Mindfulness is a concept that I wanted to open myself to and discover ways of slowing down and living in the present. I enrolled in a course for health professionals to help us integrate it into our practice, particularly in palliative care but also for self care and reflection as a tool for life balance.
I am a spiritual person and the “yes” part of me was open to this mindful thinking methodology. I was instructed on the Buddist theory and techniques of meditation and realized that what I could take from it was a version that worked for me.
It is not about learning something until you can perfectly copy it, but to extract the pieces that particularly work for you and integrate them in my life on a regular and healing level.

The principles that particularly worked for me were:

-       The focus on breath – to create silence and focus only on the breathing in and out in order to discard other chaos and anxieties. By practicing this on a regular basis, the mind gets a refreshing time out of complex thinking to focus on a comfortable presence of breath. This can be done sitting in the waiting room for results, in the elevator, at work or in a painful part of your treatment.

-       The depth of focus on the present is very significant. Whether you choose to sit with eyes closed or gently open on a soft distant object, whether you are sitting upright or supported, or in a gently rhythmic walk, the mind must focus entirely on the present. We must engage it to only see the now, both physically and emotionally. We must discard the past because it has gone and to stop thinking of the future since it has not yet happened and focus on the present moment.  We sometimes need reminders to look at what is around us, reciting statements of positive feelings and inner compassion.

-       Peace and inner calmness: the permission to spend time on this exercise,away from other worries or deadlines is important. Finding that place in your head where time stands still and kindness and non-judgement takes over is wonderful. Reinforcing this takes time and repetition.

-     Disconnect thought from feelings by noticing, acknowledging and letting it pass. The key to this is noticing the thought before the associated feelings take over. Reframing the feelings is another step in behavior training but in meditation, simply returning to the present breath is the focus.

From this mindfulness training, it was clear that your mind can be trained to offer compassion to yourself and others without draining your own emotions. This practice and the positive energy and radiance of giving of emotions we discovered was significant. This was one of the skills that I wanted to take with me and share.

Wellspring has great courses in mindfulness meditation. I highly recommend them.

Meditation

I want to tell you- a place that I found

A space in my head, calm with no sound

Its all about breath and finding the Now

its easy to go there if you know how

Decide to take time out of your day

To pause and reflect, keep tasks at bay

acknowledge the thoughts as they appear

return to your breath, not to the fear

Memories surface, they are part of me

controlling the feelings is really the key