Mindfulness Listening Circle 2

What Makes a Mindfulness Listening Circle Different?

A Mindfulness Listening Circle is a Mindfulness practice meant to rewire the brain for more awareness and less judgment. The practice itself will last one hour and be available for an hour a week. Listen to your heart and body when deciding to attend. The facilitator will be available each week.

Mindfulness is awareness without judgment.

·         The awareness comes from our bodies. Our body never lies to us.

o   We get goosebumps when we are cold or when we experience awe.

o   When we are hurt, the body produces tears. However, we can also cry when we feel overwhelming joy.

o   When there is danger or perceived danger, our stomach gets hard and blocks and protects the heart center.

·         The judgment comes from the chattering inner voice that lies all the time.

o   It tells you that you are not important.

o   It tells you that you don’t belong.

o   It tells you that you can’t trust others so you judge them so they can't hurt you.

o   It comes from the ego that likes to think you are special and different.

The gift of Mindfulness is silence and space.

·         The silence between notes makes the melody.

·         The silent space in the seed planted in the darkness gives new life.

·         The space between stars causes them to shine brighter. 

·         The space in a room creates a feeling of peacefulness.

·         The space between plants in rows gives them room to grow.

·         The space in our day for a mindful walk, mindful meditation, mindful listening brings peace.

It is not a support group or a 12-step group.

·         There will be no check-in each week.

·         While it is not a grief group, currently, there is a great deal of loss to share, and if that is what is in your heart, do share it.

·         There is no feedback.

·         There is no cross-talk.

·         We allow space and silence. It is okay if silence creates discomfort at first.

·         Everybody has the answers they need in the silence of their heart and body. Giving each other the space to find them is a gift.

·         In silence, we focus on the energy we are experiencing in our bodies and the circle.

·         We listen to our bodies for cues, not our minds.

·         We take our turn to speak when we feel a cue to do so. And, we stop sharing when we feel we have said all we wish to say.

·         You are not obligated to come each week. However, the circle will be there for whoever is meant to be there.

After the practice is over, the video call circles can decide to continue chatting. However, when listening circles meet in person, they can continue to share in conversation. You will notice that with the rewiring of the brain, you will become better listeners and conversationalists. Researchers say it takes eight weeks for new neural pathways to show up in the brain scans. So in time, your brain will adjust and be more aware with less judgment. 

I See You

"I see you is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful and powerful phrases of the movie Avatar.

I see you being deep inside you where your soul dwells.

I see you without judging you, without accusing you of welcoming everything.

I see you without expecting anything from you because my expectations and projections could damage you and mask your deep identity.

I see you in all your dimensions and rich in all your experiences.

I see you because I already know that you are a complete and perfect being.

I see you, it's my way of welcoming you unconditionally, and that's how I allow you to see yourself and welcome you just the way you are.

I see you!"---Geraldine Amelin

QiQong Breath

 Breath QiQong (energy qi and work qong)

We will start each class after the first one with Breathing of the Universe. Breath is our superpower and this will help us remember to focus on our breath and use it.

Spring Forest Qigong: 

Breathing of the Universe

“This exercise heals the lungs and skin and balances the energy inside and outside of the body. During this exercise, the movement of your hands combined with the breathing technique helps to open blockages in the whole body especially the lungs.” –Master Chunyi Lin

As you practice:

Try to feel the energy as it expands in the space between your hands as you open them and then compress when you close them.

•    Your hands do not touch

•    Always keep a space between the body, hands, and between the hands.

•    Always keep your fingers open.

•    Gently rest your tongue against the roof of your mouth.

Wear a smile.

·         Begin with both hands facing each other in front of your body waist high.

·         Inhale and as you inhale move your hands open to the sides.

·         Exhale as you close your hands.

·         While you inhale visualize the pure energy flowing into your body.

·         While you exhale visualize any sickness or pain turning into smoke and shooting out of your body to the end of the universe.

Reference: Master Chunyi Lin. SFQ—LEVEL ONE For Health.  www.springforestqigong.com

Using Qigong energy activities:

“Even if you’ve never heard the word ‘Qigong’ before, you have been doing it all your life, you may have just not realized it.”

Qigong means “working with energy.” It does not mean “doing your qigong exercises and meditations.”

That’s a limited view of Qigong. You can do Qigong anywhere, anytime, all day long. you can bring your qigong practice into every moment, not just by doing movements and meditations.

How about this?

When you go grocery shopping, try to smile with love every time someone makes eye contact with you.

Smiling opens your heart, and it helps to open the heart of the other person.

The love you share this way is the most powerful healing energy, and smiling releases endorphins in your own body – which help you heal. What do you think happens when you keep doing that?

