Adapted from Segal Williams and Teasdale (2007). Copyright by the Guilford Press. Mindfulness is the awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, to the present moment, and non-judgmentally. WILLIAMS, TEASDALE, SEGAL, AND KABAT-ZINN In a car, we can sometimes drive for miles on automatic pilot, without really being aware of what we are doing. In the same way, we may not be really present, moment-by-moment, for much of our lives: We can often be miles away without knowing it. On automatic pilot, we are more likely to have our buttons pressed. Events around us and thoughts, feelings, and sensations in the mind (of which we may be only dimly aware) can trigger old habits of thinking that are often unhelpful and may lead to worsening mood. By becoming more aware of our thoughts, feelings, and body sensations, from moment to moment, we give ourselves the possibility of greater freedom and choice; we do not have to go into the same old mental ruts that may have caused problems in the past. The aim of this program is to increase awareness so that we can respond to situations with choice rather than react automatically. We do that by practicing to become more aware of where our attention is, and deliberately changing the focus of attention, over and over again. To begin with, we use attention to different parts of the body as a focus to anchor our awareness in the moment. We will also be training ourselves to put attention and awareness in different places at will. This is the aim of the body scan exercise that is the main homework for next week. A PATIENT S REPORT This patient had been hospitalized for depression four years before, following which her husband and children left her. There had been no further contact except through lawyers. She had become very depressed and lonely, although she had not been in the hospital again. Now over the worst of her depression, she started to use the Body Scan CD to help prevent her mood from deteriorating. These were her comments looking back after 8 weeks: For the first 10 days it was like a burden. I kept wandering off and then I would worry about whether I was doing it right. For example, I kept having flights of fantasy. When the CD mentioned Massachusetts, I would think of a trip to Boston with the family 5 years ago. My mind was all over the place. I tried too hard to stop it, I think. Another problem at the start was him saying Just accept things as they are now. I thought that was totally unreasonable. I thought to myself, I can t do that. Eventually, I just put the CD on and expected to go off into a realm of thoughts. I didn t worry if concerns came in. Gradually, the 40 minutes passed without me losing him, and from then on, the next time was more effective. After 10 days, I relaxed more. I stopped worrying if I was thinking about anything else. When I stopped worrying about it, then I actually stopped the flights of fancy. If I did think of something else, I picked up
the CD again when I stopped thinking. Gradually, the flights of fantasy reduced. I was happy to listen to him, and then I started to get some value from it. Soon I had developed it so that I could actually feel the breath going down to the base of my foot. Sometimes I didn t feel anything, but then I thought, if there s no feeling, then I can be satisfied with the fact there is no feeling. It s not something you can do half a dozen times. It s got to be a daily thing. It becomes more real the more that you try it. I began to look forward to it. If people have got to structure the time for the 45 minutes, for their CD, it may be easier to structure other things in their life as well. The CD, in itself, would prove an impetus. HO PCTICE FOR THE WEEK FOLLOWING SESSION 1 1. Do the Body Scan (CD) six times before we meet again. Don t expect to feel anything in particular from listening to the CD. In fact give up all expectations about it. Just let your experience be your experience. Don t judge it. Just keep doing it, and we ll talk about it next week. 2. Record each time you listen to the CD. Also, make a note of anything that comes up in the home practice so that we can talk about it at the next meeting. 3. Choose one routine activity in your daily life and make a deliberate effort to bring moment-tomoment awareness to that activity each time you do it, just as we did in the raisin exercise. Possibilities include waking up in the morning, bushing your teeth, showering, drying your body, getting dressed, eating, driving, taking out the rubbish (garbage), shopping and so on. Simply zero in on knowing what you are doing as you are actually doing it. 4. Note any times when you find yourself able to notice what you eat in the same way you noticed the raisin. 5. Eat at least one meal mindfully, in the way that you ate the raisin.
HO PCTICE RECORD FORM SESSION 1 Record each time you practice. Also, make a note of anything that comes up in the home practice, so that we can talk about it at the next meeting. Day/date Practice* (Yes/No) Comments (thoughts, sensations, emotions?) * Do the Body Scan () daily. Choose 1 routine activity () to do mindfully each day. Eat at least one meal mindfully () and note any other times you find yourself eating mindfully.
