An Outline of the Eight Week Journey into Mindfulness
If you had to build an 8 week course in Stress Reduction, how do you suppose you would begin? What structure would you use in order to facilitate people in learning to manage their own stress? Read ahead to explore the design of our course in Mindful Living.
Week One
We establish clearly that whatever is said within these walls, stays here. Sensing we are held with safety & respect, we share what we are comfortable with about why we’ve come, and a little about our interests, work, and family. Folks begin to relax. Shoes off, slowing down, people choose to kick back in this 2.5 hours carved out for themselves each Tuesday evening for 8 weeks. Early on, this precious time becomes a refuge.
Theme: From our point of view, there is more right than wrong with all of us, no matter what our challenges. We establish that meditative awareness is fundamental to this work since the present moment is the only time anyone has to learn, grow, change.
Week Two
We have choices, if we can slow down enough to see how we interface with life’s challenges. How do I choose to live day to day with autoimmune disease, for example? It is vital for the participants to gain insight to the perceptions that drive their lives. How do we perceive serious or chronic illness, challenges at work or with family, for example?
Theme: Perception and creative responding: how you see things (or don’t see them) will determine how you will respond. How we see pain, stress, pressures in our lives. We also explore the level of commitment we will bring to the program and the personal discipline it requires to take time for daily meditation 6 days a week for 8 weeks!
We begin dipping our toes into the waters of stillness with a brief sitting meditation.
Week Three
We introduced the Body Scan in week two. Learning to be in touch with our bodies is essential. Also in the third week, we begin Hatha Yoga to bring the body and mind in sync.
Theme: There is pleasure and power being in the present. We really only have moments to live, one after another. Martha Graham: “Make the moment vital and worth living. Do not let it slip away unnoticed and unused.”
Week Four
Longer periods of sitting meditation with the presentation to the central core of the relationship of meditation practice to stress.
Theme: Awareness of being stuck in one’s life and how to get unstuck. Dealing with the shadow side of stress. This is the reactivity to our stress. Do we “water the seeds of suffering,” as suggested by Thich Naht Hanh ( a Vietnamese teacher of Mindfulness).
In other words, do we try to cover up our stress with overeating, alcohol, too much T.V.? We explore that its not the stress, but how we choose to handle it.
Week Five
We discuss that the program is half over today. How is it going? Take stock. Am I fully committed and doing my best? We emphasize letting go of expectations from the first half of the course and take each moment as a new beginning.
Theme: Reacting vs. Responding to stress. Are you a Type A...more hostile and cynical or a Type C who suppresses emotions? We explore various choices and discuss the stressers of relationship. Can we learn healthy assertiveness vs aggression ? Every night is lively, but this one is especially animated with knowing laughter and many insights.
Week Six
We are deepening our sitting practice and introduce the metaphor of sitting like a mountain. No matter the internal weather of emotional storms, darkness, or high winds, the mountain continues to sit, immovable, unshakable, We are learning to let thoughts, which have no inherent reality, come and go. We are less disturbed by the busy mind and more confident.
Theme: Maintaining your center under acute or chronic stress : strong expectations of others, past habits of emotional expression/suppression and the presentation of self in everyday life.
All-Day Session
We meet Saturday in a 6-hour day of silence . We lead the group through the many meditations we have been practicing together and at home every day. We do the Body Scan, long, slow and delicious yoga, walking meditation. There are moments ornamented with contemplative poetry and stories. We eat lunch alone mindfully and have a break to explore the lovely grounds of Shimmering Pines. The All-Day Session is powerful, full of insights and weaves our work together into new vistas.
Week Seven
We discuss the All-Day session which we experienced the previous Saturday and share insights that are still arising.
Theme: How what we take in (diet in the broadest sense of the term) affects health and well-being. This includes food, water and air. We also look at the diet of emotions—such as low self-esteem, depression, anxiety and how to move from self-destructive to healthier patterns. Also, mindfulness of obstacles to change, especially our own thoughts!
Week Eight
Keeping up momentum developed over the past 7 weeks in meditation and yoga. Also informal practice...relaxing into whatever activities are before us. We do a final body scan which is where we began.
Theme: The 8th week of the course is the rest of our lives ; there is no dress rehearsal. We give a booklet of hints and reminders to refresh ourselves when we need inspiration. All alumni are invited back to the All Day Session free of charge.
We close our eight week journey this evening with a poem by David Whyte, 'Enough'
Enough. These few words are enough.
If not these words, this breath.
If not this breath, this sitting here.
This opening to the life
We have refused
Again and again
Until now.
Until now.
The basic, weekly class materials in this course were developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn and Saki Santorelli at U Mass Med Center. Each facilitator then makes the course work their own through their own journey.
Mimi Bailey, RN, B.S. Ed.
August, 2011