mindfulness – trustingmind
3 minute working from home mindfulness
Posted on January 26, 2021 January 26, 2021 by trusting mindLeave a comment	
We didn’t sign up for this when we took the job – laptop on the kitchen table or maybe on a desk in the spare room. Work hours leaking into home time. And the isolation, oh my the isolation. There are many new problems to face right now and no way of knowing when it will end. As a result, it is vital that we try to treat ourselves gently and go easy when our mind starts to rant and rave. Taking deliberate breaks and breathing spaces in the day to notice our physical, mental and emotional feelings, while not judging ourselves for whatever those sensations are can be a real help. So I have recorded a short and simple mindfulness practice (see the bottom of the post) that I hope will allow people the opportunity to pause in this way and notice a breath or two. I imagined that this could be done after a period of being sat down working, but really this could be used at any time in the day from waking up to going to bed.
If you find it useful please do let me know.
This is the recording of the practice. Just click play.
p.s. The photo is the view I get from work that I am missing 🙂
Posted in COVID, lockdown, mindfulness, working from home
Tagged COVID, lockdown, mindfulness, working from home
In times of hardship or stress people have a tendency to cut themselves off from others. Such self isolation compounds the original discomfort by making someone feel like they are suffering alone – and maybe even that they are the only person that feels like that. In the longer term this can lead to guilt about the false idea that they themselves are responsible for their own unpleasant feelings and emotions. Quite clearly in the present virus situation of 2020, the broader necessary and imposed isolation will compound this of pain and low self-worth.
Most people are lucky enough to be living with access to virtual connection. Whilst it cannot take the place of face to face communication, online linking and community is able to provide vital support for us all: we are not alone, we are not different from everyone else because we suffer. I believe that a sense of togetherness can greatly increase people’s well being. A sharing of experience is a lifting of the burden. This is why I am starting Quiet Tuesdays; for my own and anyone else’s benefit who wants to spend 20 to 30 minutes a week sitting mindfully together. We can help each other improve our health. Rob Brandsma (from ‘Mindfulness Teaching Guide) talks about how such a group can create resonance whereby our individual experience links up with other people’s. This can lead to increased group wisdom when we realise that there are many more possibilities than we could have realised on our own. Also we can see that our difficulties aren’t personal; that they are part of a wider shared human experience. Through this understanding a third benefit of togetherness is created.
I aim to create a regular dependable place for quiet and space in people’s week; somewhere to slow down, stop and notice. The longer term vision is that this session will grow into a small community of mutual support, born out of shared practice in a shared place. This is not a course and there will be little teaching. The most important activity will guided mindfulness; so the time will be spent primarily on experiential learning. I chose the word ‘quiet’ but, to be honest, only just rejected ‘silent’. Maybe over time, depending on how and if the community develops, it might become beneficial to have brief discussions about the experience of practice in the group. But to forge a solid start, I believe it is best we simply practice together. People are welcome to drop in to sessions, but the deepest and widest benefits will come from committing to such a practice and community on a regular basis. The changes that mindfulness can bring will certainly come but they will be more deeply and profoundly affective by putting in the energy over the long term.
Posted in Impact of mindfulness, mindfulness, suffering, trust
Tagged group wisdom, mindfulness, quiet, resonance, Rob Brandsma, togetherness
Practice diary: 11th October
Posted on October 11, 2020 January 23, 2021 by trusting mindLeave a comment	
I have said it before, but people just presume I will always be mindful because I teach mindfulness. They are wrong.
Over the weekend the heater for the shower sprung a leak. The ceiling on the floor below developed some brownish patches and the cupboard the white box was in was drenched. The house electrics were also tripping. Now I may be the world’s least skilled DIY practitioner. If I am not I am in the top 3. When an event like leaking dripping sealed white boxes and randomly turning off lights and fridge and wifi happens I feel terror and dread and overwhelming sense of uselessness. Those negative emotions were eating away at me and I could feel a fighting turning sensation in my chest.
Twenty four hours later and a lovely and dear friend has sealed off the leak l,showed me how the electrics can be sorted and explained which profession I can ring on Monday morning to hopefully finish the job. I don’t feel those sensations now. It has all passed.
To understand how my mind and body got so filled with properly unpleasant feelings, thoughts and emotions I need to look all the back to where the feelings began. This was when my mind contacted the thought “The shower heater is leaking.” That is of course for anyone a bad event; an inconvenience at best and large cost and disruption at worst. If I had been mindful of that negative feeling right there and then at the start and seen it for what it was: unpleasant, maybe even painful – but also temporary, then I might have been able to detach from that initial sensation. In fact, detaching would have worked anywhere along the production line of negative reactions and feelings, all the way up the feeling of dread and self hatred. Mindfulness can create a stepping back from an automatic chain of reaction and allow space for a wiser response to occur.
I always make sure to tell a group starting an 8 week course that it won’t be ‘skipping through fields of daisies and ice creams’ for everyone if they practice mindfulness regularly. Alas, no matter how many courses or retreats you go on mindfulness won’t stop the bad stuff happening. But mindfulness can work to stop the so called ‘second dart’ of painful reactive feelings occurring ,even if first darts are still inevitable in our lives.
Now I am off to try and start taking some of my own advice.
Posted in Letting go, mindfulness, suffering
Tagged feelings, Letting go, mindfulness, suffering, vedena
Practice diary: 6th October
Don’t overcomplicate mindfulness!
Follow these instructions – allowing 10 seconds for each sentence
Simply sit or stand still in a comfortable position and keep your back tall, but relaxed. Feel your feet on the ground. Know you are sitting (or standing). Be aware of any sounds that are audible. When you breathe in, know you are breathing in. When you breathe out know you are breathing out.
