Trauma And Mindfulness

Mindfulness exercises allow you to be able to identify, tolerate and reduce difficult, painful and even frightening thoughts, feelings and sensations. Mindfulness gives you back some sense of mastery over our thoughts and feelings. Rather than having the sense that you are being pushed around by your feelings and thoughts you learn to be able to have some agency over them.

So what is this thing called mindfulness?

* The awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment to moment

* The non-judgmental observation of the ongoing stream of internal and external stimuli as they arise

* Keeping ones complete attention to the experience on a moment to moment basis

Put simply, mindfulness is as simple as becoming aware of your here and now experience, both internally and in the external world around you. It gives you a space in the present moment to be able to more safely deal with the distressing and painful memories of things that might have happened to you in the past. It also allows you to look at and plan for the future, even when you might have fearful thoughts about things that havent yet happened, from a secure position of knowing that you are in the present moment. In fact,we are never NOT in the present moment we just lose track of that fact quite often.

Sometimes it is easier to understand something in terms of what it is not. Here are some examples of mindLESSness:

1.Breaking things, spilling things, clumsiness, accidents because of carelessness, inattention or thinking about something else.

2. Failing to notice subtle or not-so-subtle feelings of physical discomfort, pain, tension etc.

3. Forgetting someones name as soon as you hear it.

4. Listening to someone with one ear while doing something else at the same time.

5. Getting so focussed on goals that I lose touch with what I am doing right now.

6. Getting lost in my thoughts and feelings.

7. Being preoccupied with the future or the past.

8. Eating without being aware of eating.

9. Having periods of time where you have difficulty remembering the details of what happened – running on autopilot.

10. Reacting emotionally in certain ways feeling like an emotion just came out of nowhere.

11. Daydreaming or thinking of other things when doing chores.

12. Doing several things at once rather than focussing on one thing at a time.

13. Distracting yourself with things like eating, alcohol, pornography, drugs, work.

Now let's do a quick mindfulness exercise.........

Start with a mindfulness of the breath. Sit with your breath for a few minutes.Now bring your awareness to something that is difficult for you in your life. It may be thoughts of an event in the past that was painful or distressing, it may be something in your life in the present time that is causing you painful feelings, or it may be something you are worried about in the future. Allow yourself to bring your attention to focus on one of these worrying thoughts. Notice what is happening in your body right now as you have these thoughts. Are there places or tension or tightness? What is happening to your breathing? Dont try to modify the sensations in your body, just allow yourself to notice them with curiosity. Notice now the thoughts that that are going through your mind; just notice them as thoughts. Remember, thoughts are not facts, they are simply what your mind is saying or creating at any given moment. They may be based in factual events, but they are simply the mind thinking. Think about the thoughts you are having. Notice them as they change and notice each new thought as it replaces the previous one.

As you continue to notice the sensations in your body, see if you can put words to some of the feelings that come with these difficult and painful thoughts. They may be feelings like sadness, hurt, anger, loneliness, fear or pain. Feelings may be difficult, they may be deeply uncomfortable, but they are not wrong or right. They are simply part of your present moment experience. Allow your awareness to move between the thoughts you are having as you notice them, the physical sensations you are having as you notice them, and the feelings and emotions you are having as you notice them. Finally, bring your awareness and attention back to your breathing for a while, noticing the physical sensation of taking breath into your body and releasing it.

If you like, please share how this mindfulness experience made you feel. What were your thoughts? Hope to hear from you soon

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