8 week Mindfulness Course

This is my first thread on the forum and thought I'd share this Meditation program which is devised by a top Professor in the UK.

You could read the book if you wanted but given most people here have an idea what Mindfulness entails I thought I would share the 'program'. If you fancy reading the book here is the Amazon.com link > http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mindfulness-Eight-Week-Meditation-Programme-Frantic/dp/B004ZFZJWA

Author @DrDannyPenman posts a lot on twitter regarding research in the area.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog...01/can-mindfulness-really-reduce-chronic-pain

So the book/audioCD combo consist of two halves. An introduction to Mindfulness and then the actual nuts and bolts.
During listening to the audio download I took notes based on each week. The program should last 8 weeks consisting of roughly 20minutes per day of meditation split between morning and evening or whenever you can fit in two sessions. Disregard time signatures as I used these myself.

The playlist I have attached contains all 8 recordings. these recordings are to be used according to each particular week. Its very specific and is aimed at exploring the entire person/realise the potential of the experience. Each week consists of doing the meditation but also focussing on specific areas each day. For example you will see descriptive terms like ''raisin practice''

Playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbKNGFgg0Il9PxX91prKyOo4_9-Ybvsox

Week 1 Body and Breath - complete 'Meditation 1' twice a day this week. Raisin practice is mindfully eating a raisin..like this


Focus on eating, brushing teeth focussing entirely on small details of the experience. Release daily habits, sit on a different chair from what you are used to.

Week 2 Body Scan - complete 'Meditation 2' twice a day on 6 out of 7 days. Find another routine activity to bring attention to. Habit release, 15 minutes’ walk at least once this week

Week 3 Mindful Movement – complete ''meditation 3' once each day, move to meditation 4. Twice a day , 3 minute breathing space(med 8) can also be completed if you feel like doing so. Pick another habit to release,
On one day this week only watch programmes you have chosen than mindlessly watching random material.

Week 4 Breath & body – do combo of med 4 & med 5, twice a day 6 days out of 7.
3min breathing space twice a day. Habit release : ask friend/fam member to go to movies...
Do not decide before hand or discuss what you are going to see, make your mind up when you get there

Week 5 Sounds & Thoughts sit quietly before doing or do med4/5 for ten minutes. Then do med 6 once a day 6 out of 7 days. Habit release, sow seeds of a plant. Sprinkle soil through fingertips slowly noticing texture,moistness ,smell of the earth.

Week 6 Exploring Difficulty – meditation 7- do this 6 out of 7 days. Prepare by sitting quietly using med4 or noticing breath. Random act of kindness. 2nd habit release. Reclaim part of life you feel you have lost. Back in touch part of you you thought was lost, don’t wait til u feel it or prejudge anything. Just do it.
eg if you havent been bowling/golfing in a while

Week 7 – Befriending – write down typical days activities, categorise which nourish,which deplete and consider changes you can make to nourish rather than deplete. Choose any two meditations 6 days out of 7…choose one you maybe struggled with. 3min breathing space twice a day is compulsory

Week 8 – 3minute breathing space – adopt a practice that you can continue with…time of day (before bed) , weave into daily life, sleep, taking notice of breathing, scan body during a break when you feel powerful emotion.
So the idea is to try and continue this practice and ideally pick the meditations that you found most difficult and try to do it once per day. thats it! this program is currently going through a clinical trial in the UK. see Dr Penmans twitter for updates.


*I would also recommend practising the 4,7,8 breathing technique before beginning to meditate or even during as the counts give you something to focus on. its incredibly effective at calming the system and can be used at any time throughout the day.
http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-10891/how-to-manage-your-stress-in-76-seconds.html

Currently I just starting week 3. let me know if you have any questions.

 

IrishSkeptic, these are great.

Last week I reconnected with a long-time friend.
We had only gotten together once a year, at Christmas.
Now we're going to exchange visits once a month, or twice.
We tell each other about ourselves and it makes us laugh.

 

Hi Sceptic,

I listened to a few of the free Utube meditations from the play list. I like them. They are very body-centered/ somatic which I resonate with in meditation. I will probably send people to that list as a solid resource. You could just do one each week, and the next week go to the next. They are short enough not to bring up much resistance to doing them, and the voice is soothing.

I liked the Track 6, Exploring Difficulties. This a very solid support for tolerating difficult feelings in the body: you don't have to change them, you don't have to like them. But if you stay with them and tolerate them, they stop driving you along unconsciously. I think this is a good approach for anxiety.

Thank you for your work to present this.

Andy

 

TY Walt and Andy.

before I discovered the Sarno hypothesis I was incredibly sceptical of the brains ability to modulate chronic pain. in sheer desperation I tried a body scan by Kabat Zinn on youtube and was blown away by how relaxed and almost elated I became. Pain really screws up the mind with worry and despair.
Mark Williams has a great voice for it. glad you appreciate it, I had the list typed out myself in order to do the 8 week course.