Mindfulness

Toward a Mindful Society (interview with Jon Kabat-Zinn)

I emphasize the universality of the power of mindfulness and awareness, but I’m not talking about a universal church or a universal religious movement. I’m talking about understanding the nature of what it means to be human. I don’t even like to use the word “spiritual".

Read more in "Toward a Mindful Society" by Barry Boyce

Suggestions for daily practice

by Jon Kabat-Zinn

from oprah.com

1. A good place to start cultivating mindfulness is in the body.

2. Befriending your breath is a good idea, since you can’t leave home without it – and it is so related to our states of mind.

3. See if from time to time you can just feel the breath moving in and out of your body.

4. Locate where the breath sensations are most vivid, and “surf ” with full awareness on those breath waves, moment by moment – in the belly, at the nostrils, or wherever.

5. Try lying in bed for a few moments after you wake up, and just ride on the waves of your own breathing moment by moment and breath by breath.

6. Experiment with expanding your awareness around your breath until it includes a sense of the body as a whole lying in bed breathing.

7. As best you can, be aware of the various sensations fluxing in the body, including the breath sensations.

8. Just rest in the awareness of lying here breathing, outside of time, even if it is only for a minute or two by the clock.

9. When you notice that the mind has a life of its own and wanders here and there, keep in mind that this is just what minds do, so there is no need to judge it.

10. Just note what is on your mind if you are no longer in touch with the breath or with the sensations of the body lying in the bed, and without judgment or criticism, just let that be part of your awareness in the moment, and feature once again the breath and the body center-stage in the field of your awareness.

11. Repeat step 10 a few million times.

12. It is very easy to fall into the thought stream and get caught up in the future (worrying, planning) and the past (remembering, blaming, pining) and in reactive and often painful emotions.

13. No need to try to stop any of this from happening when you can just bring a big embrace of openhearted, spacious, accepting awareness to it and, lo and behold, you are once again sitting on the bank of the thought stream, listening to the gurgling but not so caught up in the torrent for the moment.

14. You can cultivate mindfulness in this way lying in bed for a few moments in the morning, or in the evening before going to sleep.

15. You can also cultivate mindfulness sitting, standing, walking, and eating – in fact, in any position or situation, including brushing your teeth, taking a shower, talking on the phone, running, working out at the gym, cooking, picking up the kids, making love, whatever is unfolding in your life in the present moment.

16. It helps to be present for it and for yourself.

17. Remember – the real meditation is your life, and how you inhabit it moment by moment.

Pure awareness

In his last newsletter, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche speaks about the opportunity to connect with a timeless awareness, each and every moment. Is this too good to be true? To be honest, that's my experience so far ... ;-)

I was only eight years old when I went to stay with him [his father] at his hermitage, but even then I had a deep yearning to learn the art of meditation. I was troubled by overwhelming feelings of fear and anxiety that seemed to follow me like a shadow. When I timidly shared my troubles with my father, he told me that the constantly shifting thoughts and emotions we experience are only one small part of our inner world. Each and every moment, he said, we have the opportunity to connect with a timeless awareness that is not affected in any way by the changing conditions of our lives.

When he first introduced me to this timeless awareness, it seemed almost too good to be true. I respected my father tremendously, so I never really doubted what he was trying to teach me, but I was also very much caught up in the thoughts and feelings that crowded my mind. I truly believed that it was possible to make this pure awareness a living experience; I just didn’t believe it was possible for me.

Looking back, I can see that my biggest obstacle at the time was that I thought of meditation as something that would help me get rid of the parts of myself that I didn’t like. I sincerely hoped that meditation would lead me to happy, peaceful states of mind where panic and fear could not touch me. Yet what my father was leading me to was much more radical than that: He wanted me to see that the only way out of suffering is to move toward it; that the path of true awakening lies in experiencing every single moment, whether pleasant or painful, with complete and unconditional love.

Unconditional love is something we can immediately see the value of when it relates to others, but how often do we think of cultivating unconditional love for ourselves? How often do we not only accept, but even cherish our own tender spots and painful feelings? This is completely different than indulging or repressing destructive habits. What my father taught me in those early years was that when we simply let be and open ourselves to the richness of the present moment, we experience every thought, feeling, and experience as an expression of the mind’s luminous nature. From the perspective of awareness, no thought or emotion is any better or any worse than another. They are all manifestations of the mind’s infinite potential.

