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Mindfulness Based Harm Reduction Resources

Trainings to Cultivate Awareness of Experience in Real Time

Mindfulness is present moment awareness of what is going on in the mind and body as well as our immediate environment and world. Our lives are made up of present moment experiences, each tied to the next. Often we get caught up in how we have gotten to where we are today, in stories we create about our own personal narrative. Likewise, we often get caught up in thoughts of the future, stories about where we want to go or fear we might end up. Intentionally placing our awareness on the present moment forces us to become aware of these stories and to step out of them, into an objective monitoring of what we are directly experience: awareness of sensation (taste, touch, smell, sight and sound) and the conditioned mind (thoughts, feelings and awareness of our attention).

Generally we begin with a focus on the quality of our attention and relationship to present moment experience. We pay attention to physical sensations of the body and the way positive and difficult thoughts and feeling states are associated with them. Such as how an unpleasant physical sensation of pain may trigger feelings of aversion and leading to craving or fantasizing. We pay attention to how particular thoughts patterns and feelings states frame how we experience present moment experience. We intentionally work to cultivate wholesome, kind mind states that allow us to shape the quality of our attention and our relationship to thoughts and feeling states. We also work outwards, paying attention to how our relationships with others is effected by the way we direct and quality of our attention. The degree to which we are able to accomplish all this depends on the resources we invested in and quality of our practice, the degree to which we have trained ourselves to pay attention, focus and concentrate on whatever is at hand in the present moment.

Whoever we are, we all already pay attention to present moment experience in one way, shape or form, to one degree or another. The question is, how aware are we of how we relate to our experiences? We all share and posses the ability to become aware of our relationship to present moment experience. It is a basic, universal application of the human endowment. This ability seems to come easier to some rather than others, but even the busiest, most disorganized minds can learn to skillfully focus and cultivate their attention. Mindfulness is free to all. Our conditioning and motivations will differ, but the effort to begin a practice and planting seeds is all that is necessary begin cultivating mindfulness. Whatever motivates to cultivate a balanced, effortful practice is the right motivation for you.

Mindfulness in this context is largely composed of two interconnected forms of practice, metta and vipassana. Metta is the Pali word for lovingkindness or lovingfriendliness. Vipassana is the Pali word for insight meditation. Neither one is necessarily better or more significant than the other, they two sides of the same coin in practice. Both are equally necessary. By cultivating one we lay the foundations for cultivating the other.

When you boil down vipassana, you are left with exercises that cultivate an ability to focus and concentrate our attention. We can use the breath, body or sound to anchor us in present moment experience and keep us safe from drifting too far into the past or the future. Take the analogy of a ship's anchor for how we begin focusing on attention in practice: Though an anchored vessel may drift off from where it originally came to rest in a harbor, it can only move so far from where it is anchored.

We cannot stop our mind from thinking, but we can bring our attention back to our anchor once we recognize its focus has strayed. The vessel may drift off from where it came to rest, just as the mind may drift off into thought over and over again, but it will always return thanks to the chain connecting it to its anchor. Thanks to the anchor, the vessel does not become lost and drift out to sea. This is the purpose of choosing an object as an anchor in meditation practice.

Anchors are very important, because you will be continuously distracted by different stimuli throughout your practice. Whether past memories or future plans, such thoughts are inevitable. Particularly challenging mind states, such as aversion, craving, fantasizing, sloth and torpor, restlessness and doubt are also inevitable in practice, just as uncomfortable physical sensations are. Distraction and discomfort are generally a regular theme in one's mindfulness practice. The impulse of the reptilian part of our deepest brain, to avoid unpleasant sensation and seek out pleasant ones, is the ultimate Teacher. Anchors allow us to effectively bring our attention back to a focus on the rhythms of the present moment.

No matter how able or skilled in practice you become, there will always be new distractions and challenges to tackle and overcome. At first it may seem to be a curse, but soon you will understand this is in fact a blessing. We practice concentration because we expect to become distracted. Our mindfulness practice is like strength training, building up our ability engage in more skillful behavior.

Perhaps mindful awareness practice is primarily a course in the practice of resiliency. The wisdom of practice is in embracing our failure. Each success in practice is a temporary step leading us towards future opportunities in success and failure alike. Welcome failure, it will teach you a lot about success. The heart of any mindfulness practice is in the coming back to one's anchor. That moment when you "wake up" and realize you have drifted off into the past or planning for the future, let go of whatever thoughts led your attention astray and return to your anchor. It is normal for this process of waking up, letting go and bring the attention back to the anchor to repeat itself many times throughout a sitting. This is the essential dynamic of a mindful awareness meditation practice.

Choose one anchor for each meditation at its start, and stick to that one anchor lest you become confused. You will surely have more than enough distractions once you begin. You will eventually find that a certain anchor feels right for you, or for certain circumstances. For many, many reasons, it is recommended you begin with the breath as your anchor. However, if you find yourself drawn to a distracting experience of sound or physical sensation in the body, let that be your anchor for the practice session.

Everyone is able to develop a practice and hone their ability, it just requires dedication and certain a measure of determination. One of my teachers once defined “spirituality” as a desire to change, a lusting for something more - qualitatively more, not quantitatively. To be spiritual is to desire a better, more meaningful life, one worth living. What could be more significant or human?