And there you go; mindfulness in a minute!
Tagged energy, joy, mindfulness, wisdom
A lot of people come to mindfulness classes because they want to deal better with their anxiety or poor mental health in their life. In my experience people who complete a mindfulness course come away with that; they have the skills and opportunity to see things and events in a different light. And from my experience I have begun to see typical way in which this happens
Firstly, the participant begins to pay attention to thoughts and feelings that they were previously ignoring, pushing away or hadn’t even noticed were there. By coming face to face with their experience and what is arising, a wisdom develops. By seeing what is going on as it is going on during formal practice sessions they move in closer to the workings of their inner world; they see more in more focus the interconnections and causes and effects that create their lives as they lead them. This is a fantastic thing to have done! Mindfulness is beginning to make them wiser.
This embryonic wisdom can also grow out into a greater feeling for the impermanence in day to day life. This is no academic pursuit, it is something that is experienced. One of the simplest activities in the 8 week MBSR course is a reflection on the activities participants do every day and to categorise them as either nourishing or depleting. It is not a question you could ask of people in the early weeks of the course because this experiential understanding has not started to develop then. But mindfulness can generate this wisdom of seeing what is wholesome and what is not in our lives.
And then this wisdom naturally leads to having increased energy and joy, because when someone knows what they need to do to gain more happiness, they will be really keen to do those things! They will be living with more energy and joy. Knowing about this chain from mindfulness to wisdom to energy and joy also gives people a way of noticing how their lives may be changing for the better because of a regular mindfulness practice. Indeed, recognising this development can make us happier again as we see a greater purpose in out day to day living.
And so, from being less happy and maybe even unwell, mindfulness can lead to a wiser and more joyful way of living.
Posted in joy, mindfulness, wisdom
I ended yesterday’s post saying I was going to have a slow cup of tea. My good friend Alan asked me later “How did it go?” Well to be honest, I had a few sips and then drifted on to something else. So thanks to his unintended prod I thought I should try again.
Rather than just mindfully drink the tea I decided to note my thoughts and feelings as they arose by saying them out loud. I also recorded myself doing this so I could share them. I doubt anyone will want to read them but I have written out the list and copied it at the bottom of this post.
What I found really interesting is rereading the quote from Tchich Nhat Hanh with an intention of acting upon it and experiencing it, not just thinking about it, I gained a noticeably different understanding of what he said and didn’t say. There is no demand to notice only the cup of tea as you drink it, but rather to drink it ‘reverently’. This takes away the possibility of drinking the tea in the wrong way. It is the same as in an ordinary sitting practice when we are told to return to the breath “without judgement”.
The instruction to drink the tea as if it were the ‘axis of the whole world’ sure is some commitment to mindfulness in the moment. People who have taken an MBSR course will see the similarity with the eating the raisin exercise from the first week. Often when people eat that raisin at such a slow speed they comment after that they noticed much more taste from it. And I can still taste the tea now, an hour after finishing the last mouthful. But this guidance also goes a step further than the MBSR “Only this actual moment is life” is a fantastically empowering statement. Because no matter what has gone before we have this moment; we can be mindful, we can be alive right now as we drink the tea..
That was honestly one of the best mugs of tea I have had in ages. I highly recommend you try driving one in a similar manner. And thank Alan when you do.
Favourite mug/ Hot/ Sipped/ Tongue/ Slurp/ Lingering taste/ Neighbour on the phone/ Wind in the chimney/ Breath/ Thinking of having another sip/ Breath/ Stomach rumbling/ Bigger sip/ Same taste/ I think that’s fish on the mugs and the blue lines are waves/ Water and milk in the tea/ Where do the milk and the tea come from?/ Breath/ After taste/ Slightly easier to touch the mug/ Touch of teeth on tongue/ Bigger sip/ Missed the taste but noticing the after taste/ Thinking about finishing the tea and watching the telly/ Sound of mug on coaster and rumble in stomach/ I like the sound of my neighbour’s voice/ The house is quiet/ Breath/ (I reread the TNH quote on tea drinking)/ What does evenly mean in that quote?/ Autumn/ Looking forward to watching the American football/ Feet on the floor bum on the cushion on the sofa/ Heating is up high enough for me to be in a t-shirt/ Near the end of the mug/ Cant hold the mug still enough so the tea inside stays still/ Cant believe I hadn’t noticed the fish and waves before on the mug/ Maybe flying fish/ I feel as if I’ve drunk a bigger mug of tea than I actually have/ I’ve drunk it quicker I think, I’ve got to the end and its still quite hot/ Teacup sound on coaster
Posted in mindfulness, Tchich Nhat Hanh
Tagged mindfulness, Tchich Nhat Hanh, tea
Practice diary: 3rd October
We are a busy culture (part 2). When out walking I am thinking of cooking tea and not seeing the loosening leaves and their changing colours. Watching a favourite film I check my phone and miss a key scene entirely. Looking at the sunset I wonder about putting on a wash and leave the skyline after only a few seconds.
It’s all very well wanting to slow down and open out to experience like I suggested yesterday (see here). But even if I try slowing down the body, the mind keeps speeding away. Just switching off at the push of a button isn’t possible; a longer term solution is needed, with longer term commitment. Now I am not expert enough to know how anything other than the start of this extended project might look and I only know about the first step of this because I read this from Tchich Nhat Hanh in ‘Miracle of Mindfulness’
So not just being slower, but also living this moment – not future ones. Now this is written, I am going to make a cup of tea and see how it goes.