Mindfulness (eBook)

Living Through Challenges and Enriching Your Life In This Moment

Richard W. Sears (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2014
John Wiley & Sons (Verlag)
978-1-118-59756-9 (ISBN)

Infos

Mindfulness: Living Through Challenges and Enriching Your Life In This Moment shows how the ancient practice of mindfulness can help us live a fuller and more enriching life.

 

• Presents material through a balance of clinical case work with the author’s personal stories of the Dalai Lama, ninja, and Zen Buddhism
• Reveals ways that mindfulness can be applied to modern problems based on psychological principles and evidence-based programs
• Shows how to apply mindfulness principles to a variety of problems, including stress, anxiety, depression, chronic pain, and more
• Provides guidelines for readers to conduct their own mindfulness training sessions at home

Richard Sears, Director of the Center for Clinical Mindfulness and Meditation, is a board-certified clinical psychologist, an authorized Zen teacher, and also has a 5th degree black belt in the ninja art of To Shin Do. He has practiced and taught mindfulness for 30 years. He is author of Mindfulness in Clinical Practice, Consultation Skills for Mental Health Professionals, and Building Competence in Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy.

Autor

Richard W. Sears, Director of the Center for Clinical Mindfulness & Meditation, is a board-certified clinical psychologist, an authorized Zen teacher, and also has a fifth degree black belt in the ninja art of To-Shin Do. He has practiced and taught mindfulness for 30 years. He is author of Building Competence in Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (forthcoming), Mindfulness in Clinical Practice (2011), and Consultation Skills for Mental Health Professionals (2006).

Inhalt

About the Author viii

Acknowledgments x

1 The Need for Mindfulness 1

2 What is Mindfulness? 15

3 What Mindfulness is Not 60

4 When Things Go Wrong: Responding to Challenges 95

5 When Things Go Terribly Wrong 131

6 Enriching your Life 169

7 Building your Mindfulness Muscles 203

8 Beyond Mindfulness: More Ways to Train your Mind 223

Afterword 240

Mindfulness Exercises 241

References 242

Photo Credits 246

Index 249

Rezensionen

"Overall, the book is a fresh look at mindfulness that
incorporates bringing the reader back to the basics, unpicking
concepts and then leading them on a rich and personal journey with
the author to self-awareness and integrating mindfulness into
everyday lives." (British Psychological Society,
18 November 2014)

"Bringing a rich set of personal experiences to bear on
nearly every point or bit of guidance, this book is both a personal
story and a deep exploration of mindfulness as a concept and
method. Mindfulness is more than paying attention: it is paying
attention in a particular way. Wise and deeply aware of his impact
on the reader, Dr. Sears embraces the challenge of teaching that
"particular way" by letting his writing embody it. Reading this
book is itself a kind of extended mindfulness exercise. Highly
effective; highly recommended--Steven C. Hayes, Author of Get
Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life"

Textauszug

Chapter 1
The Need for Mindfulness

Many of us have become so entrenched in getting things done, worrying about the future, ruminating about the past, and making comparisons that we don't spend much time in this moment.

The late Alan Watts talked about the trick that is played on all of us from the time we are children.1 We are bombarded with the idea that some great thing will be coming in the future. When you're old enough, you get to go to kindergarten—won't that be great? Then first grade, then second grade. You can look forward to middle school, then high school, then college! Along the way, you long for the day you will meet that special someone who will make your life feel more complete, and perhaps start a family. Eventually you get to enter the world of work, where you can make and save money to get those things you've always wanted to make you happy. You fight your way up the ladder, believing that things will be so much better after you get that next promotion. And once you get that nice house and reliable car and perfect partner, life will be so much easier. Finally your kids grow up and get lives of their own. When you get to retirement, too tired to enjoy it from the stress of working so hard all those years, you realize that your life is almost over, and you were absent from most of it. As the saying goes, life is what happened to you while you were busy making other plans.

If we don't have much practice living in the moment we are in, how can we expect to enjoy that future we long for when it finally does arrive? Have you ever achieved a long sought-after goal, only to have the joy wear off after a few days, quickly setting your sights on your next future goal? If we are in the habit of always thinking of the next thing, we lose the skill of truly appreciating the present moment.

When we were young kids, the summers seemed to last forever, but as we grow older, time seems to slip away from us. The amount of time each of us has each day is the same as it has always been, but why does it feel like it moves so quickly? Why don't we have more time with all of the amazing technological advances we've made? With email and texting, I can now communicate with others instantly, anytime, anywhere. No longer do I have to write out a letter, walk to the post office, buy a stamp, and mail it. With instant access to databases on my computer and my phone, no longer do I have to spend hours researching information in a library on how to repair something in my house. With microwave ovens, I can cook my food in less time than it takes me to eat it.

How is it that our ancestors were able to sit on the porch every evening, watching the sunset, when they had to do things like prepare all their meals from scratch and wash their clothes by hand? Why does it feel like we seldom get a break from all the problems in our lives? Is it even possible to be more present, with all of our responsibilities, in the midst of all this modern chaos?

