For me, the most fruitful means for self-knowledge have been music and meditation.
I believe that neither discipline should be limited by having to have an end result.
Mindfulness means paying attention, on purpose, to one's own thoughts, feelings, and judgments17—“observing the observer, observing the observed.”18 Buddhist meditation is the practice of mindfulness and requires only the belief that knowing oneself can foster compassion.1
Are these not the same qualities to those that social workers and helping professionals exemplify and humanize?
We side with clients and teach them to come back to themselves, to regulate, to be mindful, to act with intention, to breath.
Social workers help clients to develop coping skills that ground them back into the reality of their perceived threat
We do this kindly, without judgment, and we ask them to do the same towards themselves.
Be mindful – follow the breath – feel your body and where it is heavy and where it is open. Experience the moments and watch them pass by. If you find a thought that doesn’t serve, just let it go. Watch your thoughts go by. Choose the thought that best serves you and let the other ones go.”
This idea brings us one step closer to knowing we can choose which thoughts to act upon
. It is the silence between the thoughts that is considered to awareness in yoga,
In work with clients it is important to get them to recognize that it is not their behavior but the thought guiding their behavior that needs attention
Just as in social work practice, yoga is first a state of mind
Social workers empower clients in an effort to help them learn to be mindful and aware so they can fold into themselves and introspect to find insights and create change
A state of mind that is calm, mindful, accepting, non-judging and intentional.
the anxiety tends to persist and may even become worse
I recently wrote about the things I do to (attain and) maintain mental health, and in an earlier post I wrote about my choice to live intentionally, to live an examined life:
It only requires pausing in your day, or even in your week or month, to be aware of your interior and exterior worlds.
What am I doing? Is it what I want to be doing? Is there a change I’d like to see? Can I bring it about? What path am I on; is it likely to bring me to where I want to go?
By interior world I mean thoughts, feelings, wishes, desires, discomfort, contentment, hopes, satisfaction, anger, delight… a kind of mindfulne
I was very interested to see that my intuition about using mindfulness to cope with stress and anxiety was borne out in a small Danish study that was published this past April
The women participating in the study had been diagnosed with breast cancer at Stage I, II or III and had undergone surgery
In any case, the statistical results are far less important to me than my lived experience: mindfulness exercises and meditation and living an examined life help me to cope better with stress and anxiety, and that is all the proof I need
. When you're mindful, you exist solely in the moment, noticing what is going on right then to the fullest. The practice of acceptance goes along with mindfulness
In acceptance you observe your thoughts and feelings from a distance, without judging them good or bad
Instead of saying "I am anxious," notice the physical sensation and acknowledge that it is there
help clients daily learn skills to help them better cope with the effects of anxiety on their mind and bodies.
Mindfulness is most frequently associated with a practice of meditation. Even five minutes of meditation daily has been proven to show benefit.
Even as our minds get busy, the physical sensations of anxiety such as muscle tension, tightness in the chest or stomach, fluttering heartbeat are still present. Every few moments our minds do a "check in" to be sure that all systems are functioning properly. When the mind locates the symptoms of anxiety it sends off a "code red" and all of the symptoms feel exacerbated.
Any activity where you can be fully in the moment contributes to your ability to quiet that voice in the mind that causes anxiety.
By being mindful you are not denying your feelings, nor ignoring them. You are integrating them into your "whole self" and allowing your mind to get out of the way so that your body can naturally heal itself.
Some of my clients report washing the dishes as being meditative for them, or gardening, or listening to music.
ven as our minds get busy, the physical sensations of anxiety such as muscle tension, tightness in the chest or stomach, fluttering heartbeat are still present. Every few moments our minds do a "check in" to be sure that all systems are functioning properly
When we resist emotions or physical sensations they rear their ugly heads and demand to be noticed. The sheer energy of them increases due to our increase in attempt to squash them down. Our bodies were made to allow all energy, negative and positive to move through them and to be expressed in some way, whether spoken through communication, burned off through exercise or relaxed away. Acceptance allows our bodies to naturally self correct and allow that energy to pass through us without resistance.
