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Positive Post Your Best Mindfulness Resources and Experiences

Yes, me too. Jeffrey Eugenides wrote it .

This is one of his quotes when trying to capture disappoitment, emotions, etc.
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“Forever is composed of nows.”

Or I could try to “Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.”
 
Erikmen said:
Yes, me too. Jeffrey Eugenides wrote it .

This is one of his quotes when trying to capture disappoitment, emotions, etc.
[h=2][/h]
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Ah, yeah--he's the Detroit writer! I never read The Virgin Suicides (only saw the movie) but I loved Middlesex.
 
neversickanymore said:
Dr. Zorba Paster: Study finds mindfulness therapy just as good as drugs for depression
Dr. ZORBA PASTER | family physician, Dean Health
5/28/2015

Depression is a recurrent disorder affecting millions of people. By some estimates, 5 percent of the population suffers from it at one time or another.
For some it’s a one-and-done episode, but for others it happens over and over again. And while drugs have monumentally changed many people’s lives for the good, they have side effects.

The first-generation group of drugs, called tricyclics, cause dry mouth and sleepiness. The next generation, the SSRIs (selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors), can cause ejaculatory dysfunction in men including difficulty getting an erection or keeping it long enough to “finish.” A similar type of orgasmic dysfunction can occur in women.

Psychotherapy is an excellent non-drug treatment that works for many. The old-fashioned Freudian psychoanalysis has not been shown to have any effect at all, while the relatively new kid on the block, cognitive behavioral therapy, has been found to be quite useful. A good psychotherapist can do wonders.

And, according to new research published in the journal The Lancet, mindfulness therapy might also be quite useful.

Here’s the scoop: Nearly 500 patients with long-term depression who were on medications for years were divided into two groups. One group continued on their meds just as before, and the other group dropped their meds and started MBCT — Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy — a structured training for the mind and body in which people are encouraged to change the way they think and feel about their life and their experiences, and also how they look at their ups and downs.

This therapy teaches people how to “constructively” face their feelings and how to calm their mind when it’s agitated. This is not a one-and-done session — it’s not something that’s learned immediately.

With the research group, there were eight two-hour sessions, and everyone was given homework. Participants also were offered four follow-up sessions over the next year.

Both groups were followed for two years. The results showed that mindfulness therapy was just as effective as medications. This non-drug approach took more time and more training, but it was just as effective as medication. Good news.

Now, I don’t recommend that anyone who is reading my muses stop their medication. If you’re on drugs and want to toss them, it’s important to do it the right way — under supervision. Some shouldn’t stop them at all, while others have to do it on a gradual reduction basis so they don’t have a rebound.

My spin: Too many people view depression as a character flaw, something you can just get over — stiff upper lip and all, or “just get on top of it and you’ll be OK.” This outmoded view is still far too common in our society.



contiuned http://host.madison.com/print_only/...20d-58ff-94fc-1f0283497cfb.html#ixzz3bSS5xJBN
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,,,
 
Know so many addicts who are into mindfulness. A friend of mine runs a monthly workshop at the local government funded addiction center in my city.
I used to be really interested in Buddhism but always struggled with traditional breath focused Zen meditation until I was taught Shikantaza which is basically just being as present as possible but instead of clearing and emptying the mind just sitting and casually observing each passing thought and emotion. So introspective and useful and has made me so at peace no matter what crazy shit is happening in my life.
 
^Yeah, I hear you. That is what has been most helpful to me. I was apparently standing behind the genetic door not paying attention when they were passing out traits like discipline, diligence, ability to practice etc. so having any particular goal (like emptying the mind even) just doesn't work for me. But learning to detach from my thoughts and observe them has made all the difference when it comes to things like anxiety, fear, judgment etc.
 
I just got back from a 2 day retreat with my meditation group.

2 things stayed with me

-meditation is like brushing your teeth or having a shower. If you don't do it for a few days the people around you will start to notice.

-it can be easier for most people to meditate in the morning just sitting in bed upon waking. Esp in winter! I might try this.
 