Whenever in doubt be kind and gentle with yourself. Willingness and determination are important, but being kind and gentle with one's self and one's process is perhaps more so. These are skills cultivated by engaging with and participating in a spiritual life. What we are attempting to do with mindfulness is create conditions fertile for a healthy being to grow out of:

The idea that the environment shapes brain development is a very straightforward one, even if the details are immeasurably complex. Think of a kernel of wheat. No matter how genetically sound a seed may be, factors such as sunlight, soil quality, and irrigation must act on it properly if it is to germinate and grow into a healthy adult plant. Two identical seeds, cultivated under opposing conditions, would yield two different plants: one tall, robust, and fertile; the other stunted, wilted, and unproductive. The second plant is not diseased: it only lacked the conditions required to reach its full potential.
Thich Nhat Hanh
 
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Insight Meditation and Lovingkindness

The Pali term for insight meditation is vipassana bhavana. Bhavana comes from the root bhu, which means to grow or become. Therefore bhavana means to cultivate, and the word is always used in reference to the mind; bhavana means mental cultivation. Vipassana is derived from two roots. Passana means seeing or perceiving. Vi is a prefix with a complex set of connotations that can be roughly translated as "in a special way," and also "into and through a special way." The whole meaning of the word vipassana is looking into something with clarity and precision, seeing each component as distinct, and piercing all the way through to perceive the most fundamental reality of that thing. This process also leads to insight into the basic reality of whatever is being examined. Put these words together and vipassana bhavana mean the cultivation of the mind toward the aim of seeing in the special way that leads to insight and full understanding.
Bhante Gunaratana


Mindfulness of the breath is the foundational practice cultivating mindful awareness. Find your breath in your body wherever it is most obvious to you: usually in your abdomen, chest or nostrils. Feel the sensations of your breath in your body at the spot you’ve chosen. Notice one breath at a time, its beginning, middle and end. When one breath ends, notice if there is a pause before the next breath begins. Try to stay focused on rhythm of the breath, its comings and goings. Notice its speed and frequency, its shallowness or depth.

It is very ordinary for your attention to stray from its focus on the breath wander to other things. While this is not a bad thing, it may surprise you how hard we are on ourselves when a single pointed, focused attention on the breath proves difficult. It can be very frustrating! When this happens, you can label it as “thinking” or “wandering,” then gently return your attention back to your breathing. It is this letting go of thoughts and sensations which distract your attention and returning your focus back to the breath that is at the heart of cultivating mindful awareness. Keep practicing letting go and returning again and again, it will become second nature.

If it is difficult for you to focus on your breath, you may focus on another neutral object such as the points of contact of your body on the chair or cushion you are sitting on or the sounds around you. Our object of attention on the breath, physical sensation or sound our “anchor” or “home base.” Chose either the breath, physical sensation or sound as your single anchor for each sitting. For the mind easily distracted by intrusive thoughts, a structured formal breath counting exercise to cultivate concentration can be found in Vipassana Exercise 1.

Metta is the Pali word for lovingkindness or lovingfriendliness. The general instructions for a more formal lovingkindness practice are described in the Metta Exercise 1 and Metta Exercise 2.

A shorter, more accessible version that is at once very practical, more appropriate to beginning students, follows here and is easily tailored to focus, intention or mood.

"May I be safe," "may I be happy," "may I be healthy," "may I live with ease," - one of these is repeated over and over for the length of the meditation. It can be difficult to keep all those words in my head when I am meditating, so I sometimes find a single phrase such as "may I be peaceful" to be easier.

If you want to choose your own phrase(s), a word of advice: keep it short and simple. Choose a phrase or phrases that really resinate within you. It is hard enough when you're getting started with lovingkindness practice. In the beginning it often feels inauthentic, forced and fake. This will change as you continue to explore and develop your metta practice. Try not to make it needlessly complicated for yourself.

Vipassana and metta go hand in hand with one another. Focusing on one helps facilitate skills useful when working with the other. Many find it easier to get into our lovingkindness practice once they have gotten good at honing their concentration skills through breathing exercises. Others find it easier to gain more concentrated states of focus by beginning with cultivating a peaceful state of mind through lovingkindness practice.

Remember that you are practicing both insight meditation and lovingkindness for your own well being, not for someone else. The quality of your insight meditation and lovingkindness practices do not have much to do with the speed at which you develop them. Trying to do develop them faster than your natural ability allows for will only make doing so that much more challenging. Attempting to force the process will inevitably lead to feelings of frustration and such difficult feelings do not lend themselves to relaxed mind states or focused concentration. Your practice will develop organically, exactly as it should.

There are traditional ways and guides of exploring your practice, but there is no right or wrong way to practice or for your practice to develop. The way you meditate is the way you should be meditating. The most important thing is simply to put in the effort necessary to actually sit down on the chair or cushion and start practicing. There will always be room to grow and challenge yourself as you learn more about mindfulness and meditation. The world will always offer up great teachers for your practice when the shit hits the fan. Focus on beginners mind, staying close to the most basic elements with as little expectation as possible, if you want to truly deepen and hone your practice.

Developing insight meditation and lovingkindness is like building up a muscle. You don't start out for your first day at the gym and try to lift a 100lbs weight, you start with something more manageable like 10lbs. Eventually you'll work your way up to the heavier weight with practice and training, but you won't get anywhere if you try going for it right off the bat. Not only will you be unsuccessful lifting the heavier weight, you'll probably become discouraged enough to give up before reaching for a lighter, more appropriate one.
 
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Exercises to Cultivate Compassion

Instruction: Sit in a comfortable position, repeating each phrase in your mind, mouthing it silently if you wish, for 2 to 45 minutes depending on skill and familiarity. Remember, go easy on yourself. There is no rush, you have you whole life ahead of you.

