Moving rapidly through the process can make the harmful escape behaviors hard habits to break.

Slowing down to recognize the distressing feelings "even when it's not pleasant to do so" may be a necessary way to start adopting different coping strategies. The recognition of what causes the distress, followed by full awareness of the distress process, may be necessary before trying to set goals or develop coping strategies. It may also help with the (later) process of putting the problems in perspective, rationally disputing the beliefs involved, etc.

The process of describing the experience or emotion illustrates the power of words, which is a key principle of REBT as well. Words can either define or distort experience. If you always look to others for approval, learning to define your own experience without judgment can build self-trust. There are useful lists of absolute words and possible substitutes in SMART Recovery essays (ref: Dr. Sarmiento's web site and the "skysite" linked at smartrecovery.org).

Exercises in mindfulness may be as simple as focusing on how it "feels" to breathe, walk, or wash dishes. It can be a process of relaxing and feeling (concentrating on) each body part in turn.

Examples?

Put on a set of headphones and choose some music - enough for 15 - 30 minutes. Close your eyes. Carefully listen to each instrument in turn. Identify the patterns and rhythms: the sequences of notes, how the instruments trade the melody or harmony. Try to create a visual image in your brain of the instruments being played. Put them into a place and describe it in your own mind; what you would see and feel to go along with what you hear.

Select several foods of different textures and serve them onto a plate, along with sparkling water, fruit juice, tea, etc.. Sit and slowly experience each food's smell, color, texture, crunchiness, mouth feel, flavor, aftertaste, and the sensation as it slides down your throat and into your stomach. Examples: celery, crackers, jello, peanut butter, yogurt, iceberg lettuce, fruit. Hold each piece up to the light, smell it with your eyes closed, chew slowly and thoroughly.

Turn off all the electronic things in your house, then sit very quietly and identify all the other sounds. Or go to a place in nature where you can be undisturbed, and sit with your eyes closed to identify and describe all the sounds - animal, human, nature.

Go into a quiet room and close the door and curtains. Light a scented candle and put on some quiet music of your choice. Lie down and focus on the smells, the sounds, and how your body feels. Breathe very carefully and rhythmically. Slowly focus on relaxing each part of your body, beginning with your toes and gradually working up to your head.

At some point when you are feeling tense, irritable, moderately angry, or glum, try a simple exercise: put your head in your hands and feel your body and feel your brain. Describe, without using subjective terms, how you feel (hot, tired, your temples feel tight, thoughts are racing, etc.). Try to make some simple descriptive sentences about this: "When I am stressed I feel tightness in my chest and forehead".

The idea is to become more aware of your surroundings, your experiences, your emotions, and to learn to describe them all as if you were observing rather than analyzing them. Once we've achieved greater mindfulness, we can begin to describe the things that upset us emotionally in terms of how they make us feel, with the ultimate goal being to achieve more effective emotional control.

Reprinted with permission

[CDawg]

Okay, let's see if we can simplify some of the complexity with a bit of word exchange here. And before I continue, bear in mind that "Mindfulness" is nothing more than raising our level of cognitive awareness. From what I'm reading, you seem to be stuck on the word "Effectively". So let's break this thing down into manageable chunks, shall we?

The funny thing about mindfulness is that it's almost juxtapositional in its application. In practicing mindfulness we want to Observe, Describe, and Participate. And we want to do this in a non-judgemental, mindful, and effective way. The key to doing this effectively is to detach yourself from the NOW emotionally. To take a step back so that you can have an accurate view of what's really going on. Think of it in terms of this. Have you ever tried to have a rational conversation in the middle of an argument? Not too successful, is it? But when you walk away for a few minutes and calm yourself, it's a whole lot easier to get your point across in a rational fashion, correct? Because you removed the emotional response from the equation. So let's break it down.

Observe

Another word that you can use here is Identify. Examine your thoughts and feelings in a non-judgemental way, simply acknowledging them. Also take note of how your body is responding to the emotional upset. Being aware of these responses and how they occur is the first step in developing healthier responses.

Describe

This is exactly what it sounds like. Describe what you were feeling. What thoughts were running thru your head? What feelings arose from those thoughts? And how did those feelings manifest themselves physically?

Participate

Explore healthier possibilities. Ask yourself questions such as:

* What was I telling myself that allowed me to become so upset?
* What were the cognitive distortions that I was believing?
* What were the Irrational demands that I placed upon my behavior or that of others?
* What could have been a healthier way to respond?
* What lesson can I take from this experience?

Getting the idea now?

When we detach ourselves from the moment, we can more effectively examine that moment. Being in the NOW simply means to not let yourself be influenced by past events or beliefs, and to be as objective as you can.

Peace,

C