When you are standing in line, sitting in traffic, or sitting at home, practice energy breathing.

That means visualizing healing energy entering every pore of your skin, running between all your cells, and gathering deep behind your navel when you breathe in, then visualizing any pain or sickness leaving the body as smoke – out through the pores, going to the ends of the sky.

This breathing is a foundation of Spring Forest Qigong, and you can do it anytime, anywhere, with no physical effort.

Before you leave the house every morning or go to bed every night, take a few seconds to close your eyes and give thanks for ten things in your life.

They can be as simple as, “I am thankful I have food today” or “I am thankful for a chance to have a better day today.”

Gratitude helps the kidney's energy, which is the body’s vitality.

The more you can support the kidney energy, the faster you can heal, and the more energy you will have to do everything you like.

Mindful Eating Exercise

 Mindful Eating Exercise

“In this food I see clearly the presence of the entire universe supporting my existence.” Thich Nhat Hanh

When we look at the vegetables, we see the sunshine, rain, earth, and a lot of hard-loving work. Mindfully eating means eating with attention and awareness (attending and befriending food). Mindful eating is being present, moment by moment, for each sensation that happens during eating, such as smelling, seeing, chewing, tasting, and swallowing. When we try to practice mindfulness our minds easily wander off into the chattering mind. The same happens when we eat mindfully. It is important to remember not to judge yourself when you notice your mind drifting off. Instead, just keep returning to the awareness of smell, color, texture, taste, chew, bite or swallow. 

You will need one small piece of food—chocolate, grapes, a slice of apple, orange section etc.

1. Take one bite of an apple slice and then close your eyes. Wait to begin chewing.

2. Notice all the body sensations, taste, texture, temperature, and sensation
   that is going on in your mouth.

3.  Begin chewing now. Chew slowly, just noticing all the sensations of chewing.

4.  It's normal that your mind will want to wander off. When your mind starts to wander off, do not judge yourself or focus on it, just come back to the body sensations of chewing.

5. In these moments you may find yourself wanting to swallow the apple. See if you can
   stay present to that sensation without needing to change it, deny it, or even swallow. Just stay with the chewing and the awareness of body sensations.

6. Now swallow the apple, and try to follow the body sensations of the apple moving toward the back of your tongue and into your throat. 

7. Swallow the apple, following it until you can no longer feel any sensation of the food remaining.

8. Become aware of any body sensations or thoughts about wanting to eat another slice. 

9. Eat another slice of the apple following the same steps.

10. Continue using the same mindfulness of eating until the apple is gone. 

Creating a Meaningful Life in Retirement

Retirement presents the opportunity for a reset on how we wish to spend our time. Aging with mindfulness is a way to make the most of the upcoming years through awareness and focus on what matters most to us. We need to know our interests and values to avoid spending this precious time in life in extended boredom or distracted by participating in activities just to stay busy. This is an exercise to help you find activities that align with what matters most to you.

When we know what matters to us, we can use it as a filter for deciding activities and how we want to spend our time. We can find what we love. We find what inspires and builds passion. We can make the most of this time as an opportunity to reset our rhythm and routine for living the rest of our lives.  

Remember there is no right way or wrong purpose. Be free to pick what truly matters most to you.

How do you want to spend your time? What aligns with what matters most to you?

1.      Adventure: Activities that are exciting and stimulating like traveling to faraway places or trying something wildly new.

2.      Activism: Working for political and social change.

a.       Service in the form of giving time, or money to make a difference.

b.      Inclusiveness as a way to challenge inequality and discrimination.

c.       Promoting justice through fair and equitable treatment for all.

d.      Sharing love with all living creatures with warmth, affection, and emotional closeness.

3.      Beauty and magic: Magic is to renew a sense of wonder at the miracles and paradoxes of evolution and the ever-changing diversity of life. Seek environments where you can observe beauty and awe.

4.      Education: Working to acquire information and skills through education.

a.       Value experiences that promote growth and improving self.

b.      Spirituality retreats and events to deepen your soul.

