The art of mindful Living.

[mirry]

I know ive posted about mindfulness before but today I recieved in the post a CD called "THE ART OF MINDFUL LIVING"
its by Thich Nhat Hanh.
I am absolutely blown away by his words of wisdom about life.
How to bring Love ,compassion and inner peace into your daily life.

He talks about our breathing and our fears.....in great detail.
Being afraid of our future.

I CAN NOT RECOMMEND THIS CD ENOUGH FOR ANYONE WITH PANIC/ANXIETY , ITS MIND BLOWING !

mirryx

[jackie]

thanks fo rthe advice mirry, where do you get it from

jackie

[mirry]

Hi Jackie, I purchased it from AMAZON,

what i like about it is that he explains about the present moment/past and future and how we look at it.
He also tells us we can go back and change the past ! with our mind.
We can re-wire our mind and get rid of our fears with practising mindfulness.
My cbt recommended this cd to me and I can see why, I am now practising it and feel wonderful.

mirryx

[mirry]

forgot to mention, ive also ordered;

THE LONG ROAD TURNS TO JOY
(A GUIDE TO WALKING MEDITATION).
Also by Nhich.

Its a small pocket book which helps you keep calm whilst out walking, it reminds you how to breath and make yourself calm.



mirryx

[Piglet]

Yes I have read snippets of this from the reviews on Amazon.

A very down to earth version along these lines is a book by Shannon Duncan called Present moment awareness.

All really good stuff :D

Piglet x

"Supposing a tree fell down, Pooh, when we were underneath it?" said Piglet.
"Supposing it didn't," said Pooh after careful thought.

[mirry]

piglet , i like the meditation, really helpful when we have to think of ourself as a mountain when we breath in and strong as we breath out.

I will look out for that book, thanks.

mirryx

[Piglet]

Nice one - will try that!!

What about this one for simple meditation - imagine your thoughts are bubbles and let them just float up up and away and every time another thought wanders in, again it goes in bubble and floats away.

Love Piglet x

"Supposing a tree fell down, Pooh, when we were underneath it?" said Piglet.
"Supposing it didn't," said Pooh after careful thought.

[mirry]

piglet , thats what my therapist has told me about bubbles, he said label it as a emotion "anger" "fear" and just let it go up into the sky and away.
The idea is to not cling to your emotions, just let them go.

Must admit I am good at clinging lol, but not any more :D

mirryx

[Carla]

Mirry,

I just got this cd today. Have been dabbling in meditation on and off for a while but want to get more into it cause I know it will help with my anxiety/panic attacks.

I listened to part of the first cd this morning. Was just wondering whether you try and meditate while you're listening to it or whether you listen to it and then meditate seperately. I'm not really sure how to use it. I suppose it doesn't really matter as long as you get something out of it but was curious about how you use it.

Carla

[mirry]

Hi Carla, The art of mindful living is a cd to help train you in the way you think about life. Then with this understanding you will be able to start using it in your daily life.
I dont meditate using this cd because once you get the idea about mindful living you can use mindfulness anywhere or
If you do have some calming music to listen to whilst practising then you can sit and do your mindfulness.
But if you practise your breathing whilst using your mindfulness everyday you will find it gets easier to keep yourslf calm.

When doing your mindfulness if you get a thought that comes into your mind, label it as..... fear/anger/sadness or for what it is then come back to the present moment. The idea is to learn how to recognise our emotions
for what they are and then return to what is important
"the present moment"

Like it says you can use mindfulness in eating/talking /walking/hugging and everything else in your life, good luck i hope it helps you like its helping me and remember it takes a long time to master .

mirryx

[rubber]

hi mirry
would it be ok if you could share some techniques or exercises you have learnt from the art of mindful living. sounds interesting!

[mirry]

Hi Rubber,
I am still fairly new at this new way of living,
I must admit when i first listened to it i made a quick judgement
"they must be mad" but the more i listened the more i started to understand what they were saying........
Meditating mindfulness doesnt mean you sit there and let your mind go blank. It means what ever you are doing you focus on that thing,
eating a raisin or just your breathing in and out.
Its Your awareness of that present moment - the texture of the raisin/the way your tounge moves the raisin about your mouth to when you actually swallow the raisin,
whilst doing this if you get a thought cross your mind you must label that thought/emotion for what it is "FEAR" then you let go of that thought and return to the present moment (eating).
Anxiety sufferers cling to the thoughts/sensations they feel instead of letting them go like other people do, Mindfulness is training us to stay in the present moment and is recommended by CBT.
I have used it whilst out shopping with good results but the idea is if practised enough it will retrain the brain to think this way !
I have been told it can take a year but with dedication you will see great results.
I have now purchased another cd called
Mindfulness Meditation by Jon Kabat-Zinn
This cd is more for beginners and tells you in more depth what mindfulness is and how to do it. I purchased it from ebay for £8
and am very pleased with it .

mirryx

[rubber]

hi mirry
that sounds like a good technique, i like the sound of mindfulness ill have to check out that cd. thanks for replying

[theorangetree]

Hi

Cd sounds great - I'm having trouble locating it on Amazon though!

Paul

[mirry]

I know there are not alot of the cds about on ebay or amazon but they do turn up.

Ive just looked on ebay and there a couple here in the uk and then a few in the usa.
It has a green colour cover.

mirryx