Mindfulness

1. Introduction

· Process involves learning to be in control of attention processes

· mindfulness skills require much practice

· meditation skills commonly used in pain and stress management, so doesn’t have to involve spiritual or religious factors;  Mindful meditation similar to Christian contemplative prayer, Jewish mystical tradition, etc.

2. Three States of Mind

· Rational or Reasonable Mind: rational, thinking, logical mind. It plans and evaluates things logically. Easier when people feel good

· Emotional Mind: In when emotions are in control - when they influence and control your thinking and your behavior. Need certain amount. Exacerbated by illness, sleep deprivation, drugs, hunger, environmental stress and threats

· Wise Mind: Integration of emotion mind and rational mind. Cant' overcome emotion mind with rational mind and vv. That part of person that can know and experience truth. Where person knows something to be true or valid. Almost always quiet. Depends upon all ways of knowing something - observing, analyzing, experiencing, doing, and through intuition.

. "What Skills"

OBSERVE

· Just notice the experience: Notice without getting caught in the experience. experience without reacting to your experience

· Have a "teflon mind", letting experiences, feelings, and thoughts come into your mind and slip right out

· Control your attention, but not what you see. Push away nothing. Cling to nothing.

· Step inside yourself and observe. Watch your thoughts coming and going, like clouds ion the sky. Notice each feeling, rising and falling, like waves in the ocean. Notice exactly what you are doing.

· Notice what comes through your senseS - your eyes, ears, nose, skin, tongue. "Smell the roses."

DESCRIBE

· Put words on the experience. When a feeling or thought arises, or you do something, acknowledge it. For example, say in your mind, "Sadness has just enveloped me."… or "Stomach muscles tightening"…or …"A thought 'I can't do this' has come into my mind." …or…"walking , step, step, step…."

· Put experiences into words: Described to yourself what is happening. Put a name on your feelings. Call a thought just a thought, a feeling just a feeling. Don’t' get caught in content.

PARTICIPATE

· Enter into your experiences. Let yourself get involved in the moment, letting go of ruminating. Become one with your experience, completely forgetting yourself

"How" Skills

NON-JUDGMENTALLY

· See but don't evaluate. Take a nonjudgmental stance.  Focus on noticing without judging it as  "good" or "bad", the "terrible" or "wonderful", the "should" or "should not".

· Unglue your opinions from the facts.

· Accept each moment, "it is as it is"

· Acknowledge the helpful, the wholesome, but don't judge it. Acknowledge the harmful, the unwholesome, but don't judge it.

· When you find yourself judging, Don’t judge your judging.

ONE-MINDFULLY

· Do one thing at a time. When you are eating, attend to your eating. When you are in a group, or a conversation, focus your attention on the very moment you are in with the other person. Do each thing with all of your attention.

· If other actions, or other thoughts, or strong feelings distract your, Let go of distractions and go back to what you are doing - again, and again, and again.

· Concentrate your mind. If you find you are doing two things at once, stop and go back to one thing at a time.

From Skills Manual for Treating Borderline Personality Disorder by Marsha Linehan