Mindfulness

Jon Kabat-Zinns CDer

Er det noen som har erfaringer med Jon Kabat-Zinns meditasjons-CDer der ute? Vi har brukt dem to ganger nå på universitetets (lavterskel) meditasjonsgruppe, og jeg opplever at folk reagerer veldig forskjellig på dem. Jeg elsker dem, mens andre finner dem altfor ordrike. 

Religion og mindfulness: oppdatert program

25. november, UiA, rom B2-006

Minikonferanse med 20 minutters innlegg og 10 minutters diskusjon.

12.15-12.45 Årstein Justnes: "... og det har ingenting med religion å gjøre"
12.45-13.30 Notto R. Thelle: Har mindfulness med religion å gjøre? Hvem bestemmer? Når østlige disipliner blir mentale teknikker

Pause

13.45-14.15 Svein Olav G. Nyberg: Who am I? Mindfulness og menneskesyn
14.15-14.45 Harald Olsen: Livsens åndedrag. Pustens rolle i kristen dypmeditasjon

Pause

15.00-15.30 Nils Terje Andersen: Centering Prayer - en plassering
15.30-15.55 Samtale
15.55-16.00 Årstein Justnes: Kort oppsummering, bevingede ord

The paradox of non-striving (or: Attitude is everything!)

Since the practice of mindfulness meditation is fundamentally one of awareness in each moment, the appropriate attitude to cultivate is one of non-striving. This attitude ... is the only way to practice this meditation correctly and, paradoxically, the best way to derive benefint from it.

Kabat-Zinn, "An Outpatient Program," 37

The now and the significant other

Remember that there is only one important time and that is now. The present moment is the only time over which we have dominion. The most important person is always the person you are with, who is right before you ...

Hanh, The Miracle of Mindfulness, 75

Mindfulness and chronic pain

... mindfulness requires focusing on unpleasant and painful sensations when they are present and discourages efforts to escape them by distraction or by absorption in some other object of attention. ...

The potential benefit of using meditation for the self-regulation of chronic pain would depend on the patient's developing an ability to observe intense feeling in the body as bare sensation. By repeated practice the patient might learn to assume intentionally an attitude of detached observation toward a sensation when it becomes prominent in the field of awareness, and to observe with similar detachment the accompanying but independent cognitive processes which lead to evaluation and labeling of the sensation as painful, as hurt. By maintaining a perspective during periods of formal meditation ... in which no mental event (including perceptions) is accorded any content value, the strong alarm reaction (the interpretation of the sensation as pain, i.e., "It's killing me", often accompanied by future thinking, i.e., the thought that it will last for a long time or forever) can lose considerable power and urgency simply by being observed as separate. This is because the associated thoughts can be perceived simply as events in the mind, not necessarily any more accurate or important than any other thoughts passing through the mind ... . In effect, assuming this attentional stance appears to produce a spontaneous (and momentary) uncoupling of the sensory component of the pain from the affective and cognitive dimensions (alarm reaction). If assumed regularly in the presence of pain, the attentional stance of detached observation can result in a specific deconditioning of alarm reactivity to primary sensation. This amounts to a learned recognition of primary sensation. The nociceptive signals (sensory) may be undiminished, but the emotional and cognitive components of the pain experience, the hurt, the suffering, are reduced.

Er du her ennå? Var ikke dette interessant?

Kabat-Zinn, "An Outpatient Program," 35.

Once more: Meditation instructions

Jeg må stadig minne hjernen min om punkt 4 - et punkt som hjertet mitt for lengst har forstått. Merk at særlig de to siste punktene også kan være gode å ha med seg i livet ellers:

1. Bring your attention to the primary object of observation.

2 Be aware of it from moment to moment.  

3. When you notice that the mind has drifted into thought, revery, and so forth, bring it back to awareness of the present moment, to the observation of what is dominant in that moment. In the sweeping meditation, the primary object is that region of the body through which one is moving at any moment.

4. When a strong feeling or emotion arises (i.e., a state of fear, pain, anger, anxiety), direct you attention to the feeling as it occurs and just be with it, observing it. When it subsides, return to the primary object of observation. Distinguish between observation of the experience itself and thoughts and interpretations of the experience.

5. Observe the thinking process itself. Avoid becoming involved in the content of individual thoughts. Observe them as impermanent mind events and not necessarily accurate. Treat all thoughts as equal in value and neither pursue them nor reject them.

John Kabat-Zinn, "An Outpatient Program in Behavioral Medicine for Chronic Pain Patients Based on the Practice of Mindfulness Meditation: Theoretical Considerations and Preliminary Results," General Hospital Psychiatry 4 (1982): 33-47, p. 36.

Moment to moment creation

Hjernen påvirkes sekund for sekund av det den opplever og gjør. I noen grad blir vi dermed skapt på nytt hvert eneste øyeblikk. Nye muligheter åpner seg, og et nytt perspektiv kan gjøre at det gamle igjen blir spennende.

Vi kan se, høre og føle på andre måter enn vi har gjort før. Vi kan tenke og reagere på nye måter - ellers ville ikke effektiv psykoterapi ha vært mulig.

Nilsonne, Mindfulness: Treningsredskap for hjernen, 47.