May I be free of pain and sorrow. May I be well and happy.
May you be free of pain and sorrow. May you be well and happy.
May all beings be free of pain and sorrow. May all be well and happy.

May I be free of pain and sorrow. May I be well and happy.
May you be free of pain and sorrow. May you be well and happy.
May all beings be free of pain and sorrow. May all be well and happy.​
 
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Exercise to Cultivate Self Compassion

Instead of mercilessly judging and criticizing yourself for various inadequacies or shortcomings, self-compassion means you are kind and understanding when confronted with personal failings – after all, who ever said you were supposed to be perfect? You may try and change in ways that allow you to be healthier and happier, but this is done because you care about yourself, not because you are worthless or unacceptable as you are. Perhaps most importantly, having compassion for yourself means that you honor and accept your humanness. Things will not always go the way you want them to. You will encounter frustrations, losses will occur, you will make mistakes, bump up against your limitations, fall short of your ideals. This is the human condition, a reality shared by all of us. The ore you open your heart to this reality instead of constantly fighting against it, the more you will be able to feel compassion for yourself and all your fellow humans in the experience of life. -Kristin Neff, self-compassion researcher​

Self-compassion is that ability to be kind to ourselves in the face of life’s difficulties and our own shortcomings. We care for ourselves even when we mess up, aren’t perfect, and in spite of our failings. Self-compassion is comprised of mindfulness, self-directed lovingkindness, recognition of shared humanity and recognition of our inner goodness.

Self-compassion is practiced by using mindfulness to work with difficult thoughts and emotions that prevent us from being self-compassionate and that tell us we are unworthy. Lovingkindness, compassion practices are used to cultivate positive emotions toward ourselves. The self-compassion is the means by which we explore how we are not alone – the truth of our shared humanity and recognition of our inherent dignity and goodness.

Self-judgement comes to us through the media, culture, family and school. Most people tend to feel unworthy and act out from this place: addictions, trying to own, become, succeed, etc. Or it goes inward into anxiety, depression, and so on. Being self-judgmental and trying to change is different from being discerning and making a wise change.

Instruction: Sit in a comfortable position, repeating each phrase in your mind, mouthing it silently if you wish, for 2 to 45 minutes depending on skill and familiarity. Remember, go easy on yourself. There is no rush, you have you whole life ahead of you.

May I see myself as I am.
May I understand myself as I am.
May I trust in myself as I am.

May I open to my own goodness.
May I feel my own goodness.
May I trust in my own goodness.

May I love myself forever and always.​
 
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Lovingkindness Exercise 4: Sympathetic Joy

Sympathetic joy is an ideal antidote to jealousy and envy. Sympathetic joy is what you feel when you take refuge in another's successes and accomplishment. Sympathetic joy is a kind of vicarious joy - it is a kind of joy and ease you experience for and within yourself, but because of and through your relationship and connection to another's experience of joy. It's like taking pleasure in another taking pleasure, so to speak.

Sit in a comfortable position, repeating each phrase in your mind, mouthing it silently if you wish, for 2 to 45 minutes depending on skill and familiarity.
May good fortune fill all the days of all my possible lives.
May all the days of all the possible lives of [insert name] be filled with good fortune.​

Personally I prefer. . .

First bring to mind someone or something, be it a person, family pet or celestial figure, who's image produces within you genuine feelings of comfort, safety and connection. . .
May you learn to appreciate all that is good in you life.
May the goodness in my life continue to grow.
May I learn to hold my experience with kindness and gratitude.​

Bringing yourself to mind. . .
May I learn to appreciate all that is good in my life.
May the goodness in my life continue to grow.
May I learn to hold my experience with kindness and gratitude.​

Bringing your local community to mind. . .
May I learn to appreciate all that is good in my life.
May the goodness in my life continue to grow.
May I learn to hold my experience with kindness and gratitude.​

Bringing your global community to mind. . .
May I learn to appreciate all that is good in my life.
May the goodness in my life continue to grow.
May I learn to hold my experience with kindness and gratitude.​

Bringing the universe (or however you visualize the essence of all that exists) to mind. . .
May I learn to appreciate all that is good in my life.
May the goodness in my life continue to grow.
May I learn to hold my experience with kindness and gratitude.​
 
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Lovingkindness Exercise 4: Cultivating Equanimity

Instruction: Sit in a comfortable position, repeating each phrase in your mind, mouthing it silently if you wish, for 2 to 45 minutes depending on skill and familiarity. Remember, go easy on yourself. There is no rush, you have you whole life ahead of you.

Things are just as they are.
Things are impermanent.
Joy and sorrow arise and pass away.
I am the heir of my intentions and actions.
My joy and my sorrow depend upon my intentions and actions, not the intentions and actions of others for me.

Things are just as they are.
Things are impermanent.
Joy and sorrow arise and pass away.
All beings are the heirs of their own intentions and actions.
Your joy and your sorrow depend upon your intentions and actions, not upon my intentions and actions for you.
I care about you, but I cannot prevent you from suffering.​
 
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Forgiveness Exercise

Instruction: Sit in a comfortable position, repeating each phrase in your mind, mouthing it silently if you wish, for 2 to 45 minutes depending on skill and familiarity. Remember, go easy on yourself. There is no rush, you have you whole life ahead of you.