Anyone would recommend which meditation are the best one?

I have tried a lot guided meditation on youtube and on the app "Headspace". I still have anxiety and are stressed, nervous etc.

ps. I don't do any drugs.
 
This may be exactly what I'm looking for! I will have an open mind and check it out. Thank you all for putting this thread up, I will try this out and post results. LOL, it may b e awhile, this looks like it takes practice. ;) TY RT
 
:? Vaya, that was interesting but I'm scared it may be a trigger for me to be honest with you, if I thought of the things I'm having problems coming off of I would want them.. If I think of how my stomach hurts I run to the bathroom, if I think of the pain in my back n legs it makes it worse and it's all I can think about, I actually died and ended up in ICU and had heart arithmia they told me I died 3 more times in ICU due to overdose and was shocked in chest many times, in and out of consciousness and if I focus on my heart I flip out thinking it's happening again the dizziness sets in just like right before I went down and my heart goes crazy, I get panic attacks take meds for it but they don't always work so I'm scared to do it.. It defiantly is something I would like to try, is this common in people who try this ACT exercise?
 
This is awesome to find this part of the forum. I will be checking back in. Just am so lost in my life right now that mindfulness seems almost unattainable. Though I know it is, opiate addiction and a broken heart have seemed to have robbed me of my mojo for life. Damn.
 
There are a lot of resources for any such journey in the MBHR thread in SL. Click on the link at the bottom right of this post for more info. It's a work in progress, but it has a lot of the info I'm working on making a book into freely available to all in the meantime. Enjoy!
 
This is from Rick Hansen who writes a blog called Just One Thing.

What's your deepest nature?
The Practice:
Be Home.



Why?

Throughout history, people have wondered about human nature. Deep down, are we basically good or bad?
Recently, science is beginning to offer a persuasive answer. When the body is not disturbed by hunger, thirst, pain, or illness, and when the mind is not disturbed by threat, frustration, or rejection, then most people settle into their resting state, a sustainable equilibrium in which the body refuels and repairs itself and the mind feels peaceful, happy, and loving. I call this our Responsive mode of living. It is our home base, which is wonderful news. We are still engaged with the world, still participating with pleasure and passion, but on the basis of a background sense of safety, sufficiency, and connection.
But when body or mind are disturbed – perhaps by overwork and fatigue, or by the cough of a nearby lion a million years ago or a frown across a dinner table today – Mother Nature has endowed us with hair-trigger mechanisms that drive us from home by activating fight-or-flight systems in the body and related mental states of fear and anger, disappointment and drivenness, and loneliness, shame, and spite. When we experience chronic stress (even if it’s mild), this state of affairs – in which the body gets worn down and depleted, and the mind gets frazzled, pressured, prickly, worried, and blue – becomes the new normal, a kind of ongoing inner homelessness. It is the Reactive mode of living, a disturbance of physical and psychological equilibrium that helped our ancestors survive to see the sunrise – but which undermines well-being, wears down long-term health, and shortens the lifespan.
These two modes of living, Responsive and Reactive, are the foundation of human nature. We have no choice about the vital aims they serve – avoiding harms, approaching rewards, and attaching to others – nor about the brain’s capacity to be in either mode.
Our only choice is which mode we’re in.
Happily, the Responsive mode is the resting state, the default, of body and mind. It’s what you return to when you’re not rattled. In the language of systems theory, the Responsive mode is the most fundamental “strange attractor” in the dynamic processes of your brain. Therefore, this mode is your underlying nature – not the Reactive one. You don’t have to scratch and claw your way to the mountaintop; if whatever is disturbing you comes to an end, you’ll soon come home to the lovely sunny meadow that has always been here – even if was hidden by the fogs and shadows of a troubled body or mind. Your deepest nature is peace not hatred, happiness not greed, love not heartache, and wisdom not confusion.
As soon as you have a sense of home . . . you are home! Because body and mind are inclined toward the Responsive mode, any sense of ease in the body or feeling of calm, contentment, or caring in the mind will start activating some Responsive circuits in your brain. This will naturally light up associated circuits with a cascading, snowballing effect throughout the Responsive network.
Your body and mind want to come home: that’s where energy is conserved for the marathon of life, where learning is consolidated, where resources are built rather than expended, and where pains and traumas are healed.
Your whole being is always leaning toward home. Can you let yourself tip forward into your deepest nature?

