Friday, November 27, 2009

Living Well

How Mindfulness Meditation Can Calm You Down

Pay close attention to each feeling, and let it be

Posted June 5, 2008

Reader Comments

depression

Being in England and reading an artical called;

"Increasing Your Creative Ability 400%"

"Learn More in less Time" "By Doing Nothing"

A small leaflet on 'Mindfulness'

The leaflet and the above comments relate to depression, but,

I have not read any causes, problems or remidies on 'Situations that cause depressions'

My Wife and I have worked together all our working life (now being 71 respectively) We have had several Business's, none being completely successful, and I have to say now, not for the want of trying.

Our last venture started in 1988 by us selling our property to purchase a large shop (newsagents,fancy goods,stationary etc)

in a lovely Seaside Town, a short distance from the Sea, Having no pension, this gave us the opportunity to provide for our later years, although we were already Fifty Years of age,

We didn't mind the Hours 4AM to 7PM or the fact that it was

7 days a Week, 52 Weeks a Years - because of the NEWSPAPERS.

We managed this for 10 Years, untill the Local Council rerouted

our main road via another system causing us to lose our passing trade, at that time heavy advertising from the Holiday Brochures promoting Sun-Sea-Sand in Spain, caused People to go Abroad for their Holidays. At the same time our Country went into a 'DEPPRESSION'.

Not taking enough money to cover our loan committment, the BANK

recalled the loan (forclosed) forcing us into Bankruptcy in 1997

We lost everything including our investment (house money) savings,We walked away with our suitcases into rented accommodation.

As a Man we can stand a certain amount of loss and adjustment, but my Wife did not deserve such a disasterous outcome.

I alone carry this burden, for convincing her to support me in my business ventures.

The year is now 2009 and I see no release from my responsibility

and suffer heavely from guilt, because I have no time left to make amends. My Wife (God Bless Her) holds me no grudge and we

try to make the best of what we have, but doctors pills and reading books has not released me from this depression.

BECAUSE; There is no time left to make amends.

Legalize........

....it. You know, it. Yea I said it. That and a combination of St. John's wort and meditation is the perfect cocktail to relieve what ails you. In your face big pharma!

Mindful Meditation

We don't need a doctor or a guru to live fully productive lives without stress.

Pay attention to a dog or a cat They live full moment by moment, not moment to moment. We develop behavior conditioned by anticipation or expectation. We live in a world of might be, could be, or should be, and miss the real world passing us by.

The dog may be abused. He may learn to be wary, but he will not let that interfere with the living, sleeping, eating, and sharing of immediate experiences.

People who live long lives in contentment are those who accept each moment as reality and are too busy living to have regrets or interruptions with what might be or might have been cluttering their lives.

Finding a local MBSR Teacher Recommended by the Center for Mindfulness

www.umassmed.edu/cfm/mbsr Website to find local teacher near you

http://www.umassmed.edu/cfm/mbsr/CFM

Go to the Univeristy of Mass. Medical School's Center for Mindfulness and find a MBSR Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Teacher in your area that is recommended by the Center for Mindfulness swhere Jon has conducted most of his reserch.

www.umassmed.edu/cfm/mbsr Website to find local teacher near you

http://www.umassmed.edu/cfm/mbsr/CFM

Go to the Univeristy of Mass. Medical School's Center for Mindfulness and find a MBSR Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Teacher in your area that is recommended by the Center for Mindfulness swhere Jon has conducted most of his reserch.

mindfulness meditation

I live in Staten Island. Are there places to learn these techniques on S.I. ? Your articles are great...

Anima Springs Wellness Center www.animasprings.com north of Houston Texas in The Woodlands

I was fortunate to learn Mindfulness from Dawndee Blickenstaff who was personally trained by Dr. Jon Kabat Zinn and Saki in 1995 and has been teaching such ever since in conjunction with Pain Management as well as Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression at Anima Springs Wellness Center which she personally founded and operates as a Non profit. She teaches such in a ecotherapuetic enviornment on two acres of dense pine forest with abundent wildlife and a lake. She charges on a sliding scale based on ones documented income and expenses. She permitted me to make payment over several months while teaching me to live Mindfully as well as how to meditate and deal with depression related to my chronic pain from MS. You can reach her thru her website at www.Animasprings.com or thru the University of Mass. Medical School Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Healthcare and Society which list her as a recommended teacher for Houston, TExas and surrrounding areas. She is not just an experience teacher of Mindfulness but an example of how one lives mindfully. Suffering with Chronic and Acute Pain daily herself from a serious car accident she pursued learning Mindfulness while in her Doctorate Program in Psychology in CA. She holds 7 various degrees in Psychology, Humanities and Fine Arts, General Education as well as Social and Behavioral Sciences. The wellness center she founded by The Woodlands Texas is located on two beautiful acres of forest with abundant wildlife and a lake. The classes are taught in this amazing setting either privately, couples, families, groups etc. She has many different programs varying from a one week intensive Mindfulness training to a weekly 8 week long course. She was a consultant for the National Institute of Health's NIH MIND Study at the University of Texas at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston Texas. She taught MBAT Mindfuness Based Addction Therapy as an intervention for Smoking Cessation for high risk patients. I was so impressed with how she modeled living Minfully daily regardless of what life throws at you. After taining with her for 8 weeks I later decided to do addtional Mindfulness Interventions such as MBCT Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy to treat my pain related depression due to having terminal cancer. She not only worked with me but also worked individually with my children and then with our family as a while. Her compassion, education, and experience makes her an exceptional teacher of Mindfulness in South Texas. There were people from all over Texas who traveled to study MBSR with her. She also does Mindfulness counseling via the Internet for those whom are unable to commute to work with her personally. Since learning MBSR thru www.animasprings.com I found peace and healthy acceptance of my condition, but mostly she modeled and taught me how to experience joy and personal fulfillment while living MIndfully. She worked with my kids and husband which brought us all peace.

mindfulness is effective

As an teacher of mindfulness based stress reduction in Seattle ( and trainee through Jon Kabat Zinn's Center for Mindfulness and by him in his professional retreat plus my own 30 years of learning and practicing various forms of meditation), I see and hear over and over the many benefits from the graduates of my classes that learning mindfulness and meditation has changed their life. Look for a mindfulness meditation class in your local area and see if you find how a little mindfulness can go a long way. Jon Kabat Zinn has done so much in his eloquent and humble way to broaden others perspectives to help reduce the effects of stress overload, day to day suffering and touch into our more huaman qualities of compassion for self and others.

Mindfulness

Regarding the previous comments: Extensive research over the last 20 years shows that psychological interventions like cognitive behavioral therapy (which is really a form of mindfulness, though not nearly as complex as the forms of mindfulness found in the Indian contemlative traditions) are superior to medication for most anxiety disorders. Regarding TM, I'm not aware of any research showing it is superior to mindfulness, but I'd be interested to hear if you know of any. Please write me at donsalmon2@bellsouth.net and forward the research comparing TM and mindfulness if you know of it.

Actually, in a way, it's a moot point, since most of the TM people I know talk about developing the "witness consciousness" as part of their training - which is exactly what mindfulness is!

Mindfullness

Very good article. We all face stress in our lives and meditating is a wonderful way of handling stress. It doesn't cost a thing and anyone can learn to meditate. Get a book from the library. Drugs and alcohol only add more stress and ruin your life and others around you.

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