Two Kinds of Intelligence There are two kinds of intelligence: One acquired, as a child in school memorizes facts and concepts from books and from what the teacher says, collecting information from the traditional sciences as well as from the new sciences. With such intelligence you rise in the world. You get ranked ahead or behind others in regard to your competence in retaining information. You stroll with this intelligence in and out of fields of knowledge, getting always more marks on your preserving tablets. There is another kind of tablet, one already completed and preserved inside you. A spring overflowing its springbox. A freshness in the center of the chest. This other intelligence does not turn yellow or stagnate. It s fluid and it doesn t move from outside to inside through the conduits of plumbing-learning. This second knowing is a fountainhead from within you, moving out. The Essential Rumi, Translation by Coleman Barks and John Moyne. Harper, San Francisco, 1995.
Doing Mode: When Critical Thinking Volunteers for a Job it Can t Do To solve a problem or to get things done, the mind usually works in certain predictable ways. This mode of careful analysis, problem solving, judgment, and comparison is aimed at closing the gap between the way things are and the way we think they should be-at solving perceived problems. Therefore we call it the doing mode of mind. To work effectively, at each point the doing mode has to hold in mind, and then compare, three ideas: 1. where you are at each moment (the current state) 2. where you want to be (your destination, goal or desired outcome) 3. where you don t want to be (your non-destination or outcome you want to avoid) By holding and comparing these three ideas the mind can see how well the current state of affairs matches up with the goal you want to achieve and how different it is from the outcome you want to avoid. If we want to achieve goals by making changes in the world around us like building a house the doing mode of mind is brilliantly effective. But what about those times when a goal is internal to be happy, or not to have certain unwanted feelings, or not to be a certain kind of person? Trying saying these sentences to yourself two or three times: I m unhappy. I wish I were happier. I don t want these horrible feelings to come back. What was your experience? You probably felt worse. Most people do. The gap between where you are now and where you want to be just got bigger. The doing mode needs to keep in mind the gap between the kind of person we are and the kind of person we want to be. But this just reminds us how much we are falling short of where we feel we need to be, creating more unhappiness. BEING AND DOING We already have a wonderful alternative to the doing mode of mind. It is the mode of being. A central aim of the MBCT program is to learn how to recognize these two modes in your own life so that you know when to switch from doing to being. Here s what the two modes look like contrasted with each other:
Doing Mode 1. Often automatic We live on automatic pilot much of the time: we drive, walk, eat, and even speak without clear awareness of what we are doing. 2. Works through thinking The doing mode thinks about the world, about the kind of person we are, about the feelings, sensations and thoughts we have. When we deal with a thought about life as if it were the real thing, we connect with life indirectly through a veil of thoughts that filters out the colour, vibrancy and energy of life. Being Mode 1. Deliberate, on purpose The being mode is intentional rather than automatic. This means we can choose what to do next, rather than run on old, worn-out habits. This allows us to see things as if for the very first time. We re-inhabit the present moment. 2. Works through direct experience In being mode we connect with life directly we sense it, we experience it, we know it intimately by close acquaintance. We get a taste of the richness of the experience of life. 3. Focuses on past and future In doing, we engage in mental time travel. Our minds go forward to the future to our ideas of how we want things to be or back to the past, to memories of similar situations. 3. Is fully in the present moment In being, the mind is gathered here, now, in the moment. We can have thoughts about the future and memories of the past but crucially, we experience them as parts of our present experience. We witness them without being drawn into the past or future worlds the thoughts might otherwise create. 4. Tries to avoid unpleasant experiences In doing mode the immediate, automatic reaction to any unpleasant experience is to set up a goal to avoid the experience, to push it away, to get rid of it, or to destroy it. 5. Needs things to be different Doing is dedicated to change to making things more like we think they should be, less like we think they shouldn t be. 4. Approaches all experiences with interest In being, the basic response is to approach all experience, even the unpleasant, with a natural interest and curiosity. 5. Allows things to be as they already are Being brings with it an underlying attitude of acceptance. We can be content with experience, even if it feels unpleasant. We can be content with ourselves, even if, from the perspective of doing mode, we are not all we should be. 6. Takes thoughts/ideas as real Doing mode treats thoughts and ideas about things as if they were the same as the things themselves. 6. Sees thoughts as mental events In being, we cultivate the ability to experience thoughts as thoughts as mental events that enter and leave the mind. 7. Focuses on what needs to be done, ignoring undesirable side effects, such as being unkind to oneself or others 7. Remains sensitive to wider needs Aware of the costs of a narrow focus on reaching goals, we can balance achievement with concern for our own and others well-being.