How?

Let it sink in that your human nature is to be peaceful, happy, loving, and wise.
Be at home in your body. Take a breath and exhale slowly, abiding as a body relaxing. Get a sense of being in this body, inhabiting it.
Nothing needs to be a particular way for you to be at home in it. For example, whether it is tall or short, heavy or light, young or old – you can find an immediacy, presence, and familiarity with this body as it is that feels like coming home.
Be at home in your senses. Be aware of sounds coming and going, known without effort. Pick a touch or taste, and allow yourself for some seconds to be at home in it.
Be at home in actions. In the simple reaching for a cup, be present in it. Keep noticing the workingness of an action, that it is being successful and thus safe to give yourself wholly over to it.
Be at home here, wherever you are. Take some seconds to become familiar with it. Let go into truly being in this setting, this location.
Be at home in this moment, right now. Be present with whatever is happening. Let there be a sense of arriving. Again and again.
Be at home in life, being the ripe fruit of three and a half billion years of evolution, cousin to every other living thing – even sharing about a fifth of our DNA with that of a banana!
Be at home in this universe. We are here in this Milky Way galaxy distinct from several hundred billion other ones, now about 13.7 billion years after the universe began, built from stardust, cousin as well to every physical thing, awash in the sea of quantum foam that is our common nature.
If it is meaningful for you, be at home in your personal sense of Whatever may transcend the material universe. Perhaps an intuition of that which is unconditioned always just prior to conditioned phenomena, or a perception of a kind of light shining through the stained glass of our lives, or a knowing of a presence you call God or by no name at all.
For most of our time on this planet, people usually spent their lives within a few hundred miles of where they were born, doing much the same thing each day with the same people in their band or village, embedded in a culture that changed little from century to century. These external factors provided a stable sense of home – but they are largely tattered, even shattered today. Be confident and happy that your growing internal sense of home is your anchor and refuge amidst the jostling currents in the stream of economic and social changes we live in these days.
Know what it feels like to be at home. Knowing the sense of home is like leaving a trail of breadcrumbs that will help you come home again.
It’s good to be home.
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You ofte hear the expression, ''It's the little things that count.'' It's more than a simple statement. Studis show that by integrating such practices into one's life can really change the way your mind works, so I read.






 
Herbivore,i dont remember where i read it,but
Never take yourself too serious which i think means in
the cosmic whole we aint a sandcorn,SORRY if i have great difficulties translating that
into Englisch,i am sure you understand
Also,try to live NOW,past is past and most people
Me included,tend to think what will be tomorrow,in an hour
etc.But if you try to live in the NOW
it brings(me)inner Peace.
Cant change the past but i have
Control over my actions in the Future.
Of course only limited what comes but
how i react i can control to an extend.
Which includes not beating myself up
over negativ things i have done,
but try to learn from my mistakes.
Also,Meditation,which for me means stopping
the inner Dialog,hard but brings me inner Peace.
I hope i made some Sense!
You are right up there with Erikmen
and the Captain.
I used to be annoyed by his posts
about his Great Veins while i fight with
to keep my circulatory System going,
fighting for every vein,till i read more
from him and feel bad for judging so fast.
I am 50y.old and learn more every Day!
I try to learn from my mistakes,do it better
in future and try not to judge people,always
give new aquaintances 100%,if
they prove me wrong Its not my fault then.
I hope i made some Sense,really!!!
Love and Peace to All of You!
Herb,I Thank You for this Thread
and congratulate You for being a father,
your children have a good Dad,
wish i had that too when young.
 
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