As you sit reading this letter, see if you can bring this attitude of complete openness and unconditional love into your life for a moment. You don’t need to sit in a specific posture or say any special prayer or mantra, nor do you have to alter your thoughts or feelings in any way. Just let be … completely natural, completely at ease with whatever arises in the present moment.

When you rest like this, you don’t have to wait for anything special to happen. What we are doing here is profoundly ordinary. In a way, there is nothing new here. It’s the same body, the same mind that we experience all the time. The only difference is that now we are not resisting our experience. It doesn’t matter if you feel open and spacious or completely tense. You may even feel that simply relaxing and letting go is entirely impossible. If so, that’s wonderful. Just be with resistance, be with frustration…be with whatever manifests in the moment. Always remember that there is nothing in the entire world that can rob you of this timeless awareness. It’s with you all the time.

Though we often make meditation complicated and difficult, it is really quite simple. As my father taught me so many years ago, all we have to do is embrace each experience with awareness and open our hearts fully to the present moment. Once we’ve done that, we can bring this same open hearted attitude to our interactions with others. Indeed, awareness and compassion are contagious. You don’t need to do or say anything. When you are completely at ease with your own being, the ripples of your awareness will naturally spread out in all directions, touching the life of everyone you meet.

Fear [should I stay or should I go, or even smile and say "hello"?]

Under sitte-meditasjonen, etter at vi har lukket dørene og vinduene for sanseinntrykk, vil de indre formasjonene som ligger begravet inne i oss, iblant vise seg som bilder, følelser eller tanker. Vi kan bli var en følelse av angst, frykt eller ubehag som vi ikke kan forstå årsaken til. Så vi retter oppmerksomhetens lys mot den, og forbereder oss på å se bildet, følelsen eller tanken i all dens sammensatthet. Når den begynner å vise ansikt, kan den øke i styrke og bli mer intens. Vi kan føle den så sterk at den fratar oss vår fred, glede og velbehag, og vi får kanskje ikke lyst til å være i kontakt med den lenger. Vi får kanskje lyst til å flytte oppmerksomheten til et annet meditasjonsobjekt eller avbryte meditasjonen helt. ... I psykologien kalles dette motstand. Vi er redde for å bringe opp i det bevisste sinnet de følelser av smerte som ligger begravet i oss, for de vil gjøre vondt. Men hvis vi har øvd på å puste og smile noen tid, vil vi ha utviklet evnen til å sitte rolig og bare betrakte vår frykt. Mens vi holder kontakten med pusten og fortsetter å smile, kan vi si: "Hei, frykt. Der er du igjen."

Thich Nhat Hanh, Hvert skritt er fred, 75.

The method of no method

Choiceless awareness. Silent illumination. The great natural perfection. Just sitting, nothing more.

It is available at all moments, and also takes a lifetime of training, Jon Kabat-Zinn says, in this ten minutes long guided meditation.

Årstein Justnes

Cultivating mindfulness: Beginning or Deepening a Personal Meditation Practice

By Jon Kabat-Zinn

from oprah.com (15. January 2006)

1. The real meditation is how you live your life.
 
2. In order to live life fully, you have to be present for it.

3. To be present, it helps to purposefully bring awareness to your moments – otherwise you may miss many of them.

4. You do that by paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally to whatever is arising inwardly and outwardly.

5. This requires a great deal of kindness toward yourself, which you deserve.

6. It helps to keep in mind that good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant, the present moment is the only time any of us are alive. Therefore, it's the only time to learn, grow, see what is really going on, find some degree of balance, feel and express emotions such as love and appreciation, and do what we need to do to take care of ourselves – in other words, embody our intrinsic strength and beauty and wisdom – even in the face of pain and suffering.

7. So a gentle love affair with the present moment is important.

8. We do that through learning to rest in awareness of what is happening inwardly and outwardly moment by moment by moment – it is more a “being” than a “doing.”

9. Formal and informal meditation practices are specific ways in which you can ground, deepen, and accelerate this process, so it is useful to carve out some time for formal practice on a regular daily basis – maybe waking up fifteen or twenty minutes earlier than you ordinarily would to catch some time for ourselves.

10. We bring awareness to our moments only as best we can.

11. We are not trying to create a special feeling or experience – simply to realize that this moment is already very special – because you are alive and awake in it.

12. This is hard, but well worth it.

13. It takes a lot of practice.

14. Lots of practice.

15. But you have a lot of moments – and we can treat each one as a new beginning.

16. So there are always new moments to open up to if we miss some.

17. We do all this with a huge amount of self-compassion.

18. And remember, you are not your thoughts or opinions, your likes or dislikes. They are more like weather patterns in your mind that you can be aware of – like clouds moving across the sky, – and so don’t have to be imprisoned by.