Close your eyes if you feel comfortable doing so. Before you get into the phrases, focus on you breath. Then bring you attention into your body grounded on the chair or cushion you are sitting on. Focus on the sensation of gravity holding your body down, the connection between the various points of your body contacting the ground, cushion or chair beneath you. Focusing on these grounding sensations.

May I open to my own goodness.
May I feel my own goodness.
May I trust in my own goodness.​

Begin visualizing yourself and someone you have harmed. Sone one you want to ask for forgiveness from. Do not pick the most difficult person possible, just someone you are struggling with regarding some harm you might have caused them.

Say the following phrases to yourself in your mind:

May I open to forgiveness.
May I felt forgiveness.
May I trust in forgiveness.​

After repeating those phrases from a few minutes, move back into you breath and your body. Ground yourself in your body again. Once you have become embodied again, move on to visualizing someone who has harmed you. Again, do not pick the most activating person or relationship. Chpose someone you want to work with and for whome the visual Arion is nothe abrasive feeling. Then repeat the following phrases in your mind for a few minutes:

May I open to forgiveness.
May I felt forgiveness.
May I trust in forgiveness.​

When your ready, move your attention back to your breath and body. After a few minutes of regrouping yourself again, bring to mind yourself. Reflect on an unskilled action, intention or relationship you have engaged in that has caused you harm. This can be the most difficult visualization, although it isn't always. Throughout these exercises, pay attention to which of the three visualizations brings out the most energetic, emotionally charged response and pay attention to how each affects your mood. Repeat the following phrases:

May I open to forgiveness.
May I felt forgiveness.
May I trust in forgiveness.​

Finally, move your attention back to your breath and your body, grounding yourself. If you feel particularly activated, take your palm and place it on your heart or the side or your neck. This will help you self regulate and calm yourself after the intensity of the exercise.
 
MBHR Mission

Mindfulness Based Harm Reduction seeks to:
  • Promote a better understanding of the experiences of people who use illegal drugs, and particularly of the destructive impact of current drug policies affecting drug users, as well as our non-using fellow-citizens.
  • Advocate for universal access to all the tools available to reduce the harm that people who use drugs face in their day-to-day lives, including,
    1. drug treatment, appropriate medical care for substance use,
    2. regulated access to the pharmaceutical quality drugs we need
    3. availability of safer consumption equipment, including syringes and pipes as well as facilities for their safe disposal,
    4. peer outreach and honest up-to-date information about drugs and all of their uses, including
    5. safe consumption facilities that are necessary for many of us.
  • Provide support to established local, national, regional, and international networks of people living with HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis and other harm reduction groups.
  • Value and respect diversity and recognize each other's different backgrounds, knowledge, skills and capabilities, and cultivate a safe and supportive environment within the network regardless of which drugs we use or how we use them.
  • Promote tolerance, cooperation and collaboration, fostering a culture of inclusion and active participation.
  • Promote democratic principles and creating a structure that promotes maximum participation in decision making.
  • Maximize inclusion with special focus to those who are disproportionately vulnerable to oppression on the basis of their gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, religion, etc.
 
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The Five Mindfulness Ethical Trainings

These ethical guidelines are not to be treated or thought of as an edict from on high as in some religions, but as a part of a direct lived experience. Work with them, be flexible, as a broader part of your own practice.


Knowing how deeply our lives intertwine,

  • I undertake the commitment to protect life, renouncing intentions to harm or kill others.

Knowing how deeply our lives intertwine,

  • I undertake the commitment to only take what is offered to me and not to steal or exploit others.

Knowing how deeply our lives intertwine,

  • I undertake the commitment to protect relationships and be wise with my sexuality, using my sexual energy only in wholesome (skillful) ways.

Knowing how deeply our lives intertwine,

  • I undertake the commitment to speak wisely, kindly and gently.

Knowing how deeply our lives intertwine,

  • I undertake the commitment to protect the clarity of my mind by being wise in what I consume and how I use intoxicants.

There is certainly a lack of moral guidelines in our consumer driven, primarily material focused culture, coupled with a glorification of unethical behavior. Religions have classically been the guide for moral behavior, but many people don’t follow these guidelines or are not religiously affiliated.

For this very reason, discussions of ethics are generally equated with discussion of morality, conflating the two subjects. Ethics are about action, how our actions affect one another and our world. Morality is about our values and beliefs, right and wrong, good and bad. Notice that whereas ethics are inherently relational, morality is not. Morality is a rather queer duckling, lending itself so easily to generalizing, normalization and the like.

Morality allows us, as independent, atomistic beings, to easily take our values and formulate a course of action that feels "good," "appropriate." Ethics, however, is concerned with the right, how what one person does affects another in terms of the duties and obligations they share amongst each other given their relationship. Ethics requires cooperation and consideration of all involved, whilst morality only concerns itself with whatever particular ends the owner is promoting that day.

In Buddhist Practice, which mindfulness grows out of, ethical behavior is just as important as meditation. Mindfulness meditation allows us to center and balance our mind-bodies in such a way that decreases the level of stress we are under. With less stress afflicting our thought processes, our ability to make sound decisions is improved. But ethics are not talked about explicitly so much in mindfulness classes devoted to stress reduction and emotional regulation, etc.

Non-harming and respect are the roots of ethical behavior in mindfulness. It should be fairly evident how by cultivating states of peacefulness and attitudes of non-harming we further decrease our overall level of stress, promoting more skillful decision making. We can observe our minds and mood when ethical questions arise in daily life:


  • What do we learn when we don’t follow these ethical guidelines? When we work with them, do we observe our sense of self arising; how do we experience the self arising?
  • How is life easier and less stressful when we are working on develop our ethical guidelines? Remember, no one is perfectly ethical, and to set a goal of adhering perfectly to any ethic is doomed from the start.
  • Do we recognize mistakes as teachings or does our conditioning lead us to treat them as something else?




