A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook

There’s a wisdom that comes from nature. When we really look at it we see that nothing lasts. That’s not meant to be a dreary proclamation, it’s meant as a truth so we can begin to see things just as they are. When it comes to our anger, we can learn a thing or two from nature.

One of my favorite teachers is Thich Nhat Hanh and he says:

“Our body is impermanent, our emotions are impermanent, and our perceptions are impermanent. Our anger, our sadness, our love, our hatred, and our consciousness are also impermanent.”

Too often when we feel anger we react from the emotional center of our brain and without full consciousness. We become impulsive and shoot off a spiteful email that we wish we could take back. Or we get sucked into a battle where we end up holding onto this venomous grudge that weighs us down and brings out irritability with ourselves and others.

Who wants this?

What happens when anger arises and we greet it at the door with our full curious awareness? Where does it go when we let it be in a space that is as wide as the sky? What happens when we see the sensation of anger as a friend alerting us to be present?

Eventually the anger settles down and we’re left with a grounded consciousness to choose the most skillful response in the moment.

This has profound implications from our relationships whether it’s with a friend, family member, a stranger, our kids, or if you’re CEO of a company and you’re learning how to effectively work with your employees.

Anger can be constructive if we can learn how to become intimate enough with it that when it flares up, it becomes like an old friend who is reminding us to be here and cues us to be present.

Get to know what annoyance, irritability, frustration and even outrage feel like in the body. See what kinds of thoughts and memories flare up when it’s present.

Invite in a moment of self-compassion:

Ask yourself, “What do I need in this moment?”

The wisdom lies within.

As always, please share your thoughts, stories and questions below. Your interaction creates a living wisdom for us all to benefit from.

Reposted from Elisha Goldstein’s Mindfulness Blog on Psychcentral.com

At some point in life we fall into a trance of seeing the differences in people and missing how alike we truly are. Even our enemies in life are more like us than different. At the core we all want to feel understood and cared about no matter who we are. What happens when we start seeing a connection between people? It breeds the compassion which study after study is now showing leads to feeling happier.

Whether it’s disconnection with a stranger, an acquaintance, an old friend, a family member, or even our kids, give yourself the gift of this short 2-minute practice to break this trance and prime your mind to seeing the connection that can lead to healing and well-being.

As always, please shar eyour thoughts, stories and questions below. Your interaction creates a living wisdom for us all to benefit from.

Source: The Now Effect

Reposted from Elisha Goldstein’s Mindfulness Blog on Psychcentral.com

Whether this is your first time you’re coming here or you’ve been around for the almost four years I’ve been writing The Mindfulness and Psychotherapy column, I want to share a personal moment of gratitude and say “Thank You” for being a part of this community. This was a big year for this column,  it will become 4 years old and is also the year that The Now Effect and Mindfulness Meditations for the Anxious Traveler hit bookshelves. Now it’s my turn to give you some gifts of my favorite Top 10 posts of the year. In these posts you’ll read about the power of mindfulness, the importance of self-compassion in healing, the upside to embracing dark emotions, how to be alone, why multitasking is ineffective, many short practices and much more.

May they bring you a sense of insight, ease, peace and freedom. Enjoy!

1. Mindfulness is Not a Cure, It’s Better
   
2. 7 Life Lessons for Dr. Seuss
   
3. The Power of Self-Compassion
   
4. Depression: Medicate, Meditate or Both?
   
5. The Science Behind Why Everything You Do Matters
   
6. The Upside to Embracing Dark Emotions
   
7. Learn How to Be Alone through Mindfulness
   
8. Neuroscience and Compassion Training Predict a Better World
   
9. Media Multitasking Leads to Poorer Cognitive Performance: A Mindful Response
   
10. A Simple Way to Trick Your Brain Toward Mindfulness

One final gift as a thank you is a video in The Now Effect that has been the most popular one of the year. Go head, do this short Mindful Check-In practice and enter into the holidays with a bit of mindfulness.

I hope you enjoy these and please feel free to share your thoughts, stories and questions below. Your interaction creates a living wisdom for us all to benefit from.

Reposted from Elisha Goldstein’s Mindfulness Blog on Psychcentral.com

Recently I wrote a blog titled Need to De-stress? Build Your Wall of Gratitude and people started posting all kinds of things they’re grateful for. Another wonderful 30 second practice in the day is to look at a wall of gratitude, so I’ve compiled a number of the responses and you’ll find them below. Consider how the responses below come from people who are just like you, wanting the same fundamentals of belonging, feeling understood and cared about.