Mindfulness is proven to increase our quality of life by improving our physical health (reducing blood pressure and increasing quality of sleep to name a few benefits) and our mental health (decreased rumination, increased ability to handle daily stress) and out relationships (One study showed that people who practice mindfulness deal with relationship stress more constructively.
indfulness is most frequently associated with a practice of meditation. Even five minutes of meditation daily has been proven to show benefit. You can practice mindfulness in many other ways too. Some of my clients report washing the dishes as being meditative for them, or gardening, or listening to music. Any activity where you can be fully in the moment contributes to your ability to quiet that voice in the mind that causes anxiety.
By being mindful you are not denying your feelings, nor ignoring them. You are integrating them into your "whole self" and allowing your mind to get out of the way so that your body can naturally heal itself
“nonjudgmental” process, but what happens most of the time — judgment of negative emotions
When you really don’t judge a negative emotion, you let it run its natural course — without trying to step in and control the situation through cultivated mental discipline.
Many use it to avoid having to feel emotional pain.
But of course they won’t tell you that.
Who’s to say if you should experience “unwanted” thoughts and emotions” as you start to become aware of them? That’s your call. (We do emotion regulation all the time.) But it’s not the issue; it’s the deception.
Getting in touch with your true nature, de-stressing, and being happy are all possible without suppressing negative emotions.
Of course you’ll temporarily feel better if you don’t have to face your unwanted thoughts and emotions
But you’ll have to meditate again to get that high
You start to judge uncomfortable thoughts and feelings as inferior, unreal, or bad.
ou get good at stuffing anger and other negative emotions
If and when a traumatic or emotionally painful experience occurs, you don’t fully process it, and cut your grieving process dangerously short.
You expect meditation to fix your problems for you, resolve your relationship conflicts, and make you happy
xpecting that meditation will get rid of the negative emotions
You detach from your partner or loved one when they’re upset or experiencing an emotion you see as undesirable
Because you’ve trained yourself to avoid them
You struggle to empathize with others, or understand their pain. If you don’t feel your own pain — you can’t expect to have compassion for another’s pain.
You lose your ability to naturally feel upset, sad, or concerned when there’s an issue in your life that you need to address
Your ability to feel positive emotions is also affecte
d. Because you don’t allow experience of the negative.
You start to feel dissatisfied with your life, and alone
the experience varies by culture and personal experience
especially relating to its application in pain and stress reduction.
acceptance, non-striving, and non-judging awareness.
we shouldn't be stressed out if we're practicing mindfulness or meditation
Wait, what? If that's true then why is the market flooded with meditation classes, audio guides, books, fancy retreats, phone apps, expensive pillows, bracelets, bobbles, and gizmos
Mindfulness is not a modern spiritual movemen
It's simply you at your most natural state of being.
That was mindfulness. It required nothing of you other than to be there
internalized someone else's idea of what it means to be mindful.
Maybe you tried it a few times and determined that your experience didn't match up with their description of what it should feel like. So you got frustrated and you quit. "It's too hard." "I'm terrible at it."
While washing dishes or sweeping, direct your attention to the rhythm of the action. Listen closely to the swishing or scratching noises, smell the soap suds, or concentrate on your contracting muscles.
. The goal of mindful practices is to force us to be present, so we don’t waste precious days worrying.
Like most skills, it must be developed and refined
Try to quiet your mind and focus on your sensations for even 10 or 15 seconds at a tim
while walking, cleaning, and showering.
Mindfulness: A Wonderful Anxiety Cure You Ought to Know
Mindfulness is a practice that allows you to be content and alive in the present moment.
irrational form of fear.
Anxieties try to tell you that something bad might happen, that you might not be good enough, or that someone might be thinking poorly of you.
Mindfulness is nearly infallible for helping to alleviate stress and worry
I’ve understood for years that anxiety is counterproductive, but knowing it is and actually stopping it from affecting me are two different things.