Bellow you will find a more traditional Buddhist take on the five ethical trainings above. Notice the differences. While Thich That Hanh's version below is quite eloquent, full and beautiful, I find it to be a little too rigid or formal for my liking. I prefer their slightly more flexible version above to be more fitting given the state of Western/American culture.

Aware of the suffering caused by the destruction of life, I am committed to cultivating compassion and learning ways to protect the lives of people, animals, plants, and minerals. I am determined not to kill, not to let others kill, and not to condone any act of killing in the world, in my thinking, and in my way of life. Aware of the suffering caused by exploitation, social injustice, stealing, and oppression, I am committed to cultivating loving kindness and learning ways to work for the well-being of people, animals, plants, and minerals. I will practice generosity by sharing my time, energy, and material resources with those who are in real need. I am determined not to steal and not to possess anything that should belong to others. I will respect the property of others, but I will prevent others from profiting from human suffering or the suffering of other species on Earth. Aware of the suffering caused by sexual misconduct, I am committed to cultivating responsibility and learning ways to protect the safety and integrity of individuals, couples, families, and society. I am determined not to engage in sexual relations without love and a long-term commitment. To preserve the happiness of myself and others, I am determined to respect my commitments and the commitments of others. I will do everything in my power to protect children from sexual abuse and to prevent couples and families from being broken by sexual misconduct. Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful speech and the inability to listen to others, I am committed to cultivating loving speech and deep listening in order to bring joy and happiness to others and relive others of their suffering. Knowing that words can create happiness or suffering, I am determined to speak truthfully, with words that inspire self confidence, joy, and hope. I will not spread news that I do not know to be certain and will not criticize or condemn things of which I am not sure. I will refrain from uttering words that can cause division or discord, or that can cause the family or the community to break. I am determined to make all efforts to reconcile and resolve all conflicts, however small. Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful consumption, I am committed to cultivating good health, both physical and mental, for myself, my family, and my society by practicing mindful eating, drinking, and consuming. I will ingest only items that preserve peace, well-being, and joy in my body, in my consciousness, and in the collective body and consciousness of my family and society. I am determined not to use alcohol or any other intoxicant or to ingest foods or other items that contain toxins, such as certain TV programs, magazines, books, films, and conversations. I am aware that to damage my body or my consciousness with these poisons is to betray my ancestors, my parents, my society, and future generations. I will work to transform violence, fear, anger, and confusion in myself and in society by practicing a diet for myself and for society. I understand that a proper diet is crucial for self-transformation of society.
Thich Nhat Hanh

Please again note that these ethical guidelines represent ideals to strive for. There is nothing bad or wrong with you if you cannot live up or embody them perfectly. We are, after all, only human. What we are working with most of all is ways to see beyond dualistic labels like good and bad.
 
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Lovingkindness Exercise 2

Sit comfortably. Let your body relax and be at rest. As best you can, let your mind settle down, letting go of plans and preoccupations. Then begin reciting with your inner voice the following phrases in blue bellow directed at yourself. At the beginning of your meditation session, say the following sentences to yourself. Feel the intention:

May I be well, happy, and peaceful. May no harm come to me. May I always meet with spiritual success. May I also have patience, courage, understanding, and determination to meet and overcome inevitable difficulties, problems, and failures in life. May I always rise above them with morality, integrity, forgiveness, compassion, mindfulness, and wisdom.

May my parents be well, happy, and peaceful. May no harm come to them. May they meet with spiritual success. May they also have patience, courage, understanding, and determination to meet and overcome inevitable difficulties, problems, and failures in life. May they always rise above them with morality, integrity, forgiveness, compassion, mindfulness, and wisdom.

May my teachers be well, happy, and peaceful. May no harm come to them. May they meet with spiritual success. May they also have patience, courage, understanding, and determination to meet and overcome inevitable difficulties, problems, and failures in life. May they always rise above them with morality, integrity, forgiveness, compassion, mindfulness, and wisdom.

May my relatives be well, happy, and peaceful. May no harm come to them. May they meet with spiritual success. May they also have patience, courage, understanding, and determination to meet and overcome inevitable difficulties, problems, and failures in life. May they always rise above them with morality, integrity, forgiveness, compassion, mindfulness, and wisdom.

May my friends be well, happy, and peaceful. May no harm come to them. May they meet with spiritual success. May they also have patience, courage, understanding, and determination to meet and overcome inevitable difficulties, problems, and failures in life. May they always rise above them with morality, integrity, forgiveness, compassion, mindfulness, and wisdom.

May all indifferent persons be well, happy, and peaceful. May no harm come to them. May they meet with spiritual success. May they also have patience, courage, understanding, and determination to meet and overcome inevitable difficulties, problems, and failures in life. May they always rise above them with morality, integrity, forgiveness, compassion, mindfulness, and wisdom.

May all unfriendly persons be well, happy, and peaceful. May no harm come to them. May they meet with spiritual success. May they also have patience, courage, understanding, and determination to meet and overcome inevitable difficulties, problems, and failures in life. May they always rise above them with morality, integrity, forgiveness, compassion, mindfulness, and wisdom.

