Reflection Paper 3 In this paper, I will describe my initial thoughts about the practice of mindfulness and my development regarding practicing it. Furthermore, I will explore the idea of being a mindful therapist and how I am hoping to apply this with patients in the future. Before taking the class, and before really understanding the benefits of mindfulness, I must admit, I did not really take mindfulness exercises seriously. I tried a few exercises, led by a phone application, but I constantly wondered what these exercises were supposed to achieve. I always thought to myself, “I know what happens around me, being mindful is great, but specific exercises for this seemed exaggerated.” However, after hearing the inmates at my practicum site talking about the benefits of their mindfulness group, and once I had started the mindfulness class, I discovered the meaning and purpose of mindfulness exercises. The mindfulness exercises, specifically the ones that I could practice in everyday life at any time, made me notice the difference between perceiving my surroundings and mindfully perceiving it. I practiced the different mindfulness exercises I already knew and learned some more in class, and found that there are indeed many things in my stressful and hectic everyday life that simply remain unrecognized. For example, the weather on my drive from practicum or school might be wonderful, but I do not notice it because I am thinking of other appointments and chores I have to
Teaching mindfulness might be thought to be simple, but in real sense it’s actually not easy to do effectively because one must first
Effective mindfulness meditation requires training and practice and it has distinct measurable effects on our subjective experiences, our behavior, and our brain
The prolific success rates of mindfulness-based therapeutic techniques among the body of evidence only highlights how we can further incorporate mindfulness into not only psychological treatments, but also into our daily lives as preventative measures against unnecessary distress. The cognitive perceptual and interpretive control afforded via mindfulness practices seems to influence the appraisal of the situation at hand affects our reaction and response to it. The advantageous ability to objectively reflect on an issue before responding is not confined only to the realm of treating psychological symptoms.
Mindfulness is another way of meditation. Meditation was used to seek to improve one’s psychological or physical health, or spiritual growth. (Brantley, 2007). The history of Mindfulness comes from Buddhism and his search for enlightenment and a foundation of the four noble truths. The Buddha teaching focus on the four noble truths which consist of knowing suffering exists, there is a cause of suffering, there is cessation of suffering and there is a path that leads to the cessation of suffering. (Van Gordon, 2015). The four noble truths were not only there to represent the Buddha’s experiential understanding of suffering, but also to express the truth (Van Gordon, 2015). Studies of Buddhism and the Four Noble Truths teach us that there is always going to be suffering in our life but to find ways to overcome suffering (Tsering, 2005).
When I think of mindfulness I contemplate of ones empathetic to interpret a situation. For two weeks every night before I went to bed, I wrote down three items I was grateful for. Some of the words were “Health”,” Family”,” Friends”,” Food”, and” Childhood”. This list goes on, what I grasped is whatever I did that day predisposed what I wrote down. On days I lifted I would appreciate my health, when I went away with my family I recognized how much I appreciated my family, when I was home for a day I realized how much I adored my bed. The new custom I obtained made me appreciate how indebted I am in my life to points I didn’t fathom before. This taught me to feel empathy for people who can’t say the same good things as me which gave me very good insight on to be grateful for the life I have.
This paper is about my experience with mindfulness based meditation and scientific inquiry of these experiences. Mindfulness based meditation is describes as technique used to cultivate nonreactive, non-judgmental and stable awareness of the present moment (Garland and Gaylord, 2009). The end goal is to sustain this meta-cognitive state for a long period of time. I practiced non-denominational form of mindfulness based meditation for the first time in my psychology class, which was devoted towards intellectual and experiential examination of meditation. The practice was conducted in a group it was instructed by our own professor and it begun at the end of class. There was one sessions per week and each session was structured meaning it was
Lissa Balisson came into class to discuss the significance of mindfulness. She described mindfulness as being in tune with yourself, but most importantly being in the present. One of the benefits being presently mindful and aware was to lessen the likelihood of being turbulent and agitated throughout the day. Often, we do things without thinking much about it, and we lose appreciation of the experience.
The book provides the basis for establishing mindfulness programs in our classrooms, as well as providing simple exercises that can be used to improve educational outcomes. Students that receive and practice mindfulness outperform their
This source provides a description of the pedagogical revolution that is occurring in our universities regarding mindfulness. University curriculums are now being implemented with mindfulness. This will for a greater dissemination of mindfulness and I want to discuss this specifically in my
Mindfulness is an incredible skill, it is a practice that is taking the world by storm and helping more and more people live in their present.
Meditation is something that, prior to this semester, I had never experienced. I wanted to incorporate it into my self-care plan because I struggle with stress management and pessimism. Negative thoughts and feelings will sometimes get the best of me; meditation seemed like a good habit to create in order to control and manage my stress and cynicism. Meditation was difficult at first, but the more I practiced it the easier it became. It assisted me in processing my feelings and thoughts, more importantly it led me to insights about myself. It helped me to understand how I function and areas where I need to improve. For example, I never processed my fear surrounding death; meditation assisted me in recognizing that my fear stems not from my facing my own mortality, but rather from the prospect of losing my son or husband. Nothing scares me more than losing them in any form, and death is a form of loss. Meditation also assisted me in recognizing areas where I have improved, but previously did not observe (e.g. my view of alcoholism has drastically changed and for the better). Finally, meditation helped me to process some extremely intense negative emotions unrelated to the course (having learned to meditate could not have happened at a more necessary time). Meditation was by far the most useful self-care activity for me; it is one habit I plan to cultivate and utilize throughout my
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Mindfulness has slowly crept into modern day America and has become commonly thought as unattached from its Buddhist origin. In order to attract customers and adherents, writers and teachers of mindfulness separated it from Buddhism. Secular practitioners still benefit from mindfulness, not as a religious meditative ritual, but as a concentration and thinking technique that can improve their wellbeing and efficiency. Even if mindfulness is used as an improved thinking tool and health practice, it remains linked to the Buddhist religion and ideals, and a clear ignorance of that relationship is wrong no matter the benefits. The appropriation of mindfulness into secular America also definitely waters down core Buddhist principles such as the
Mindfulness can be described as the physiological approach of a person bringing his or her attention on the internal and external occurrences taking place in the present moment. It is usually the situation where a person is conscious of what is happening in their surrounding and environment (Schonert-Reichl and Roeser, 2016). Many mindfulness approaches and theories which have been developed mainly from Buddhist psychology have revealed that mindfulness is one of the most remarkable ways that help in the practice and study of mental health. Mindfulness is one of the best ways that may help people to enjoy good health and wellness across their lifespan.
I found it interesting that one of the purposes of this study was to determine if training teachers is necessary for implementing mindfulness curriculum and activities. It was determined that it was not necessary for a formal training on mindfulness techniques in order for it to be successfully used within the classroom. As a certified teacher, I have not received any formal training on mindfulness or mindfulness curriculum. However, after doing research on strategies and ways to implement mindfulness, I was able to successfully implement strategies in my classroom.