Anxiety stems from the evolutionary by-product of exaggerated fear
Mindfulness is a conscientious activity. It is an effort to do the opposite of what our brains naturally do.
When performing a task, mindfulness means directing our entire focus to that one task. No multi-tasking. No daydreaming.
The idea is to focus attention on what is happening now and accepting it without judgment.
mindfulness is a powerful therapeutic tool
ease stress, prevent major depression from reappearing, alleviate anxiety, and even reduce physical symptoms such as pain or hot flashes
like sitting quietly, focusing on your breathing, becoming aware of your surroundings, and watching what comes and goes in your mind
But if you make the effort to become more mindful, you may find the results to be well worth it.
The practice of mindfulness, which has its roots in Buddhism, teaches people to be present in each moment
The practice of mindfulness, which has its roots in Buddhism, teaches people to be present in each moment. The idea is to focus attention on what is happening now and accepting it without judgment.
This seemingly simple practice is often hard to sustain in a busy world.
way mindfulness works its magic is by improving connections in the brain.
2,069 National Association of Social Workers members examined ethical concerns regarding religious and nonreligious spiritual issues in clinical practice settings
Practitioners' insights provide a basis to extend ethical guidelines in practice and education.
they likely lack guidelines for systematic ethical decision making about the use of spiritually oriented activities in practice
The risk of relapse in people with recurrent major depressive disorder is significantly lower
Cancer patients reduced their anxiety and depressive symptoms
women who in glossy magazines tell of how they achieved self-control and success because they practice mindfulness and are able to be attentive and live in the present.
Here, a group of young people with social anxiety was divided into two random groups. One group received regular cognitive behavioural therapy in which the participants were taught to overcome their anxiety by confronting it. The other group was treated with mindfulness-based cognitive therapy.
British health authorities now recommend using mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for the prevention of relapse in recurrent depression.
was a meta-study of six randomised clinical trials of 593 people who had been affected by one or more depressive episodes.
A patient who has suffered from a single depressive episode has a 60-percent chance of relapse. With two depressive episodes, the risk of relapse increases to 70 percent, and with three episodes, the risk goes up to 90 percent
systematic mindfulness training can significantly reduce this risk of relapse
For those hit by one depressive episode, the risk of relapse is reduced by 34 percent, and with three episodes, the risk is reduced by 43 percent.
This indicates that mindfulness is a serious alternative to confrontational therapy in which patients for instance overcome their fear of spiders by having them walk on their hands.
which studied the effect of mindfulness on cancer patients, who often become anxious and depressed – even after the cancer treatment is actually completed.
In those retreats, the majority of the meditation was the kind where you simply sit there and come back to the breath if you stray
our eye is always on the future. We are filled with wants and desires that we do not need, but that consume our time and money. As well, so much of our emotions are wrapped up in this future orientation. By using mindfulness, we are able to come back to the present and just be in the moment.
Working with highly anxious children back then, I was able to utilize many of the techniques that I knew, as well as some of the ones that I was taught.
This may be good for medical based social workers to help with clients who are experiencing medical issues that are causing anxiety and depression
Clients gain an ability to realign themselves away from their thoughts and feelings and focus instead on the occurring changes in their body and mind through yoga, breathing, and meditation.
This insight affords the client the opportunity to heal themselves by interjecting positive thoughts and responses to the moods in order to disarm them.
Participants are armed with knowledge regarding depression as an illness, and are given additional tools to combat their depressive symptoms as they arise
order to facilitate a complete and rapid progression to healing.
Clients who use this technique will often be able to revert to these methods in times of distress or when they are faced with situations that cause them to lose their sense of separation from their thoughts.
You can work with clients in understanding how to use these techniques when they are feeling to anxious.
Training programs encompass a variety of activities, including role playing, lectures, yoga, meditation, group classes and sustained periods of silence.
. In addition, this method works equally as well to relieve the symptoms of various psychological issues including anxiety and panic.
The original platform was designed to address the needs of people who suffered from multiple events of depression