5.      Environment: Activities reflecting your desire to protect and care for all living things.

6.      Family: Promote the happiness, health, and wellbeing of all your family members.

7.      Fun: Engage in activities that bring more joy.

8.      Health: Engage in learning and living in ways that promote overall wellbeing.

9.      Simplicity: Engage in ways to simplify life.

10.  Social Connections: Prioritize close and ongoing relationships with others.

11.  Solitude: Prioritize time to be alone with activities you do alone. 

Pain is Inevitable, suffering is optional

 Mindfulness and Pain Management

“Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.” –Haruki Murakami

Because mindfulness is awareness without judgment, we can use it to focus on our mind and body when we are experiencing pain sensations. Because words have power, it is suggested we do not use the word pain to describe difficult body sensations. Statements like, “This pain will never go away, or this hip is ruining my life, or I can’t cope with this pain any longer,” are stories that can amplify the pain. When can replace them with “pain is inevitable, suffering is optional,” a phrase Diana Winston, Director of Mindfulness Education at MARC uses. She has many free mindfulness-guided meditations online if you Google her name. The Buddhist tradition teaches pain is inevitable for everybody alive. We have choices in how we deal with pain. Dealing with chronic pain through mindfulness has been the focus of Jon-Kabat Zinn. He also has many books you can find online.

Our body is incredibly resilient and can adapt to difficult sensations. We may not like them, but we can adapt when we realize our body asks us to pay attention. Because we often ignore these signals to take care of ourselves, our body must get louder in its cry for help. A common mistake many of us make is to hold our breath or tighten and hold on to pain. While focusing on pain seems totally counterintuitive, mindfulness teaches us what we focus on often changes, and by breathing into the pain and paying attention to it, it will change. I will share directions for two ways of managing pain. One is from Diana Winston and the other, is from Tim Desmond.

Diana Winston

You can find this exercise for working with pain online. It is about 20 minutes long. The steps are as follows:

1.     Grounding – feet on the ground, arms relaxed on your lap or beside you, eyes closed or looking downwards, take a few breaths to relax your body. Notice I don’t say deep breaths; deep breathing can make you feel dizzy or light-headed and is not helpful.

2.     Body scan – explore your body with your attention, noting as you progress from your head to your toes any points of tightness, tingling, or other sensation.  Pay attention without judgment as your attention moves over your body.

3.     Focus on a relaxed part of your body – find a place in your body, a place that feels secure, relaxed, at peace, and pain-free.  Rest for a time in this relaxed part of your body. Allow the sensation of peace and calm to spread through your body.

4.     Focus on your pain – focus on the part of your body where you are experiencing discomfort. Feel the sensation and notice any negative thinking you have developed around the pain and say cancel, cancel. Repeat an affirmation like, “I love my body, or you love the body part that is uncomfortable.”

5.     Now gently bring your attention to the relaxed part of your body – experience the comfort and restfulness here.

6.     Continue to take mindful breaths and gently go back to the uncomfortable part of your body.

7.     Go back to the comfortable part of your body.

8.     After a time of mindful breathing and going back and forth between the comfortable and uncomfortable parts of your body, resume your daily activity.

Tim Desmond

This is a Mindfulness practice developed by Tim Desmond, L.M.F.T. Its purpose is to learn how to be aware of body sensations that are uncomfortable, without judgment and without trying to change them. Often you will find what you focus on does change and especially if you listen to what your body is attempting to tell you. When we listen to our bodies, they do not have to scream at us with pain for long. You can use this practice when you are experiencing discomfort. You will also notice that in time you will become more aware of your body’s messages and begin to take better care of it. 

Take a minute now to experience something in your body. It can be hunger, tiredness, something that is too tight like a shoe or clothing, pain someplace, or tension in your body in your neck, shoulders, or back. It could be your stomach feeling too full, too empty, or upset. 

With your eyes open or closed, connect with the sensation in your body; put all your attention on the sensation.

• Allow it to be just as it is. Do not try to fix it, change it, deny it, or judge it.
• Notice what happens when you put your full attention on that sensation. 
• What we put our attention on changes. 
• There is no right or wrong change. Just notice the change.

Try to ask the sensation:

• How are you attempting to help? 
• What do you need me to hear?
• What do you need?
• What is your job?

Non-judgmental awareness and learning to listen to your body will bring a whole-body sense of wellbeing. 

• Can you show compassion and empathy for the sensation? 
• Can you show compassion and empathy to your body?

The purpose of both practices is to change your relationship with uncomfortable body sensations. Pain is a part of life. It does not have to rule our life. Suffering is not inevitable, we do it to ourselves by allowing our mind to tell stories of negativity. Again, awareness gives us the power to know when we are holding on to pain through negative thinking and how to let go. When we set the intention to listen and connect with all our body, we are rewiring and re-training our body’s response to discomfort. We learn to manage pain so as not to suffer. 

A Short Lesson in Neuroscience

 A Short Lesson in Neuroscience

 

Today researchers study the brain through MRI technology. Until now, we could only research the brain after death; therefore, we believed our brains do not change after age twelve, and there is little change in a person’s personality after age five. However, today we know that we can rewire the brain for continuous change promoting healing, growth, and great wellbeing. The research of Richard Davidson led to coining the word, Neuroplasticity. A short lesson in neuroscience will help us understand how mindfulness changes our brain. These changes show up in MRI technology.