May all living beings be well, happy, and peaceful. May no harm come to them. May they meet with spiritual success. May they also have patience, courage, understanding, and determination to meet and overcome inevitable difficulties, problems, and failures in life. May they always rise above them with morality, integrity, forgiveness, compassion, mindfulness, and wisdom.
 
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Principles of Mindfulness-based Harm Reduction
Adapted from HRC's Principles of Harm Reduction and Mindfulness-based relapse prevention.

Mindfulness based harm reduction (MBHR) is a theraputic framework designed to promote meaningful, authentic development of individuals. The emphasis is on health, growth, authenticity and community. MBHR integrates best practices from the mindfulness based stress reduction (MBSR), mindfulness based relapse prevention (MBRP), and motivational interviewing approaches to therapy. Both physical spaces in the community and social media platforms online are utilized to accomplish positive treatment outcomes.

1. MBHR understands drug use and recovery as complex, multi-faceted phenomena encompassing a continuum of behaviors.
  • Drug use exists on a spectrum between mild recreational use and severe use disorder.
  • Effective treatments vary and range from abstinence-based programs to psychopharmacological therapies.
2. MBHR acknowledges that some behaviors and ways of using drugs are clearly safer than others.
  • According to each individual, some forms of treatment will be safer and more efficacious than others.
  • There is no one-size-fits-all approach to ameliorating the harms associated with drug use.
3. MBHR recognizes the disparate impact of poverty, class, racism, social isolation, trauma, sex-based discrimination and other social inequalities.
  • A drug policy that primarily approaches drug use through the systematic criminalization of drug using behavior promotes more, not less, drug related harm.
  • Drug policy's scare mongering, stigmatizing culture has a pervasive influence on the very communities working to treat substance use disorders.
4. MBHR affirms drug users themselves as the primary agents of reducing harm in their lives.
  • Through sharing information and supporting each other in strategies which meet the actual conditions of ongoing use and abstinence, both current and former drug users can work to empower one another to achieve their respective goals.
  • The immediate goals of current drug users and former drug users are often quite distinct, but they share far more in common than not given the shared history of drug use.
5. The priority of MBHR is present moment quality of life.
  • Quality of life for the individual is not dependent upon forced or inauthentic assimilation into the community, but depends on authentic integration.
  • The metric to determine treatment efficacy, according to the MBHR framework, is based on the availably of services within the community compared to the individual's use of said services. Abstinence itself is not enough.
6. MBHR is explicitly non-judgmental and non-coercive.
  • Considering the stigma, social isolation and cultural alienation attendant of addiction, the MBHR framework is used to facilitate safe therapeutic spaces for current drug users, those with a history of prior drug use and individuals who identify as in recovery.
  • This framework gives individuals the space to first discover and then develop their own authentic self, promoting a healthy, robust sense of self-determination, agency and autonomy as they work to create meaning in their lives.
7. MBHR does not supplant other treatment modalities such as cognitive-behavioral relapse prevention or 12-step programming and psychoeducation.
  • MBHR is most effective when used in conjunction with other such modalities.
  • MBHR does not attempt to minimize or ignore the real and tragic harm and danger associated with licit and illicit drug use.


Introduction to MBHR

If we are truly interested in reducing the harms related to substance use, the behavior and conditioning of substance users are of utmost importance.

Mindfulness brings a special kind of awareness to sensory experience. Openness, curiosity, and a willingness to be with whatever is typify mindful awareness.

When we practice mindfulness we direct our attention to the five traditionally recognized senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. When it comes to our awareness of emotion, feeling tone and mind state it is of great practical utility and leads to insight into our conditioning. Developing awareness of our conditioning allows us to engage in more skillful, wiser choices. This skillfulness allows us to lead more harmonious, healthier, joyous and secure personal and social lives.

When we engage in mindful awareness meditation practices, we cultivate the muscle of mindfulness. This muscle applies to all our senses. It helps us filter our perception. As the muscle develops, it allows us to distinguish more clearly between how our conditioning and mind states mediate our experience of sensation versus how stimuli activate our senses and direct our present moment experience.

As we attune to the experience of sensation we becoming more aware of how our thought patterns and feeling tones color the way we perceive sensation in each moment. Our ability to connect with present moment experience grows, becoming less impulsive and vulnerable to triggers and more relaxed, neutral, promoting insight and skillful action.

Through honing our ability to get in touch with what we see, taste, hear, touch and smell, we become better at connecting with and recognizing our mood state. This is important, especially when it comes to substance use. Our mood plays a significant role in whether we skillfully engage with decision making. This is where the value of mindfulness lays in relation to harm reduction.

Cultivating mindful awareness moves our understanding beyond the narrow, rigidly contextualized confines of our conditioning. Mindfulness allows us to place our experience in a larger context, with eyes unclouded by hatred or fear. In practicing mindfulness, we open to our most basic experience of the world inside of and around us. It is an exercise in practicing a most fundamental form of consciousness.

Our worldview frame how we understand ourselves. We use it to locate ourselves in the world, to interpret and make sense of our experience. Human beings are inherently creative creatures. We make sense of our experience by coming to grips with the meaning created through our experiences. And then we integrate that meaning into our worldviews and sense of self.

Throughout this process, we rely on the most fundamentally human of underlying assumptions – that our understanding and experience in the world reflects the way the world actually is. Yet, as humans, we are also inherently fallible. The fact that we make mistakes speaks to the very nature of learning. Our mistakes present us with opportunities for growth, for becoming something qualitatively more than what we at present are. This ability to learn from mistakes made is a core component of sentience.

