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I’ve been pursuing a better understanding mindfulness–and trying to practice it–for a good six months now. In the last few weeks, though, I think I’ve made some progress due to a CD I’ve been listening to by Dr. Elisha Goldstein called “Mindful Solutions for Stress, Anxiety, and Depression.” I have been listening to the CD in the car on my way to pick up the kids from camp or run an errand (I don’t close my eyes, though, like you are supposed to).
At any rate, his four step model to mindfulness has helped me divide the awesome job of becoming more mindful into a few steps that are easier to process. He breaks mindfulness into four categories: calming exercises, mindfulness of thoughts, mindfulness of emotions, and the wandering mind.
1. Calming Exercises
For calming exercises, Dr. Goldstein (who has a very soothing voice I might add!) offers two strategies: breath work and a body scan. He starts with the breath because it is something that is always with us, and because it provides oxygen to all of our major organs, including our brain. It’s the source of life, and so often we breathe from our chest, not getting the full oxygen our body needs.
Lately, when I grow anxious or have had a fourth cup of coffee in an hour, I have noticed my breath turn shallow. It moves from my belly or diaphragm to my chest. So I’ll try to concentrate on it–to begin counting with each breath–and to try to get it back to the belly.
Dr. Goldstein claims that the body scan is another way we can regulate our stress. He says:
By taking time to focus on the body part by part we begin to realize that we are more than our busy minds. We give our bodies the acknowledgment it rightfully deserves, possibly noticing pleasant or unpleasant sensations that we are carrying with us throughout the day. We may also become more aware as thoughts or emotions rise up in connection with particular body parts. Connecting with the body in this way is often where deep healing can occur.
2. Mindfulness of Thoughts
In learning how to be mindful of our thoughts, we simply take a backseat to our brain, like we’re chilling out with a box of popcorn watching The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and observe all the freaky thoughts that arrive. We assure ourselves that our thoughts are “mental events” not “permanent facts,” that the buggers are transient, on the go, driving faster than a Dominos pizza delivery boy. So we don’t have to fret over them! Goldstein promises us that if we loosen our grip on our thoughts … and remind ourselves of their impermanent status, we can free ourselves from the fear and anxiety that they produce. He says:
Mindfulness of Thoughts is different from the normal route of reacting or getting caught up in the storm of our mind. In watching the mind we’re simply observing all the images and thoughts that care to float on by. As we get caught up in the thoughts themselves, as we will, we can then take note that we’ve been thinking. If it is negative self-talk or a certain style of thinking such as catastrophizing or blaming, we may just acknowledge that. As soon as we do this we are present again and can then make the choice to gently pull ourselves back from the thoughts and continue to witness. This gives us the experience that thoughts are simply impermanent mental formations that come and go, that we do not have to attach to, and that we actually have the ability to control our minds.
3. Mindfulness of Emotions
This is where I usually get into trouble. Because emotions seem so vague and so unpredictable and so powerful. I have an easier time observing my thoughts than I do my emotions, because I’m usually too absorbed in the emotion to have enough distance to label it.
But the way Dr. Goldstein instructs us on the CD is to simply expand our vocabulary of emotions. That, to me, is an easier assignment than being their watchdog. So, if you’re like me, you have your “love” emotion and your “hate” emotion, your “happy” emotion and your “sad” emotion. And that’ about it.
Goldstein thinks there may be a few other categories we’re missing, that most of us don’t have a vocabulary to adequately express our emotions. So there are times when our anger is actually stemming from fear, or our anxiety was masking our sadness. But we only had four boxes, so we’re shoving everything in the “sad” box. What happens when we have four words to process our emotions? Says Goldstein:
The result is that we feel detached from our emotions, they seem foreign, and what we don’t understand, we feel disconnected from, and are often afraid of. In mindfulness of emotions we learn to gently feel into where the emotions are in the body, simply observing and describing them as they come and go.
4. The Wandering Mind
I always laugh when when he introduces this section because my mind is usually off in a far and distant place as he begins this segment. Dr. Goldstein describes this part better than I can. This is what he says:
Part of the practice is to notice when the mind has wandered and acknowledge where it has wandered to. It maybe wandered to negative self-talk, or maybe to a habitual pattern of thinking like catastrophizing, or things you should be doing, or even wondering why you are doing this practice in the first place. As soon as we are aware that it has wandered we are present and can now choose what we want to do. We want to actually turn our attention to where it has wandered to, acknowledge it, then let it be and gently bring our awareness back to what we want to be focusing on in the moment.
So, there you have it. Four steps to mindfulness. I still feel so new to all this, but I suggest if you have some free time in the car you might put those moments to good use and learn how to be mindful (as long as you aren’t closing your eyes, of course).
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Therese J. Borchard writes the daily blog, Beyond Blue, on Beliefnet and is a regular contributor to the award-winning blog, World of Psychology, on Psych Central. Therese is the author of Beyond Blue: Surviving Depression & Anxiety and Making the Most of Bad Genes and The Pocket Therapist: An Emotional Survival Kit. Subscribe to Beyond Blue, visit her website, or follow her on Twitter @thereseborchard.
Meet others on the journey in
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Therese J. Borchard writes the daily blog, Beyond Blue, on Beliefnet and is a regular contributor to the award-winning blog, World of Psychology, on Psych Central. Therese is the author of Beyond Blue: Surviving Depression & Anxiety and Making the Most of Bad Genes and The Pocket Therapist: An Emotional Survival Kit. Subscribe to Beyond Blue, visit her website, or follow her on Twitter @thereseborchard.
posted July 6, 2009 at 10:51 am
Thanks for posting this Therese. I look forward each Monday to your Mindful Monday posts. If any of your readers are interested I also have a post on Tips for Daily Mindfulness at my blog:
http://beyondbreastcancer.wordpress.com/2009/05/04/tips-for-daily-mindfulness/
posted July 6, 2009 at 12:24 pm
HI, I CANT AFFORD THESE CD’S
BUT WILL TRY TO MEDITATE ON SOME OF THE THINGS YOU MENTIONED.
