Week 3 Recap - “Finding Freedom Through Feeling Tone”
Hi all,
Thank you for joining us for week 3!
What We Learned
A key theme of this week was becoming aware of your sensations—both pleasant and unpleasant. We covered the “O” in STOP ACHE GO - Observing with Openness and “P” - Pleasantness and unPleasantness, hence finishing all of "STOP."
A few of us discussed positive changes experienced during your mindfulness practice, such as extending kindness to yourself when attention wanders, or taking a break when your body reaches its physical limits. But many of us are encountering barriers to practicing. Both traditional and modern meditation teachers know that there are five kinds of barriers—tricks our minds play on us—that you may encounter when trying to train your “monkey-mind.”
These are:
Aversion/ Avoidance
Craving/Wanting
Restlessness/Agitation
Fatigue/Tiredness
Skepticism/Doubt
If you are experiencing any or all of these resistances, just take note! These resistances are all part of learning and can be deeply ingrained or "hard-wired" behaviors.
We also discussed negativity bias and acknowledging more unpleasant meditation experiences. Another way to overcome the negativity bias is to strengthen the muscle of savoring (a new informal practice we learned) or leaning into the pleasantness of any object. If you develop a habit of savoring, you will find that after some time, life will feel fuller.
If you would find it helpful, feel free to take a moment to complete the weekly check-in form if you would to let the instructors know about something that you have encountered.
Home Practice
Formal Practice
Alternate each day between practicing mindful movement (standing or on the floor) for 30-45 min OR practicing the body scan for 30-45 min using recordings provided. At this point, if you find it helpful to practice without the recordings, please go ahead and do so!
Please begin with the Center for Mindfulness recordings, found here: https://www.chacmc.org/mtpcprogram
Additional mindful movement recordings: https://soundcloud.com/ucsdmindfulness/sets/mindful-movement
Additional body scan recordings:
Informal Practice
Try incorporating at least one informal practice into each day this week. Informal practices include: mindful savoring, mindful walking, awareness of body sensations, etc.
Pleasant and Unpleasant Event Diamonds:
Fill out the Pleasant and Unpleasant Event Diamond, available in the manual for Week 3, for at least one pleasant and unpleasant event this week. Then try applying STOP-ACHE-GO to the pleasant and unpleasant events. You can also apply it to autopilot or stress if desired.
Final Note
Remember: This week's theme was "Finding Freedom through Feeling Tone." Every situation has associated thoughts, feelings, sensations, and urges. Freedom comes from holding greater awareness of each part of this diamond of experience. If you can catch the physical sensations of anger during an argument, perhaps you can choose to respond differently and prevent from acting in a way that would worsen the situation! Remember too the impermanence of things--pleasant situations can quickly become unpleasant if we crave for them to last forever.
See you next week! If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to email or call.
Warm regards,
Ian and the MTPC Team