The question is then one of becoming, how to become skillfully more than we are now? Practicing mindfulness requires us to gradually relinquish our conditioning and defensiveness. Mindfulness trains us to move away from relying on habitual patterns of thought in how we make sense of our experience. Through cultivating mindful awareness, we soften and open to what actually is. To engage in the objective monitoring of mindful awareness, assumption and prejudice are discarded, making room for insight more representative of the entirety of reality to develop. In the place of self-hatred and shame, mindfulness provides space for authenticity and self-determination to grow and thrive.

One may enter a state of mindful awareness spontaneously, without intention or practice. A mindful state is real time awareness of how one directly experiences physical sensation (including touch), sound, sight (or lack thereof), taste, smell and mood (including emotion and thought). It is awareness characterized by openness, curiosity and a willingness to be with what is in particular.

Although spontaneous episodes of present moment awareness are important, they must be distinguished from the skill of mindfulness. Mindfulness as a skill is intentionally cultivated through the practice of particular forms of meditation. Training the mind through certain forms of meditation hones our capacity to voluntarily enter states of present moment awareness. As learned behavior, the skill of mindfulness must be practice to be achieved.

Mindfulness's traits are wholesome qualities cultivated in intentional practice. These include a tendency towards openness, curiosity, kindness, compassion, and balanced mood states. Unskillful qualities not cultivated through intentional practice are anger, impulsiveness, reactivity, worry, and blame.

Mindfulness Based Harm Reduction (MBHR) brings the same awareness cultivated in our mindfulness practice to how we understand and relate to the effects of substance use and harmful behavior. It shines a light of kind awareness on the harm associated with addictive behavior. MBHR is free from the judgmental criticism commonly associated with the shameful, harmful attitude our society tends to have regarding drug use, addiction and mental illness.

MBHR provides us with skills to help us liberate ourselves from harms associated with substance use and the stigma addiction brings. It recognizes our inherent dignity as human beings, drug users and addicts. The framework promotes individual agency and self-determination with however we choose to engage with substances in any area of our lives.
 
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Lovingkindness Exercise 3: Self-Compassion
Sending Lovingkindness to Ourselves

Loving Kindness is the authentic desire for another to be happy. We can feel it in our bodies - open spacious, a smile, joy, relaxation. We practice it by repeating phrases or using images to cultivate it. Remember, it is like planting seeds; it may flower at some point in the future. If you don’t feel loving kindness, you might bring your mindfulness to what you do feel. It’s an incredible practice for learning what gets in the way of loving. It is a wonderful antidote to self-judgment/loathing/hatred! Although it may not feel entirely authentic at first, as you practice it, over time, your capacity to love grows.

To do the practice, imagine who you want to send it to... you can start with someone easy and say phrases or words or evoke images towards them. You need not limit yourself to only human kind – family pets, deities, spirits and other less corporeal embodiments work just as well, as long as their image induces feelings comfort, safety and connection. Feelings of comfort, safety and connection are necessary to promote the development of genuine feelings of love, calm and/or coolness in you, which is a point of lovingkindness exercises.

As always, check into your body for the feeling to see if it’s present. If it is present, let it grow. If not, notice what is present with your mindfulness and keep going, if you wish.

Ways of sending loving kindness to yourself:
  1. Imagine it moving through your body.
  2. Imagine someone you love sending it to you.
  3. Imagine yourself at another time in your life - as a child or at some other time you feel connected to and felt happy.

Loving Kindness Phrases that you can play with:
  • May I/you be safe from inner and outer danger.
  • May I/you be happy and peaceful.
  • May I/you be healthy and strong.
  • May my/your life unfold with ease.
  • May I/you have joy in my life.
  • May I/you accept myself/yourself just as I am/you are.
  • May I/you have peace and well-being.

Here is the three phrase self-compassion exercise I use:
  • May I/you open to my/your own goodness.
  • May I/you feel my/your own goodness.
  • May I/you trust in my/your own goodness.

Also see: Exercises to Cultivate Self-Compassion
 
Just wanted to say Mindfulness is an excellent way to overcome mental health / addiction problems - this thread is an incredibly valuable resource, thank you toothpastedog.
 
Wow, I didn't know there was such a great thread dedicated to mindfulness on Bluelight.

I often recommend meditation to the newcomers in NMI, from now on I'll just link this thread instead of typing for 20 minutes trying to explain why they should meditate!

Good stuff.
 
Nice! I am super pleased to see the thread serving it's purpose :) Thanks for the compliment <3
 
Lifestyle, Aging and Health
Mindfulness as the Essence of Self Care


Self care is of utmost important when it comes to recovery, sobriety, and just living life in general. But what is self-care? And how the fuck do we go about aging gracefully? Big questions. Safe to say I think it is far to say that aging gracefully requires a degree of mindfulness.

Whether you are 18 or 68, self-care is at the heart of mindful aging. Let us define mindfulness as an awareness of present moment experience, characterized by openness, curiosity and a willingness to be with what is. If we apply our definition of mindfulness to the process of growing old, we have a form of “applied mindfulness.”

Let us draw our attention back to the beginning. If it feels safe, let your attention settle upon death. This is where our journey today really begins.

Self-care has three dimensions, the physical, mental, and spiritual. We talk about self-care lightly, like it is so self-evidence, as if we have already master this thing called the self. Of course, self-care is straight forward. It is not complicated, but that does not mean it is necessarily a simple undertaking. Consider the amount of time most of us have to spend running around on autopilot in our society, just to make it to work on time, to take care of our obligations, to survive.

