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Tag Archives: Mindfulness Practice

No. 69: Growth instead of Achievement

November 3, 2011 7:58 pm ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅
This week, to attain, maintain or regain my sense of wellness… Coping Keterather than placing pressure on myself to ‘ succeed’ or ‘ achieve’ , I am going to practice being aware of how I am growing. As I move through my day, I will come back to the thought that “I am a work in progress, constantly learning how to handle life.” This week I will remember that anything that goes seemingly ‘ wrong’ , will teach me how to deal with it better next time, so it actually has value for me and will make me stronger. Once I am comfortable thinking of the ways I am growing in everyday situations, I will add this to my Personal Coping Kete as a way of soothing unwanted or distressing emotions. By reminding myself of things like this in times of stress, I can work to make sure the expectations I am placing upon myself are realistic.
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No. 60: The Good Mood Diet

September 1, 2011 12:21 pm ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

This week, to attain, maintain or regain my sense of wellbeing…

Coping KeteI am going to practice The Good Mood Diet. It’ s not a food diet, though food will be part of it. The good mood diet is about creating opportunities for positive moods. This will strengthen my resilience to stress and distress, because it will become easier to counter dark thoughts when I have been experiencing some positive things.

The Good Mood Diet is about finding small activities that can be fitted into everyday life on a regular basis. It’ s not about trying to only experience good moods, but about making sure that good moods are part of my experience.

I will start by making my own Good Mood Diet plan, which involves first making a series of lists:

    • FUN: A list of things I have enjoyed doing alone or with others
    • TIME-OUT: A list of things that I have found relaxing or peaceful or freeing – we all need time to do just as we please, to chill.
    • NOURISHMENT: A list of things that I found nurturing for my body
    • ACHIEVEMENT: A list of small everyday things that have given me a sense of accomplishment or strength utilisation.

Once I have built my four lists, I will take out my diary or day-planner and I will plan in one item from each list for every day of my week. That means that every day, among my usual activities, I will do one thing I find fun, one thing that gives me time out from expectations, one thing that strengthens my body and one thing that shows me my capabilities and skills.

No matter what is happening in my life, I value myself enough to gift myself the opportunity to experience the good bits.

To help myself along I will make sure that the items on my lists are specific and small enough to be achievable. I will keep my schedule in mind and ensure that the ideas I generate will fit with that. For example, planning full-day activities when I don’ t have full-days available will set myself up to be unsuccessful. It would be more useful to find little elements of the larger activity that I could implement given my particular context and situation.

If I find it difficult to think of items to try out, I will use the comments feature below to seek help or talk to some friends about what things they might try. Sometimes bad days and distressing moments come about because we become disconnected from these activities. But when we are stressed and distressed, it is extra hard to do these things. As much as possible, I will try to practice them in advance when I am feeling okay or during higher energy times of the day.

Once I have gotten comfortable putting a good mood diet in place, I will add it to my Personal Coping Kete as something to return to in times of stress and distress.

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No. 55: Progressive Muscle Relaxation

July 28, 2011 6:25 pm ⋅ 
This week, to attain, maintain or regain my sense of wellbeing...



...practice progressive muscle relaxation. Find a quiet place where you can lie down comfortably and spend 10-15 minutes systematically tensing and relaxing each muscle group in your body.This is about inducing a sensations of relaxation and being really mindful of what we are doing. Thoughts will come and go, just notice whenever you are distracted and come back to the task at hand. 

Start with your toes and work your way up through your body: feet, calves, thighs, stomach, chest, hands, arms, shoulders, neck, and face. For each muscle group, tense the muscles for 5-10 seconds, really focusing on what this feels like, then release and relax for 10-15 seconds, noticing the difference between tension and relaxation.

Try to keep your breathing slow and regular as in the standard breathing exercise, as you work your way through my body, tensing and releasing one muscle-group at a time.

Once you are comfortable with this practice, add Progressive Muscle Relaxation to your Personal Coping Kete for times of stress and distress.

Here is a recorded exercise you can use to guide you as you learn.Click the link below to download the MP3 file to your device. 

Progressive Muscle Relaxation audio by Miriam Larsen-Barr
Posted in: Self-Soothing ⋅ Tagged: , ,

No. 54: Paint

July 21, 2011 5:00 pm ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅
This week, to attain, maintain or regain my sense of wellbeing… Coping KeteI will practice painting something on a piece of paper, wood, cloth or canvas to shift the moment. It doesn’ t matter what I paint, I will focus my attention on the sound of the brush on the surface and allow myself to get lost in the brush-strokes. I could simply colour in the surface, paint how I feel or try to copy something that is around me. Painting is great because I can start it and then come back to it later. When things get stressful or distressing, I can return to the artwork and add to it or I can start a new one if I am feeling completely different. This will give me some brief valuable ‘ me’ time in my day where I can distract myself from what’ s going in my day or a moment. This gives my unconscious mind a bit of a rest and sets me up for a moment of safety. I could get a few tubes of acrylic paint for a few dollars each from my local stationary shop. Some emporium style shops have a great range of really cheap paints, brushes, papers and canvases – but really, I can paint on anything. If I keep in mind that I can do a lot with just one colour and I’ ll be able to get started almost straight away. Once I am used to taking a few moments to paint in my everyday life, I will add it to my Personal Coping Kete as a way of shifting or expressing moments of stress and distress.\r

This week’ s strategy comes from a participant at today’ s RCNet Monthly Forum. We’ ve fleshed it out a bit.

Posted in: Mindful Distraction ⋅ Tagged: , , , , , ,

No. 48: Count On Mindful Distraction

June 9, 2011 11:31 am ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅
This week to attain, maintain or regain my sense of wellbeing… "" I will use mindful distraction to allow emotions to pass. I will practice turning my attention outside of myself by counting the number of colours around me, then the number of shapes around me and then the number of textures around me. As I go, I will tune into the sensations I experience as I notice different shapes, colours and textures. This is a simple exercise, it may not seem like it could do much. But this is a powerful way of letting go of current distress so that something else can flow in. Once I am used to shifting my attention to the basics of my surroundings, I will add it to my Personal Coping Kete as a strategy for pulling myself out of intense moments when I need to reduce the intensity.
Posted in: Mindful Distraction, Self-Soothing ⋅ Tagged: , ,

No. 1 – A Mindful Moment Outside

June 30, 2010 10:39 am ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅
This week, to attain, maintain or regain your sense of wellness… Coping Kete Make a practice of taking a short 2-5 minute break from what you are doing to give yourself space to settle by going outside and being present with what is around you. Focus on any plant life around you, the various movements, the sky, the way the light is falling, the layers of sound around you, and the different sensations you feel. Notice what is close and what is in the distance. Slowly describe to yourself everything you see and sense. When you get distracted by thinking, notice that too, remind yourself that you are here in this place, in this moment and shift your awareness back to what is around you. After a few minutes, like this, simply return to whatever you were doing.
Once you are comfortable doing this, add ‘ A Mindful Moment Outside’ to your Personal Coping Kete to tune into your physical surroundings to self-soothe during times of stress and distress. You can politely excuse yourself from most situations to create a mindful moment and return to that moment in your mind later to visualise a bit of calm. Taking a break to self-soothe before we respond to difficult situations can allow us to choose our responses instead of acting on impulse.
This is the first of many, weekly coping strategies for people to experiment with in their journey to build their own personal coping tool kit for surviving the tough times and change the unhelpful patterns that keep them stuck. Find out more about The Coping Kete and how to use it here. Come back in a week for a new strategy.
Posted in: Mindful Distraction, Self-Soothing ⋅ Tagged: , , , ,