Prefrontal Cortex is the location of our executive functions. These functions include concentration, focus, impulse control, digestion, emotional regulation, decision making, and reasoning.

Limbic System is also known as our primitive brain. When we are functioning out of the limbic system, the only goal is survival. The limbic system triggers the fight-flight or freeze chemicals.

The Hippocampus is part of the limbic system and is responsible for storing and retrieving memories and the emotions attached to those memories. When it is damaged, people have difficulty regulating fear and anger responses. In addition, many studies have found that the hippocampus decreases in size when exposed to long-term stress or trauma.

The amygdala decides which part of our brain dominates in various situations. For example, it determines what is needed by how we are breathing. If it believes we are in grave danger, it will go into a primitive brain reaction called fight-flight or freeze. On the other hand, when we breathe calmy, there is no need to have the primitive brain in control, and we have access to our executive functions. Thus, breath is an important tool for relaxation and clarity. When exposed to long-term stress or trauma, the amygdala thickens and becomes more reactive to stress, creating “false alarm” emotional signals. So, the fight or flight reaction of the primitive brain becomes overactive. These are changes in the brain making the symptoms of PTSD and other anxiety-related disorders. Mindfulness is the treatment of choice by the V.A. and many other health care providers. Through breath, mindfulness teaches us how to remain calm and live from our executive functions.

Neuroplasticity is a term coined by Richard Davidson of UW-Madison. It describes the ability of the brain to make changes as a way of healing. Listed below are changes created in the brain when you silently observe without judgment.

·       Increase gray matter in the hippocampus—thus emotional healing of trauma reactions.

·       Decreases the gray matter in the amygdala, thus allowing it to be less reactive to stress and threats. 

·       Mindfulness provides mental training. You practice observing your thoughts, feelings, and sensations moment by moment with nonjudgment, viewing them simply as what they are, thoughts, feelings, and body sensations.

 Neuron’s process and transmit information through electrical and chemical signals.

Synapses are the small gaps between neurons that allow information to pass from one neuron to the next.

Neural Pathways connect relatively distant brain or nervous system areas with a belief system or new behavior.

·       Every time we think, feel, or do something, we strengthen a pathway.

·       Habits are well-traveled pathways.  We can form new habits with repetition and practice.

·       Old pathways used less will weaken. 

·       With repeated and direct attention towards the desired change, we all can rewire our brains. 

Pleasure and Reward Centers are where the brain is wired to seek pleasure and reward; it believes they are essential for survival.

·       The reward pathways are activated when the brain floods with dopamine (the feel-good neurotransmitter). 

·       The pleasure and reward system activates with a pleasurable behavior or substance is consumed. It floods with dopamine, and the hippocampus remembers the pleasure and the good feelings receiving an immediate sense of satisfaction. 

·       The faster and more intense the feeling of pleasure the more it becomes addictive. When it becomes an addiction, the object can release two to ten times the amount of dopamine to the reward system, and it does so more quickly until tolerance develops.  

Tolerance is a condition where more and more of the substance is needed to create the original high. Once tolerance begins, it produces withdrawal symptoms when it is not there because the body believes the substance is required to survive.

Dopamine is released when we anticipate and give in to our cravings and addictions.

Opioids are also neurotransmitters. T

·       They promote more long-term rewards like wellbeing for accomplishing intentions.

·       Opioids are related to social contacts and when released creates good feeling that enhance bonding.

·       Rewiring the brain takes place by changing our thinking, beliefs, and behaviors. Meditation gives us the ability to be the observer creating more regulation of our lives. 

·       The brain can restructure itself in a way to bring more happiness and wellbeing. 

·       We can change old habits by not participating in past behaviors, so the pathway diminishes. 

·       Rewire also takes time and practices, so be patient with yourself. 

·       Celebrate small steps in the direction you are going. 

The neurology of self-compassion is studied by neuroscientist through studies they conduct to find how self-compassion affects the brain. They discovered how self-compassion strengthens the parts of the brain that makes us feel happier, more resilient, and open to others. In addition, it provides comfort for negative emotions in the present and can permanently heal painful memories from the past. In Lesson Two, we share practices and more tips on healing past emotional wounds with compassion.

Panksepp & Biven published a book in 2012, The Archaeology of the Mind, demonstrating how the practice of self-compassion recruits’ neural pathways to produce oxytocin and endogenous opioids. These are chemicals that promote bonding and act to comfort negative emotions and reduce distress