19. Befriending yourself in this way is the adventure of a lifetime, and hugely empowering.

20. Try it for a few weeks – it grows on you.

Finding rest

If you want to find rest
here below, and hereafter,
in all circumstances say,
Who am I?
and do not judge anyone.

Sayings of the Desert Fathers. Quoted from Martin Laird: Into the Silent Land: The Practice of Contemplation (London: Darton, 2006) 133.

Jon Kabat-Zinn: Coming to his senses on Oprah

Part 1

Part 2

Anbefales varmt!

Jon Kabat-Zinn til Oslo 22.-23. april

Angstseminaret 2010 på Gaustad: Mindfulness

 

Foreleser: Professor Jon Kabat-Zinn
Hovedforedrag 22. april - workshop 23. april
Tema: Mindfulness in Anxiety Disorders, Background, a First-hand Taste and Clinical Applications

 

Dag 1 - torsdag 22. april på Rikshospitalet, Gaustad
Sted: Sognsvannsvn. 20, Store auditoriet
Tid: kl 09.30 til kl 15.30
Forelesning ved professor Jon Kabat-Zinn, med noen øvelser hvis plassen tillater det.
Pris: Kr 1000,- pr. deltaker, inkl. lunsj - Kr 500,- for ansatte i Oslo universitetssykehus.

Dag 2 - fredag 23. april på tidligere Gaustad sykehus
Sted: Sognsvannsvn. 21, Festsalen i bygning 10 på Gaustad sykehus
Tid: kl 09.00 til kl 15.30
Workshop i Mindfulness ved professor Jon Kabat-Zinn
Kun plass til 80 deltakere, som må ha vært til stede på dag 1. Yogamatte eller liggeunderlag må tas med.
Pris: Kr 1500, - pr. person, og det kan ikke gis egen pris for ansatte ved Oslo universitetssykehus.

 

Les mer på sidene til Aker universitetssykehus

 

Update 8. februar: Wow. Andre dagen er allerede fulltegnet!

Vektkontroll og mindfulness

I et lengre tidsperspektiv handler vektkontroll for de aller fleste av oss om disiplin og mindfulness.

For en som meg, som har vært svært overvektig, er det et ubarmhjertig faktum at 5 minutters uoppmerksomhet i løpet av en dag, er alt som skal til for å legge på seg.

Det gjelder derfor å være oppmersom når jeg får lyst på mat, og det gjelder å være til stede når jeg spiser: Den andre porsjonen har ingenting nytt å melde i forhold til den første, og kakestykke nr 2 vil neppe fortelle meg noe som kakestykke nr 1 ikke maktet å formidle. I alle fall ikke hvis jeg spiser med oppmerksomhet og mindfulness.

Det er et fascinerende faktum at vi ofte jager etter neste porsjon eller neste kakestykke når vi spiser. Vi lengter altså paradoksalt nok etter å få fyllt munnen med noe vi allerede har i den! Jeg kan vise til årelang empiri: Når Nina (min favorittkone) og jeg f.eks. deler en sjokolade, kommer ett eller annet over oss allerede litt uti første rute . Vi blir slått av en lengsel etter neste rute, og neste - og før vi vet ordet av det er vi i kjøleskapet for å finne en ny sjokolade, en tvillingbror av den første. Så kaster vi oss over den, og har ikke fred før vi har fortært den og slikket innsiden av papiret. Og så: som klar fra lyn himmel kommer angeren. Og neste dag er vi å se på Spicheren treningssenter hvor vi trener, manisk, ikke mindfully, og med anger! :D

Jeg skriver faktisk denne bloggposten småsulten, til tross for at jeg har spist alt jeg trenger i dag. Nå gjelder det å observere sulten oppmerksomt. Utforske den og se hva den vil fortelle meg. Selv om den i utgangspunktet virker konstant og nagende, merker jeg, selv mens jeg skriver, at den kommer og går litt. Er den til å holde ut? Definitivt! Vil den være til å holde ut om en time? Helt sikkert. Og i det fjerne kan jeg allerede skimte frokosten!

En av de få tingene vi kan vite sikkert om livet er at det er i konstant endring. Slik er det også med sulten. Den er her nå, i dette øyeblikket, men om den vil være her i det neste? Hvem vet?

Årstein