Mindfulness

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Mindfulness

• The Child, Adolescent Family Recovery Center

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Mindfulness

• MINDFULNESS IS LEARNING TO OBSERVE OUR
  EXPERIENCES, INTERACTIONS, AND RELATIONSHIPS AND
  ENVIRONMENTS FULLY WITHOUT JUDGEMENT

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Mindfulness

• Mindfulness is about keeping your awareness in
  the current moment most of the time. It is about
  being present and aware in your life today.
• The past is past and the future isnt here yet!
• This does not mean that you should not plan for
  the future, it means that there is no point to
  excessively worrying about what is to come it is
  effective to plan and prepare for the future and
  not obsess about the future.
• If you are thinking about the future, do it with
  intension and mindfulness.

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Purpose and Objective of Mindfulness

• The Purpose is to observe your experiences and
  environment
• The Objective is to welcome your experience
  rather than control it
• It is NOT a process that leads to solutions- the
  skill makes solutions easier to identify and learn

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Goals of Mindfulness

• To improve ones ability to recognize internal
  versus external sources of distress
• To help observe rather than evaluate experiences
• To learn solution-focused coping instead of
  emotion-focused coping
• The goal of mindfulness activities is to work
  out you brain like a muscle. To train it to
  slow down and focus without allowing distractions
  to take control.

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States of Mind
Wise Mind
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Beginners Mind

• This concept is paired with the concepts of
  Radical Acceptance (Distress Tolerance). It
  suggests that we enter into experiences and
  situations in our life without judgment no
  good or bad, no positive or negative.
• You should enter every situation and every
  relationship as if you were seeing it for the
  very first time This reoccurring newness
  prevents you from bringing any old judgments into
  the present moment, ultimately helping you to
  stay in better control of your emotions
  (Moonshine).

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O N E M I N D

• One thing in the moment
• Now!
• Environment
• Moment
• Increase sensations
• Non-judgment
• Describe (dont prescribe or proscribe)

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Taking Hold of your Mind WHAT

• OBSERVE
• DESCRIBE
• PARTICIPATE

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Observe and Describe

• These two skills are about noticing what is going
  on inside and outside. Letting go of any
  thoughts about the past or the future and
  focusing on the here and now (Moonshine).
• When distraction thoughts enter into your mind,
  imaging them floating away like a cloud floats by
  in the sky.

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Participate Fully

• Participate fully in one experience at one time.
• Being active and involved in your life.
• Fully participating may mean that you have to
  challenge yourself to come out of your shell,
  face your fears, or combat your impulse to
  withdraw (Moonshine)

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Taking Hold of your Mind HOW

• Non-Judgmentally
• One-Mindfully
• Effectively

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Non-Judgmental

• This is about not assigning judgment to others or
  YOURSELF. It is also about not assigning
  judgment to a situation, environment, or moment.
• In placing judgment on self or others we can
  create a tremendous amount of additional and
  unnecessary distress.

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One-Mindfully and Effectively

• One-Mindfully
• Focus on one thing in the moment.
• Multi-tasking versus one thing at a time
• Effectively
• Focusing on what is most useful
• Not sweating the small, insignificant stuff
• Balance between short-term and long-term goals as
  well as what is important right now
• Doing what we know works instead of what we feel
  like doing

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Additional Concepts
TURTLING
SQUARE BREATHING
BODY SCANNING
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• THE IDEA IS TO BECOME MORE AWARE OF YOUR
  SURROUNDINGS, YOUR EXPERIENCES,
• YOUR EMOTIONS, AND TO LEARN TO DESCRIBE THEM ALL
  AS IF YOU WERE OBSERVING RATHER THAN ANALYZING
  THEM. ONCE WEVE ACHIEVED GREATER MINDFULNESS,
  WE CAN BEGIN TO DESCRIBE THE THINGS THAT UPSET UP
  EMOTIONALLY IN TERMS OF HOW THEY MAKE US FEEL,
  WITH THE ULTIMATE GOAL BEING TO ACHIEVE MORE
  EFFECTIVE EMOTIONAL CONTROL,
• (WWW.SOBERRECOVERY.COM)