Mindfulness and Other Mind Games

I'm trying real hard to keep my mind off of my issues. I am trying to learn and practice Mindfulness. I have read about it on Mindful.org, and i have an app on my phone, I'm sure many here have heard of it, called Headspace. The app has multiple "packs" or series of 10-15 minute sessions of guided Mindful meditation.

I'm half way through (16 of 30 sessions) a pack titled "Managing Anxiety". I'm doing 10-15 minutes a day.
I don't feel like I'm getting it. I'm good while i am doing the session. But otherwise, i am sort of not so good, more often than not. Just a knot in my stomach and this BS is always in the back, sometimes the front, of my mind.

Just curious, anyone who practices Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, (MSBR) have any tips/pointers?

And what else do you do if you are a naturally anxious person, to help you just move forward and enjoy life. (besides meds).

Pratoman said...
I'm trying real hard to keep my mind off of my issues

I wanted to add that this is the opposite of mindfulness. The idea is to be aware of your thoughts and feelings right away. You don't avoid them (they'll keep coming back if you do), instead, you experience them deeply as they pop into your mind. I'm also kind to myself and keep a sense of humor about it "oh, that again." When I've done all I can in thinking and feeling it - I just let it go on its own (knowing it will probably come back).

I would compare it to grieving for the death of someone you love. The best way is through the pain, rather than avoiding it - crying, going to the funeral, talking about him or her with others, looking at photos, etc. Somehow, feeling the pain as it happens gets one through it more quickly, whereas avoiding thinking and feeling the pain makes it last longer.

"I don't feel like I'm getting it."
Thats 100% perfectly normal, part of you thinks this is ridiculous, I feel like a moron!!

What helped me was when I was very tried, just before bed, or 1/2 awake. I'm not familiar with Mindful.org but there are plenty of free ones on the internet. I like the ocean or flute sounds, or nothing at all. Also many people dislike Wayne Dyer but this REALLY helped me "get it", just one time is enough. -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KADc4U2rng0
Then one day something happens and you miss it if you skip. Also you may find when someone argues about RCT's, you no longer care, OR, you find its time for another session.

I highly recommend group practice because of the commitment involved. Almost every city has Mindfulness classes if you google it. Jon Kabat-Zinn popularized it - if you google his name, there will be meditations you can download.

Thanks everyone for the comments. Very helpful.

TA - your comments are very much aligned with the comments of Andy Puddicome, who is also a mindfulness guru, and who owns the Headspace app, and website. And those are comments he makes in the guided meditations themselves.

The thing is, at the end of a week of sessions or sometimes at the end of a session itself, he will give suggestions, or what i call "homework". like "today, as you go through your day, pay attention when you change postures. When you go from a sitting to standing position, take note, and move on" or today, when you are anxious, take note, decide if its thinking or feeling, and let it go"

Its the actions during the course of the day, that i have trouble with, i dont remember to do those things. But it sounds like i just need to keep doing the 15 minutes a day, and think about it less. wi

I will look for a class. I wonder how being on HT will affect my ability to absorb it all, but i am guessing there is probably a class given at MSKCC, which i will look into

Mindfullness has been around for milleniums…. a silly rebirth of many ways leading back...acknowledge the past...then move on.....

I've haven't tried that mindfulness approach. As described it appears to be labor intensive. Years ago I read Maxwell Maltz best seller Psycho Cybernetics. I tried his 21 day plan. It failed. So I'm jaded.

I freaked out when my pathologist reported EPE and close margins. I was a basket case for a week or two before each post-op PSA test. Waiting 3 days for the results was pure torture. So I concocted my own psych defense program. I simply capitulated. I assumed that BCR was inevitable. It might sound crazy but rather than fight it I embraced it. Presto! 1000 pounds came off my shoulders. Today I don't stress out. My PSA remains at low detectable levels on one assay and undetectable on the other. When I do BCR will I lose it? No. I anticipate it. And I already have a predetermined treatment plan once it happens. One step at a time. Now the disease doesn't control my life anymore. I fixed my own problem.