Self-care, at its core, really is nothing more than an invitation to slow down, wake up and take the time for what is most important: caring for your body, mind, and spirit. Caring for the physical self encompasses the following: fitness, exercise, health, nutrition, movement, style, relationship with physical body, & self-image.

Caring for one’s mental health requires that we begin to cultivate awareness of our beliefs (shoulds & shouldn’ts), societal/family/personal cultures, judgments, fears, assumptions, expectations, & open-mindedness.

This is the difficult part. How shall we define it? That little spark, the fire inside that keeps the flickering flame of your heart alive. The little spark, the spirit, the soul, the universe, whatever. You understand now.

Speaking of self-care, so how does one care for one’s own spark-spirit-soul-essential-thingy? Our deeper beliefs, being/feeling connected, relationship with death, relationship with loss, relationship with change, compassion, forgiveness, acceptance, contribution, participation in life and open-heartedness are the essence of self-care.

Is it more important to brush your teeth or watch a fun movie with a good friend? Shall you go for a long walk with your dog or create the next Michelangelo? What about deciding between eating that banana or talking with your partner about planning to have a family?

Big things start with just a little effort. When it comes to self-care, “do you know how to get to Carnegie Hall?” Practice is how we take care of our whole self, our entire body-mind-spirit being. To keep from getting burnt out, please try and have some fun. Whenever in doubt, experiment with the kinder and gentler option.
 
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The First Steps Along the Path of MBHR:
Distinguishing Truth from Reality​
Truth is what really is. Truth is one. For example, "People who use substances to regulate their mood without regard for how their substance use may cause them or others harm are addicts" is a true statement.

Reality is our version and our understanding of the truth. Everyone's reality is based on their own understanding, learning, belief, culture. . . For example, "Drug addicts are lying, thieving junkboxes who will do anything just to get their next fix" is a reality of a particular person(s).

At times we confuse the "truth" with our own "reality." Mindfulness allows us to tell these apart, and choose our reality through our awareness and knowing.

Beliefs are thoughts that we have kept thinking long enough for them to become a solid reality for us. Cultural beliefs are collective realities of a certain group. Cultural beliefs surrounding drug users and mental illness have been informed primarily by the draconian way our institutions have marginalized these populations, addressing drug use and mental illness as issues more relevant to public safety than public health.

The way these groups are isolated and marginalized is made possible by their criminalized status in our culture and propped up by the way our beliefs ostracize them to the category of the other. One hundred years of prohibition and forty years of the war on drugs has solidified long social relationships ghettoizing the mentally ill and drug users from popular empathy. This has become the status quo for many within the recovery community.

However, drug use couldn't be a more normal, human activity. Addicts are also human beings, not necessarily any less dignified than the next human being struggling to make their way among the challenges and opportunities of life. And not all drug users are necessarily addicts. Affirming the inherent dignity of drug users and addicts share with the rest of humanity is a first step in moving beyond and reclaiming the demonized junkie's colonized mind.
 
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Working with Depression
MARC

Depression and other forms of sadness are like a filter through which we view the world. Everything takes on a dark cast; we thoroughly believe our thoughts which tend to be mean and globalizing. Much of it is rooted in catastrophizing thoughts—taking something small and having it snowball until it seems overwhelmingly true. Our minds lie to us, telling us we’re unworthy, life is terrible, the world is terrible; the future is bleak, and so forth. We believe it since it appears so convincing. We then feel terrible and this feeds more thoughts. The key to understanding how to work with depression is that our cognitions make a difference.


Awareness
Rebuilding
Going Beyond​

Awareness
  1. Awareness of our beliefs
    • What do the catastrophizing voices say in our heads? Is what they tell us real?
  2. Awareness of Triggers
    • Depression happens because of triggers, can we become aware of them? There are both internal and external triggers, or emotional and environmental triggers.
      • Environmental triggers: HALT
      • Emotional triggers - family, high school reunion.
  3. Awareness of Depression Itself
    • Use our mindfulness to recognize how we experience depression in our bodies, how it operates in our mind. Remember:
      R A I N Practice
      Recognize (label, become aware of the presence of the emotion)
      Accept (is it okay to have this emotion?)
      Investigate (feel it in your body)
      Not Identify With (find some space; move from “my fear” to “the fear.”)
  4. Awareness of Depression and Meeting Our Needs
    • Generally we are depressed (or anxious) because we believe it helps us in some way. What are we actually looking for that we think depression will give us? Safety and security? Love and belonging? To be valued? To be seen? We can look at how to meet those needs in a different way.

Rebuilding/Reconstruction
  1. Inquiry with our beliefs
    • Can I absolutely know that’s true? You’ll never get a job
    • What are the other choices? 
Imagine another response (Oh they don’t like me they’re having a bad day)
  2. The Present Moment
    • Right here, am I okay now? Can I make it through this hour? In the moment I’m ok. What’s here?
  3. Working with Pleasant and Neutral Sensations in Body

    • Look into your life to see other moments of non-depression (sleep) We don’t look at those non-depressed moments.
    • Pendulations: We can move our attention back and forth between the difficult sensations in our bodies and a pleasant or neutral part of our body.

Beyond Depression
  1. My mind and body can be anxious or depressed, but I can be okay.

    • Let’s assume there is something else inside us that is not depression. Our true nature is not depression.
      It might be tremendously covered over by depression/anxiety, but deep down something else is there.
    • What is it?
  2. If I never had another depressed thought, who would I be?
 
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