Try a little mindfulness…… and build it into your life/work…… Dave Bertin Voices Scotland Trainer & CBT Therapist

Today – the plan.....  What is Mindfulness?  theory and taster  What is it useful for?  risks?  Using it for yourself  Practice session

Remember as a child playing....  Total absorption in what you were doing  Lost in time  In the moment

One definition is.....  Mindfulness is paying attention, deliberately, in the present moment without being judgemental.  Jon Kabbat-Zinn

So what’s it all about……?  A place of stillness in the middle of a frantic world  No one can run fast enough to escape their own worries  Anxiety levels now are 3 to 4 times higher than they were in the 1950s  Fundamentally a learnt habit – not a forgone conclusion!

So what’s it all about……?  How often do we feel that we are overwhelmed with inputs/thoughts/stuff to do?  We tend to fill our senses with “noise”  This “noise” causes us information overload, inefficiency and therefore stress

A taster  To give you a sense of what Mindfulness is

The problem with this This moment

Why bother?  No time  No point  Can’t do it  Too busy  Can’t slow down  It’s the worlds fault  So why bother?

Finding your motivation... What is it that is the most important reason in my life for doing this? What can I say to myself to encourage me to stick at it? Remember this is a new skill – it takes time to master it

Practical steps to making it happen.....  Be mindful of what you are doing  Focus on one thing at a time  Do it and then focus on the outcome  You will get things done so don’t worry  Ignoring a feeling or emotion just makes it worse – so make it your decision to focus on it

The importance of choices  Make clear choices  Don’t just do things you have to do  Do things you want to do  Make it your choice to face the tricky stuff  Don’t wait for it to pop up and jump you  Commit random acts of kindness

Think about what you do each day....  Things we do either nourish us or deplete us  Nourishing things make us feel energised, relaxed, stimulated, good, positive  Depleting things make us feel tired, stressed, negative, defeatist, grumpy, overwhelmed  We all see these activities in our own way  Consider each one of your daily activities:  Does doing this make you feel “nourished” or is it “depleting”?

So what to do...  Increase the nourishing ones  Decrease the depleting ones  Change the way you see them  Look for something positive in the depleting ones – consider “process” and “outcome”  Make it your choice to do the depleting ones  Thing about when you do each type and decide on the order that suits you  Start and end your day (or ideally chunks of your day) with nourishing activity

Basic principles  Don’t judge yourself, your feelings, your emotions  There are just aspects of being human – useful at times – unhelpful at others  Find a focus for your mind that you can follow  Use that to let you take control and time out  Practice, experiment, try, don’t be scared to fail

Seven deadly sins  Automatic pilot versus conscious choice  Analysing versus sensing  Striving versus accepting – tricky one?  What’s the worse that could happen?  Seeing thoughts as solid and real versus seeing them as just thoughts  Avoidance versus approaching  Mental time travel versus the present moment  Depleting versus nourishing activities

Parachute and duvets....  Start the day – 60 seconds of breathing and 60 seconds of “what matters today is...”  Use breathing spaces to punctuate the day  Befriend your feelings – see them, reflect on them, like them....  Press the pause button when things get tricky  Find (and do) nurturing activities  Increase your exercise  Remember to breath

Thank you...  Dave Bertin  

The process of emotions.....

Feelings versus thoughts  It seems like we feel things automatically  Only partly true – such as the startle reflex  Generally we interpret things, analyse them, reflect on them – even if we are not always aware of this  This interpretation is more within our control than we think  We tend to have learnt habits of interpretation  We can learn new habits!

But can you change the cogs????  YES!  An element of doubt is a good thing  There’s nothing surer than an uncertainty!  Our thoughts (even if not conscious ones) can affect our actions/feelings/emotions....  Remember:  Situation  Interpretation  Thoughts  Feelings  Reaction  NOT: situation – feelings - reaction

Picture this story  You are on a busy street and see a work colleague in the crowd  You wave and shout hello  They do not wave back and turn up a side street  What do you:  Feel – emotionally & physically?  Think?  Do?