I DONT FEEL DEPRESSED . I JUST NEED SOMETHING EXCITING TO WAKE UP TO IN THE MORNING.
I HAVE A GREAT FAMILY . LOVEING HUSBAND . WHO GIVES ME THE WORLD.
THANKS FOR THE TIP
posted July 6, 2009 at 3:03 pm
good topic i deffinetly can use help with my emotions and my wandering mind.will deffenetly use these.
posted July 6, 2009 at 3:36 pm
This is a really great post. I just came over here from The Happiness Project and I’m so glad that I did. I really enjoyed looking around at your site and I will definitely be coming back for more!
posted July 6, 2009 at 11:25 pm
I have not tried Dr. Goldstein’s CD’s. I am getting the impression that these are like a guided meditation. Am I correct?
I’ve tried a number of products over the years, all have had some benefit to me. Think Right Now by Mike Brescia makes some nice CD’s that play suggestions over Baroque-style music. I have several titles from them including I Am Organized Now, and Supreme Self Confidence. When my wife went on hospital bed rest in April for our triplets, I picked her up another Mike Brescia CD called Dissolving Panic & Anxiety Now. She found it quite helpful during a rather stressful time. These CD’s run about an hour long, and you can play them in the background, you don’t need headphones. All these CD’s work better if you can sit and relax, and concentrate single-mindedly on them, but I will often pop one on in the background when I am deep-cleaning the kitchen.
I also enjoy many of the Brainwave Entrainment CD’s that use binaural beats. I would google both of those phrases for more info. I got started a dozen years ago using Holosync, but it is extremely cost prohibitive and I don’t advocate any product of that type that says you must use it daily. I followed that with Hemisync but many of those titles are an hour long as well.
With a full time job, three new babies, six rental units to landlord for, and trying to nurse my creative muse, I don’t have alot of time, so I prefer to just drop off to sleep to something that is thirty minutes or less. I like the Chakra meditations from Xtrememind, and the Shamanic Consciousness from the Unexplainable website. I also listen to a number of titles from Harmonic Ascension, but never more than one title a nite. Some nights I just want to lie on my side and drop off to sleep…tough to do with ear phones, so if I miss a nite, so be it.
I don’t make a dime for any of these products and I don’t personally know any of these people who put these products out. This just happens to be a topic that I am passionate about and I may do an article about it some day.
The sites that make these products frequently make lavish claims, I won’t pretend to give a dramatic testimonial but I do seem to handle stress better in recent years. Most folks who get to know me often marvel at how well I handle stressful situations. This may be due to the meditative qualities of these CD’s or maybe I am just mellowing with age.
These meditation CD’s all cost a pretty penny. Holosync is by far the most expensive, while Unexplainable offers instant downloads that are a fair bit cheaper. If you’re truly worried about money, nothing beats sitting in a quiet room, with your eyes closed, focusing on your breath. That’s how the Yogi’s did it for 5000 years.
YMMV
-Papa Charley
PS – The site says that you won’t lose the comments you wrote if the Captcha expires. I can tell you that this is not true. I hit the refresh Captcha twice because it timed out when writing this, and I lost it all. Got smarter the third time and wrote it in Microsoft Word, then copied it over.
posted July 7, 2009 at 11:27 am
http://www.millionminutesofmeditation.org/
Try this link! Meditation is a wonderful daily exercise!
posted July 7, 2009 at 1:48 pm
WOW!THIS IS VERY INFORMATIONAL,I’VE BEEN STRUGGLING WITH A MENTAL ILLNESS FOR SOMETIME NOW.AND MY MIND OFTEN PLAYS ALOT OF TRICKS ON ME.BUT BY READING HOW THE MIND WORKS IN A SENSE I CAN NOW LEARN HOW TO COPE WITH SOME OF MY MINDFULNESS.I OFTEN TEND TO GET DISTRACTED WITH SOME DISTURBING THOUGHTS.AN I’VE TRIED LISTENING TO MUSIC,OR MEDITATING BUT I LOSE FOCUS AN JUST GIVE UP.IM HANGGING IN THIER AN WILL CONTINUE TO COME TO BELIEFNET FOR HELP. THANKS
posted July 7, 2009 at 1:52 pm
the world is full of wonders! So we are obliged to lift our thoughts HIGH. Think of the glories of
the world! The beauty of deserts. Think about the wonder of forests! Look at blue skies.
Think about blue skies, they’ll keep your mind high for a while. Think about stars. What a wonder
that we live in a world populated with trillions of stars! Blessings are everywhere.
Keep your thoughts high! Think of the wonder of children who bring such happiness.
Thoughts are powerful. So are we!
posted July 8, 2009 at 11:43 pm
I am fascinated by a book I am currently reading “is it me or my meds? Living with Antidepressants” by David A. Karp.
posted July 11, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Hi Therese
I follow Beliefnet very closely, especially your suggestions. I am trying to start a “practice” of mindfulness (my resistance to any routine has been a major obstacle). Your reference today to Elisha Goldstein’s work sounds very similar to the suggestions of a man named
Jon Kabat-Zinn. If you don’t know of him you might find him very interesting and helpful. The CD set I have of his is “Guided Mindfulness Meditation: Series 3: 4 practice CD’s. (He also has a very soothing voice.) He has also written a number of books. The one I have been carrying with me was written a while ago but is still
available: “Wherever You Go There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in
Everyday Life”. Just reading a page or two in this book helps me to become more “centered”. I will be watching to read further comments on this subject.