Take a few deep breaths and notice what it’s like to witness the gratitude of the human spirit.

Lisa: My health, the ability to run, my school and all the amazing people Ive met there who have had a positive effect on my life. Living in San Diego, near the bay and the beauty that surrounds me.

Michelle: I have wonderful health that I am grateful for. My beautiful dog who makes me smile. I am blessed with an amazing father who is with me every day in my heart in the five years since he passed away. My loving, sweet, kind, gorgeous boyfriend who I am blessed to share my life with. My family is healthy and many are nearby. Just a start…thanks!

Tids: The fact that I am here at all.

Linda: I am grateful for my body, even though it hurts all the time..I am grateful for my meditation practice and all the new teachers that have come into my life.

Andrew: My therapist!

Jennifer: I am grateful for my husband and my children, the spouses they have chosen to be my new children, and my precious granddaughter.

Maria: I am grateful to have found this mindfulness training this past year. It is really helping already with the holidays. I’m remembering to STOP more often and focus on my breathing. Thank you, Thank you!

Susan: That I can be awed by nature’s breathtaking beauty – large and small – from the ocean sparkling around Diamond Head to the glistening rain water on individual leaves.

Helen: That I live in a country that helps me care for my two disabled daughters and with people who accept them as they are.

Anne: What I am grateful for is being a sensitive person. Used to feel that it was a curse. Now I feel it’s a blessing.

Terry: that i can pause at any time of the day place both hands over my heart and wish myself well and mean it!!!!

Andra: I am grateful for being alive. I have a family, friends, health, a home. I am in need of nothing. I am able to communicate, to be aware, to feel.

Jennifer: Elisha thank you for asking this question. There is so much in my life that I am grateful for….I wake everyday with a chance to see my daughters grow and learn. I work with some of the most courageous people I know. I am truly loved. I have a healthy body that walks me through my life in a rich way and a mind that is curious to stay mindfully present while I walk. When I am truly living NOW…there is nothing to NOT be grateful for! This kind of presence is a gift…that we ultimately give ourselves…but that has become attainable to us because of people like yourself…let’s start with gratitude for that!

Just because have an automatic negativity bias doesn’t mean that’s destiny.

Keep the practice alive continue to comment on The Wall of Gratitude about what you’re grateful for. Make it a daily practice that move through Thanksigiving and just becomes a part of your life.

The results could be life changing.

As always, please share your thoughts, stories and questions below. Your interaction creates a living wisdom for us all to benefit from.

Reposted from Elisha Goldstein’s Mindfulness Blog on Psychcentral.com

Unfortunately, our brains don’t seem to be built to pay attention to what’s good in life, but more to what seems urgent or threatening. That makes sense as fundamentally safety and security trump happiness and well-being. However, having our minds roll around in past hurts and regrets of the past or potential catastrophes in the future isn’t really keeping us safe nor is it making us happy. It’s more likely stressing us out. It’s a lose, lose. At times it’s skillful to grab hold of our minds and incline them in ways that create a reinforcing spiral up to feeling good.

One of those ways is to build a wall of gratitude and here’s how.

Every day I get a Daily Now Moment (DNM) in my inbox and today I received one that said:

Wall of Gratitude – Day 1:

Here we start another week of gratitude, but this time it’s going to be slightly different.

Every time you get this email, with a single click, reply in the community with what you’re grateful for:

Writing these down will not only support you but by checking back in you can watch a communal wall of gratitude grow.

Here’s the method behind this madness.

We need more than just ourselves to make a habit stick. If we want to prime our minds toward happiness, it’s skillful to not only intentionally consider what we’re grateful for in our day to day, but also to get inspired by others who are doing the same.

Here’s the kicker.

When you contribute to the wall of gratitude, it’s going to inspire others and it’s crucial for you to know this because being of service to others, a form of altruism, is one of the greatest factors to our health and well-being.

Why?

Because when we’re of service to others we feel connected to something greater than ourselves which studies show is a direct correlate to feeling good.

Go ahead and see what others are saying and also contribute to what you’re grateful for in your life and let the ripple effects follow.

Watch the wall grow and let it continue to inspire more and more of this in your life.

As always, please share your thoughts, stories and questions below. Your interaction creates a living wisdom for us all to benefit from.

Reposted from Elisha Goldstein’s Mindfulness Blog on Psychcentral.com