Bringing Awareness to Routine Activities One way to practice being more mindful is to choose some routine activity that we do every day, and resolve that each time we do it, we will bring a fresh quality of deliberate and gentle moment-to-moment awareness to the task or activity as best we can. Bringing awareness into these activities of daily living can make it easier for us to recognize when we are operating in the doing mode, on automatic pilot, and provides us with an instant alternative, namely, an opportunity to enter and dwell in the mode of being. In this way, we are knowing full well what we are doing while we are actually doing it. Here are some examples of possible activities: Washing the dishes Loading the dishwasher Taking out the garbage Brushing your teeth Taking a shower Doing the laundry Driving the car Leaving the house Entering the house Going upstairs Going downstairs Please feel free to add your own chosen activities to this list, perhaps choosing one to focus on for one week, then adding a new activity each week.
Non-Judging It doesn t take long in meditation to discover that part of our mind is constantly evaluating our experiences, comparing them with other experiences or holding them up against expectations and standards that we create, often out of fear. Fear that I m not good enough, that bad things will happen, that good things won t last, that other people might hurt me, that I won t get my way, that only I know anything, that I m the only one who doesn t know anything. We tend to see things through tinted glasses: through the lens of whether something is good for me or bad for me, or whether or not it conforms to my beliefs or philosophy. If it is good, I like it. If it is bad, I don t like it. If it is neither, I have no feelings about it one way or the other and may hardly notice it at all. When you dwell in stillness, the judging mind can come through like a foghorn, I don t like the pain in my knee.... This is boring.... I like this feeling of stillness; I had a good meditation yesterday, but today I m having a bad meditation.... It s not working for me. I m no good at this. I m no good, period. This type of thinking dominates the mind and weighs it down. It s like carrying around a suitcase full of rocks on your head. It feels good to put it down. Imagine how it might feel to suspend all your judging and instead let each moment be just as it is, without attempting to evaluate it as good or bad. This would be a true stillness, a true liberation. Meditation means cultivating a non-judging attitude toward what comes up in the mind, come what may. Without it, you are not practicing meditation. That doesn t mean judging won t be going on. Of course it will, because it is in the very nature of the mind to compare and judge and evaluate. When it occurs, we don t try to stop it or ignore it, any more than we would try to stop any other thoughts that might come through our mind. The tack we take in meditation is simply to witness whatever comes up in the mind or the body and to recognize it without condemning it or pursuing it, knowing that our judgments are unavoidable and necessarily limiting thoughts about experience. Our interest in meditation is direct contact with the experience itself whether it is of an inbreath, an outbreath, a sensation or feeling, a sound, an impulse, a thought, a perception or judgment. And we remain attentive to the possibility of getting caught up in judging the judging itself, or in labeling some judgments good and others bad. While our thinking colours all our experience, more often than not our thoughts tend to be less than completely accurate. Usually they are merely uninformed private opinions, reactions and prejudices based on limited knowledge and influenced primarily by our past conditioning. All the same, when not recognized as such and named, our thinking can prevent us from seeing clearly in the present moment. We get caught up in thinking we know what we are seeing and feeling and in projecting our judgments out onto everything we see off a hairline trigger. Just being familiar with this deeply entrenched pattern and watching it as it happens can lead to greater nonjudgmental receptivity and acceptance. A non-judging orientation certainly does not mean that you cease knowing how to act or behave responsibly in society, or that anything anybody does is okay. It simply means that we can act with much greater clarity in our own lives, and be more balanced, more effective and more ethical in our activities, if we know that we are immersed in a stream of unconscious liking and disliking which screens us from the world and from the basic purity of our own being. The mind states of liking and disliking can take up permanent residency in us, unconsciously feeding addictive
behaviours in all domains of life. When we are able to recognize and name the seeds of greediness or craving, however subtle, in the mind s constant wanting and pursuing of the things or results that we like, and the seeds of aversion or hatred in our rejecting or maneuvering to avoid the things we don t like, that stops us for a moment and reminds us that such forces really are at work in our own minds to one extent or another almost all the time. It s no exaggeration to say that they have a chronic, viral-like toxicity that prevents us from seeing things as the actually are and mobilizing our true potential. Excerpt from Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life by Jon Kabat-Zinn Thank you for giving the home practice for each week your best efforts and intentions.