Bob, Joe and Harry are all different. What works for one won't necessarily work for the others. 'nosce te ipsum'.

On a long enough timeline the survival rate for all of us drops to zero. Now if I can only fool myself into believing that I'll live forever.

Who said being human was easy?

I've found Echart Tolle's "The Power of Now" helpful in learning to live in the present moment. Also found Stoic philosophy (deleted) teaches to accept the difficulties life sometimes delivers. Probably not many here would be too interested but "Meditations" written over 2000 years ago by Marcus Aurelius has a lot of relevance today.

Post Edited By Moderator (Pratoman) : 8/12/2018 7:52:25 AM (GMT-6)

Dreamerboy said...
I've found Echart Tolle's "The Power of Now" helpful in learning to live in the present moment. Also found Stoic philosophy (which some have termed "the Buddhism of the west") teaches to accept the difficulties life sometimes delivers. Probably not many here would be too interested but "Meditations" written over 2000 years ago by Marcus Aurelius has a lot of relevance today.

this and what logo said is what works best in my life. For some reason or another....all the classes and books and "feeling what you're feeling" doesn't help me. Never has for me. I don't know what it is. It's something to do with me trying to do it in a way that I'm thinking to myself...."Am I doing this right?"...and find myself concentrating on...."concentrating on".... doing it. The trick (ery) for me is....I think...

….and I really cannot say what it is on this site....so I will put it into quotations and you can take it from there....."Mantras" do help me. It's like "asking for" ice cream....*humbly* asking for ice cream lol what can I change? what can I not? but instead of asking for ice cream....I'm asking for wisdom to know the difference in what I can change and what I cannnot change. when I do this....it's becoming into the moment of now....into now....into "reality" of "right now" and "right now" I *can think clearly* that there is NOTHING that is threatening me....not now...not right now.

(I don't know if that'll pass muster or not) if not...just delete it.

I guess I'm just old fashioned, more so each year. Though I had a period of my life(many years) where I was dedicated to meditation- as taught to me by the(of Beatles' fame) Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's(not related to the bear) people in the mid 70s, and in later years was into self hypnosis( took hypnosis for anesthesia continuing education classes and had some surprising success hypnotizing other people), I later left all that behind deciding (deleted - due to reference to religion)

Post Edited By Moderator (Pratoman) : 8/12/2018 7:53:43 AM (GMT-6)

Pratoman said...
I’m thinking maybe I up the mindfulness sessions to twice a day, if one is trying to learn new habits, the more one practices, it stands to reason the more habitual the practice becomes. Im going to stick with what I’m doing.

Sticking with it is very sensible, Ken. In many aspects of my life, most of the time when something didn't work out it's because I didn't stick with it. Careful about doing too much, though. As we tell those newly cut and impatient to regain continence, don't overdo the kegels. Don't overkegel your brain, please.

Geez, I must be doing something wrong sure don't have the time to worry about my brain, put on 3500 miles so far this week looking for a different airplane after my other one was destroyed. My wife says aren't you gonna stay home and get some sleep I told her plenty of time to sleep after I die right now I got lots of living to do! Right now I'm waiting for her to get up so we can go look at another plane in Wisconsin. Well everyone have a great weekend gotta go walk the dog! Now that's real brain therapy watching your stupid mutt run and try to catch birds and squirrels on the trail. She has 3 things that are important to her playing, pooping and eating. Now that's living!! LOL

Larry

This thread gets better by the minute. Denis, take me with you! I desperately want sensory deprivation!!

Larry, dogs are definitely GFYPH. We added a rescue puppy to our household — two other dogs, one 9 years, one 3 — in late May, indescribable happiness. Ma sam tua — Thai for “three dogs” — that’s my ideal. We lost one to old age last summer, I’m so happy to be back up to three! Hate to say it, but playing pooping and eating are my priorities, too.