Welcome to week two. We are going to start straight away with a very simple exercise. Please find a piece of paper and pen or pencil so that you are ready to jot down your experiences when I ask you to. Press pause if you need to go and fetch them.
Imagine you are walking down a familiar street...
You see someone you know on the other side of the street...
You smile and nod or wave...
The person makes no response...
Just doesn't seem to notice you...
Carries on walking past without any sign of recognising your existence...
What are you thinking? How do you feel?
Write down your thoughts and feelings now.
Ok, nearly finished? Let’s think about:
The difference between thoughts and feelings.
Here are some examples of some thoughts and feelings that students have written before:
Thought: "He didn't even acknowledge me. What did I do to upset him?" Feeling: Worried
Thought: "I wonder why he didn't look at me?" Feeling: Curious
Thought: "She doesn't like me. Nobody really likes me." Feeling: Depressed
Thought: "You must have seen me. Fine, if that's how you feel. Do what you want." Feeling: Angry
Thought: "She was probably preoccupied with something. I hope she's ok." Feeling: Concerned.
Can you recognise the difference between the thoughts and the feelings? Thoughts are what we often articulate to ourselves in our minds as words, sentences or images. Feelings are those states of emotion that you actually experience both in your mind and, at the same time, actually feel in your body. Maybe as sadness, heavy heart, warmth, welling anger, pressure in the head, tension in the throat.
Take a few moments to think about what you wrote down yourself and see if you can see the difference between your thoughts and your feelings.
Have you noticed how you and the other students have experienced a similar situation in several very different ways. Which one was right?
Well of course we have no way of knowing. The point is all we are doing is interpreting a situation based on
how we are feeling at that particular moment ourselves - our mood at that moment.
our past experiences
our feelings about the future.
Thoughts are not facts.
Thoughts are simply mental events. Those mental events are in your mind. They are not reality. Thoughts are our interpretations of events.
And our emotional reactions reflect the interpretations that we give to situations. They do not reflect the actual situation.
And our moods affect how we interpret events in ways that tend to keep those moods going.
In a depressed mood, we tend to interpret events negatively: we think someone is deliberately ignoring us rather than that she might be preoccupied with troubles of her own. These negative interpretations: she doesn't like me, nobody likes me, I'm not worth liking... take us on a downward spiral of depression.
If we are feeling tense and anxious, we are in a heightened state of alertness to what might go wrong and so we interpret the situation
The more time that you devote to interpreting situations, predicting situations, carefully producing possible conversations and interactions in your mind, with your thoughts, the more your emotional state will be dictated by these, lets face it, fictional situations.
If we think someone is ignoring us because we have done something to upset them, we feel worried; if we think someone is deliberately ignoring us for no reason, we feel angry; if we think the person is preoccupied with his own worries, we feel concerned.
Maybe the other person was following their own interpretation of the situation based on their own feelings and experiences. Most significantly, our thoughts and emotions are so quick to express themselves that we are often unaware of how we are interpreting a situation. We just get taken off down a path of thoughts and emotions. Mindfulness can help us become more aware of how we are reacting and give us the ability to chose to respond differently.
Last week we did an exercise in eating with mindfulness. Our next exercise this week is moving with mindfulness.
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For this exercise you ideally need enough space to reach your hands out to both sides and above your head. If possible do the exercise standing, but you can also follow the movements perfectly well while sitting. The important thing, as always, is that you do the exercise! Wherever and whenever you have the time. You don't need any special clothing. Preferably without shoes. You need about ten minutes.
Press pause while you prepare yourself.
Let's begin.
Standing or sitting with your feet flat on the floor a comfortable hip width apart. Feel the ground beneath your feet. The ground beneath your toes. Beneath your heels, beneath the arches of your feet. Beneath your right foot. Beneath your left foot. Wiggle your toes. Feel the movement of your toes, of your feet, your heels and your ankles.
Notice your calves, your knees. Wiggle your knees a little. Just a little. All your movements should feel comfortable. If they are not comfortable, do a little less.
Notice your thighs, the backs of your thighs, your hips, your pelvis. Wiggle your hips, pelvis and legs a little.
Notice the front of your pelvis, your tummy, your back, your ribcage. Wiggle your whole torso a little.
Notice your shoulders. Wiggle your right shoulder a little. Your left shoulder a little. Just a little, keep it comfortable.
Notice your hands, your fingers. Wiggle your right fingers, your left fingers.
Wiggle your wrists. Just a little.
Notice your forearms, your elbows. Wiggle your elbows just a little.
Notice your upper arms. Your shoulders. Wiggle your shoulders.
Notice your neck. Gentle wiggle your neck upwards.
Notice the back of your head, your scalp, your forehead, your eyes. Wiggle your eyes a little.
