Getting Your Bearings
Module 1 | Session Two
Session Overview
M1 | Session Two: Getting Your Bearings
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Defining Mindfulness
Uses of Mindfulness
Ways To Be Mindful
Session Skill: Mindfulness
Depression and You
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What Is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is the practice of training yourself to stay in the present moment in order to achieve less anxiety, depression, stress, emotional reactivity, and achieve more peace.
What Is Mindfulness Helpful?
Mindfulness is the act of increasing your awareness of the present moment.
Mindfulness is used in order to ground yourself and maintain an openness to insight.
Mindfulness helps you to ignore the frustrations of the past or the worries of the future.
Mindfulness also allows you to be a more alert observer of the thoughts that cross your mind.
How Is Mindfulness Helpful?
Mindfulness exercises are designed to keep a person in the present moment.
There are different sorts of mindfulness meditation that can help people in different ways.
Mindfulness provides a flexible set of skills to manage mental health and support wellbeing.
Mindfulness meditation has been shown to affect how the brain works and even its structure.
The Research
People undertaking mindfulness training have shown increased activity in the area of the brain associated with positive emotion.
The pre-frontal cortex is generally less active in people who are depressed but is activated by mindfulness training.
Many studies have shown changes in brain wave activity during meditation.
The areas of the brain linked to emotional regulation are larger in people who have meditated regularly for five years or more.
Source: Mental Health Foundation
Benefits of Mindfulness
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Reduced Rumination
Participants self-reported fewer depressive symptoms and less rumination.
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Stress Reduction
Participants have significantly less anxiety, depression and somatic distress
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Boosts Working Memory
Participants have better working memory capacity and were better able to sustain attention during performance tasks
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Better Focus
Participants show increased ability to focus attention and suppress distracting information.
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Reduced Emotional Reactivity
Participants show increased ability to disengage from emotionally upsetting pictures and better focus on cognitive tasks.
Source: American Psychological Association
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States of Mind
Rational Mind
Rational Mind can be described as the state of mind when we make decisions solely from a logical perspective. Here, we focus solely on hard, objective facts and observations, ignoring emotional or subjective thoughts and perspectives. This is the part of us which seeks to make cold, calculating decisions that hold no regard for your feelings or the feelings of others.
Emotional Mind
Emotional Mind is the polar opposite of Rational Mind. Emotional Mind is decision-making that is completely subjective. This is the part of us which makes decisions from a place of feeling which we often describe as "from the heart" or "following our hearts." Emotion Mind is hot-headed, and is the part of us that drives us anywhere based on what we feel like doing, or don’t feel like doing.
Wise Mind
Wise Mind is the balance between our rational and emotional minds. When we are in our Wise Minds, we are using mindfulness to make decisions logically and rationally while also acknowledging and accounting for our feelings and emotions.
Session Skill
Wise Mind Practice
Take a screenshot of the following exercises and for one week make it your wallpaper. whenever you feel emotionally distressed try one of these activities.
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For one minute, observe your breath coming in and out, letting your attention settle into your belly.
Watch breath, adding pauses between inhaling and exhaling.
Breath “wise” in, and “mind” out.
Ask Wise Mind a question (breath in), listen for the answer (breath out).
Ask yourself, “Is this Wise Mind?”
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