For many of us, it seems there is always “one more thing” to deal with, another problem to tackle, and we are waiting for things to calm down so we can start to live. Sometimes years can go by, and instead of the problems going away, they gradually wear us down, mentally and physically. It is difficult to accept that suffering is a natural part of life, and that how we relate to suffering makes all the difference. We get caught in vicious circles. We get stressed out that we are so stressed. We become anxious about our anxiety. We get scared of how afraid we feel. We feel depressed that we are so depressed all the time. We get angry about our anger. We hurt so much from our pain. We feel guilty about feeling so much guilt. We become addicted to our addictions. We are impatient with our impatience. We feel irritated about our irritability. We judge how judgmental we are. We rarely give ourselves permission to feel what we are truly feeling.

Though traumatic childhoods are all too common, most of us can remember how much easier it was to fully engage in our activities and relationships when we were younger. When we hurt, we cried and let it out, and usually felt better quickly. When we were happy, we could laugh from the very depths of our being. We explored with curiosity all the wonders in the world around us.

Kids enjoying the beach. © Richard Sears.

My preschooler notices the most ordinary things around her with amazement, things that most adults take for granted. My teenager, however, has become indoctrinated and hypnotized into the realm of thinking and judgments, where not having an Internet connection is worse than death, one instant message can make or ruin her day, and comparison with peers is constant. Kids are being pressured to grow up very quickly these days, and too often leave behind some of their best qualities.

Mindfulness, the ability to pay attention in the present moment, is a natural human process that we are all born with, but tends to diminish as we grow older and get caught up in the world of thoughts. While thinking is important, when our lives are spent anticipating the future, or living in the past, we miss the richness of the moment we are in now. Fostering mindfulness allows us to more consciously participate in our lives, breaking us out of the mindless routines we often fall into automatically. When facing challenges, we can learn to step out of old habits that make the situation worse, consciously responding rather than unconsciously reacting. We can allow our emotions to rise and fall without getting as stuck in them. We can also choose to notice more often the beauty in the world around us, to appreciate the sound of good music, and to savor the connection we feel when we look into the eyes of those we love.

Although an ancient practice in many cultures, mindfulness is supported by hundreds of modern research studies that demonstrate amazing benefits for our mental and physical health. Medical imaging even shows growth in important areas of the brain after only eight weeks of practicing a mindfulness program like the one outlined in Chapter 7.

Of all the people I have met, one of the individuals who most embodies mindfulness is the Dalai Lama. Despite the many horrors he faced during the invasion of his native Tibet, resulting in the death of one million of its six million inhabitants, he captures everyone he speaks to with his genuine presence and his smile. When he stops to look and talk with you, you can sense that he is not thinking about other things. You feel as if you are the most important thing in the world at that moment.

The first time I met him, I was assisting Stephen K. Hayes with a security detail for a public presentation the Dalai Lama was giving. Mr. Hayes kindly assigned me to be backstage when His Holiness arrived. Another young woman waited beside me. Through my radio earpiece, I knew when he arrived, but still felt some surprise when he came in through the backstage entrance by himself. I immediately put my hands together in a gesture of respect, which he did also. He walked toward me, beaming with sparkling eyes. His translator walked in close behind, and I didn't understand what they were saying. All I could make out was the word “ninja,” which His Holiness repeated with raised eyebrows and a questioning smile. For a moment which felt frozen in time, he looked at me as if nothing else mattered, despite the thousands of people waiting for him. He then gave both of us hugs before walking onto the stage to a cheering audience. I briefly shared a gaze of amazement with the woman beside me, then I followed him out to stand beside the stage and watch the crowd as he spoke to them.

Mindful awareness is a counter to our pervasive state of mindlessness. Have you ever found yourself pulling into your driveway at the end of the day, not really remembering how you got there? Perhaps you were deep in thought, or having an important phone conversation. It's likely you were driving safely, stopping at red lights, and avoiding the other cars, but you did not notice what you were doing with your conscious attention. We spend much of our lives in this “automatic pilot” mode.

Doing things automatically is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it is a wonderful time saver. If I am driving down the road and an animal jumps out in front of me, and I stop to consciously think, “Let's see now, how do I stop this car? Oh yeah, one of the pedals down here. Now which one was it?,” it will of course be too late.

However, if we continuously operate on automatic pilot, we can get ourselves into trouble. My friend David Allison would say “My brain has a mind of its own!” whenever he found himself doing something he hadn't intended to do. I once was driving a friend home, and we got into a rich conversation. As I pulled into my own driveway, I remembered, “Oh yeah, I was supposed to take you home!”

The hardest automatic patterns to catch are those of thinking and feeling. Many years ago, a coworker walked by me, and I said, “Hey, good job on that project you did yesterday.”

He stopped and glared at me for a moment, then said, “What do you mean by that?”

Confused for a moment, I simply repeated “I just thought you did a nice job on the work you did.”

His stare intensified, and he looked angry. “What are you saying?”

I was perplexed for a moment, because he was not normally argumentative like this. I suddenly remembered that he...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 13.10.2014
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie
• Themenwelt: Medizin / Pharmazie ► Medizinische Fachgebiete ► Psychiatrie / Psychotherapie
• Schlagworte: Mindfulness, mindfulness principles, mindfulness training, mindfulness therapy, meditation, Zen Buddhism, psychotherapy, enlightenment, awareness, Buddhist teaching, anxiety, depression, stress, ninja, Dalai Lama • Psychologie • Psychology • Psychotherapie • Psychotherapie u. Beratung • Psychotherapy & Counseling
• ISBN-10: 1-118-59756-7 / 1118597567
• ISBN-13: 978-1-118-59756-9 / 9781118597569