Your nose and your lips. Wiggle a little.
Your jaw and your tongue. Give them a little wiggle.
Now back to your feet resting on the ground and your scalp rising to the ceiling.
Look up to your right as if there was a branch of a tree just above you to your right. Only move your head and neck as much as is comfortable for you.
Imagine there is a beautiful bird sitting on the branch with a wonderful long tail of soft feathers hanging down. Reach up with both hands and gently stroke the tail between your hands from the top, down across your body to the tip of the tail. Feel the softness and airiness of the feathers as you stroke them.
Once again reach up and gently grasp the tail again, sweep down the tail once again, enjoying the sensation between your hands.
And once more, this time, if you can, rising a little on to your toes, a little more weight on your right foot than your left, reaching a little further with your hands, sweeping down the tail, across your body, right to the tip which is so close to the ground that you need to bend your hips and knees and ankles just a little.
And once again, looking up to the bird, reaching up from your toes and stretching up with your hands, arms, shoulders, waist and pelvis to stroke the tail all the way down, across your body, bending your hips, knees, ankles just a little, to sweep all the way to the tip of the tail.
Now standing upright again, feet on the ground, shoulders loose, scalp light and floaty towards the ceiling.
You notice a small stone, just a little way in front of you, slightly to your left. You look at this small stone with interest. Start to bend you ankles, knees and hips a little so you can look a little closer. Reach out gently with your arms and hands as if to pick it up. But only bend and reach as far as is comfortable for you. Your don't need to touch the ground. Use just one finger of your left hand to gentle imagine you are rolling the stone around on the ground a little. It doesn't matter if you can't reach the stone on the ground. You can still roll it around a little.
Now start to straighten again. Feel your buttock and thigh muscles work to straighten your legs. Feel the ground under your feet again as your weight evens out between your two feet again.
Feel the ground beneath your toes. Beneath your heels, beneath the arches of your feet. Wiggle your toes. Feel the movement of your toes, of your feet, your heels and your ankles.
Notice your calves, your knees. Wiggle your knees a little. Just a little. All your movements should feel comfortable. If they are not comfortable, do a little less.
Notice your thighs, the backs of your thighs, your hips, your pelvis. Wiggle your hips, pelvis and legs a little.
Notice the front of your pelvis, your tummy, your back, your ribcage. Wiggle your whole torso a little.
Notice your hands, your fingers. Wiggle your right fingers, your left fingers.
Wiggle your wrists. Just a little.
Notice your forearms, your elbows. Wiggle your elbows just a little.
Notice your upper arms. Your shoulders. Wiggle your shoulders.
Notice your neck. Gentle wiggle your neck upwards.
Notice the back of your head, your scalp, your forehead, your eyes. Wiggle your eyes a little.
Your nose and your lips. Wiggle a little.
Your jaw and your tongue. Give them a little wiggle.
Now back to your feet resting on the ground and your scalp rising to the ceiling.
Enjoy the sensations within your body for a little while.
Become more aware of the room around you again and bring your standing mindfulness meditation to an end.
END
Video THREE
A Week Three Daily Activity: Mindful Movement
Just as we did together, I would like you to repeat this exercise every day this week.
You can follow this video each day or use the audiofile attached to this lecture.
For this exercise you ideally need enough space to reach your hands out to both sides and above your head. If possible do the exercise standing, but you can also follow the movements perfectly well while sitting. The important thing, as always, is that you do the exercise! Wherever and whenever you have the time. You don't need any special clothing. Preferably without shoes. You need about ten minutes.
Press pause while you prepare yourself.
Let's begin.
Standing or sitting with your feet flat on the floor a comfortable hip width apart. Feel the ground beneath your feet. The ground beneath your toes. Beneath your heels, beneath the arches of your feet. Beneath your right foot. Beneath your left foot. Wiggle your toes. Feel the movement of your toes, of your feet, your heels and your ankles.
Notice your calves, your knees. Wiggle your knees a little. Just a little. All your movements should feel comfortable. If they are not comfortable, do a little less.
Notice your thighs, the backs of your thighs, your hips, your pelvis. Wiggle your hips, pelvis and legs a little.
Notice the front of your pelvis, your tummy, your back, your ribcage. Wiggle your whole torso a little.
Notice your shoulders. Wiggle your right shoulder a little. Your left shoulder a little. Just a little, keep it comfortable.
Notice your hands, your fingers. Wiggle your right fingers, your left fingers.
Wiggle your wrists. Just a little.
Notice your forearms, your elbows. Wiggle your elbows just a little.
Notice your upper arms. Your shoulders. Wiggle your shoulders.
Notice your neck. Gentle wiggle your neck upwards.
Notice the back of your head, your scalp, your forehead, your eyes. Wiggle your eyes a little.
