Mindfulness

[vejin]

Hello Everyone,

I have a question regarding mindfullness.

When performing mindfulness of the breath, do I "sit back", focus on my breath and just observe thoughts if they should occur and then refocus on my breath.

Or should I actively welcome incoming thoughts? I feel more relaxed when doing the latter. This however means that I am labelling the thoughts by welcoming them.

Best regards

 

[Modus.Ponens]

Hello Everyone,

I have a question regarding mindfullness.

When performing mindfulness of the breath, do I "sit back", focus on my breath and just observe thoughts if they should occur and then refocus on my breath.

Or should I actively welcome incoming thoughts? I feel more relaxed when doing the latter. This however means that I am labelling the thoughts by welcoming them.

Best regards

Your attitude towards thoughts, when doing breath meditation, should be as someone who is looking for wood to build a house and finds a rotten piece of wood. You just discard it and move on. You don't have aversion to the wood because it's rotten. That would be silly. It's just that the wood is not useful and you move on. In the same way you should treat your thoughts with a constructive attitude that they are not useful.

They will pop up frequently, so it's important to not have aversion towards them, or feel frustrated when they pop up. Only when you get to the 2nd level of absortion will the thoughts fade away, so get used to dealing with thoughts.

 

[ailsa]

I searched for posts on mindfullness because I have been asked to participate in a research study for mindfullness for diabetics. I don't know much about it - I did buy a book on it last year (by mistake - I was looking for something on depression). What I got from it was that paying attention to one's thoughts and feelings without necessarily actually feeling or experiencing them is somehow helpful. In other words, let them manifest and then detach from them. This is probably not what it's about at all. If this is the case, though, I am wondering how this can possibly help people in depression (or diabetics for that matter). So, if anyone knows more about this, and/or has been helped by it, I would love to hear from you.

 

[Modus.Ponens]

Hello

When you practice mindfulness, you pay an objective attention to feelings (and body, thoughts and mental objects). That doesn't mean you don't feel or experience those feelings. It's just that you experience them in a different way.

But this is (dry) mindfulness practice as defined by Buddhism. In the field of psychology, mindfulness encompasses also what is called in Buddhism samadhi (concentration). In certain states of samadhi, your metabolism can slow down much more than when you fall asleep. Maybe that can have a beneficial effect on diabetes. Or maybe the opposite.

Finally, regarding depression, mindfulness makes you more aware of what's going on in your head. You can catch negative thought patterns and let go of them. And you can let go of feelings of sadness, etc. . But since I'm not a psychologist and particularly not expert in mindfulness applied to clinical cases, I ask to the professionals: please correct anything wrong that I said regarding mindfulness and depression.

Meditation has helped me once, in 10 days, to recover from a psychotic break without medication. However, I don't advise anyone who's going through psychosis to do intensive meditation. It can be very dangerous. Also, it has helped me in my current psychotic break to calm down and focus more.

If you have any question you want to ask regarding meditation and how it helped me, please don't hesitate in contacting me.

Be well

 

[ailsa]

@ Modens - What an excellent response. Thank you for taking the time to write it. You wrote: paying attention to one's thoughts and feelings without necessarily actually feeling or experiencing them... It might be useful in some, perhaps milder forms of depression - not sure how someone deeply depressed and panicking would respond to this though - but you have said it did help you during an intense experience, which is wonderful. I am appreciative of not only your response, but sharing what has worked for you . Thank you.

 

[Modus.Ponens]

Just a small correction. You misquoted me. It was you who said "paying attention to one's thoughts and feelings without necessarily actually feeling or experiencing them"

 

[ailsa]

You are right, Modus, and I apologize.

Ailsa