Your nose and your lips. Wiggle a little.
Your jaw and your tongue. Give them a little wiggle.
Now back to your feet resting on the ground and your scalp rising to the ceiling.
Look up to your right as if there was a branch of a tree just above you to your right. Only move your head and neck as much as is comfortable for you.
Imagine there is a beautiful bird sitting on the branch with a wonderful long tail of soft feathers hanging down. Reach up with both hands and gently stroke the tail between your hands from the top, down across your body to the tip of the tail. Feel the softness and airiness of the feathers as you stroke them.
Once again reach up and gently grasp the tail again, sweep down the tail once again, enjoying the sensation between your hands.
And once more, this time, if you can, rising a little on to your toes, a little more weight on your right foot than your left, reaching a little further with your hands, sweeping down the tail, across your body, right to the tip which is so close to the ground that you need to bend your hips and knees and ankles just a little.
And once again, looking up to the bird, reaching up from your toes and stretching up with your hands, arms, shoulders, waist and pelvis to stroke the tail all the way down, across your body, bending your hips, knees, ankles just a little, to sweep all the way to the tip of the tail.
Now standing upright again, feet on the ground, shoulders loose, scalp light and floaty towards the ceiling.
You notice a small stone, just a little way in front of you, slightly to your left. You look at this small stone with interest. Start to bend you ankles, knees and hips a little so you can look a little closer. Reach out gently with your arms and hands as if to pick it up. But only bend and reach as far as is comfortable for you. Your don't need to touch the ground. Use just one finger of your left hand to gentle imagine you are rolling the stone around on the ground a little. I doesn't matter if you can't reach the stone on the ground. You can still roll it around a little.
Now start to straighten again. Feel your buttock and thigh muscles work to straighten your legs. Feel the ground under your feet again as your weight evens out between your two feet again.
Feel the ground beneath your toes. Beneath your heels, beneath the arches of your feet. Wiggle your toes. Feel the movement of your toes, of your feet, your heels and your ankles.
Notice your calves, your knees. Wiggle your knees a little. Just a little. All your movements should feel comfortable. If they are not comfortable, do a little less.
Notice your thighs, the backs of your thighs, your hips, your pelvis. Wiggle your hips, pelvis and legs a little.
Notice the front of your pelvis, your tummy, your back, your ribcage. Wiggle your whole torso a little.
Notice your hands, your fingers. Wiggle your right fingers, your left fingers.
Wiggle your wrists. Just a little.
Notice your forearms, your elbows. Wiggle your elbows just a little.
Notice your upper arms. Your shoulders. Wiggle your shoulders.
Notice your neck. Gentle wiggle your neck upwards.
Notice the back of your head, your scalp, your forehead, your eyes. Wiggle your eyes a little.
Your nose and your lips. Wiggle a little.
Your jaw and your tongue. Give them a little wiggle.
Now back to your feet resting on the ground and your scalp rising to the ceiling.
Enjoy the sensations within your body for a little while.
Become more aware of the room around you again and bring your standing mindfulness meditation to an end.
END
VIDEO FOUR
A Week Two Activity: Walking with Mindfulness.
This activity is a continuation of this week's theme of mindfulness movement. Walking is great exercise and suitable for almost anyone. And of course you are included if you need a stick or a wheelchair to help you. You can walk as quickly or slowly as you like. And for as far as you like.
I'd like you to go for at least one walk this week. Your normal daily commute is included, although it would be great if you could find a different time to walk - use it as another habit releaser exercise!
As you walk, focus on your feet as they make contact with the ground. Feel the movement from your heels to your toes, the effect on the muscles of your legs (or your arms if you are propelling yourself in a wheelchair). Notice how your arms swing, how your whole body twists and sways as you walk.
Look around you. Look up at the buildings, at the trees. Notice what is happening around you. Stop and look for a while if you like. Notice all those things you wouldn't see at normal eye level. Stoop down and look around you as if your were a child or an animal - what would they notice? Look up at the top of the buildings, the top of the trees. What might a bird on the telegraph wires be able to see?
Notice the birds and the animals; the insects and the flowers. Smell the different aromas around you: the grass, the traffic, the smell of different buildings and businesses.
What can you hear?
Feel the heat from the ground, the pavement and the buildings.
Feel the air as it moves around you; the breeze on your face, the sound of the wind in your hair.
Wander along for a while at a slower pace. Then speed up. How does your body feel as you move faster through the air?
Now choose a colour. And for the rest of your walk look for that colour. It could be the colour red or it could be a particular shade of a colour such as lime green. Notice how widespread some colours or hues are and how even if you have chosen a colour you wouldn't expect to see very much in nature or in the town, it will be there. Notice how in finding the colours, you see so much more around you.
You can make notes of anything you noticed in Assignment Six.
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