Week 4- Enabling Occupation through thoughts and feelings: Mindfulness and Relaxation

 Today was a great lab session because we got to practice mindfulness and relaxation!

The focus of the lab today was to learn how to focus on our thoughts and feelings, relaxation and mindfulness. We started off by doing a "Relaxation Minute":

• Breathe deeply for the next minute. Make sure that your breath fills your chest and abdomen count 1-2-3 on the in breath and 3-2-1 on the out breath. Relax the muscles in your next, shoulders, and arms as much as you can.

 After this we Did a "Mindful Minute":

• Pause for a moment, look around, and notice five things you can see. Listen carefully, and notice five things you can hear. Notice five things you can feel in contact with your body.

Here are some more quick relaxation and mindfulness exercises to try:

Progressive muscle relaxation:

1. Start by getting into a comfortable position.
2. Begin by noticing your breathing, noticing your abdomen rise and fall with each breath 
3. Tense the muscles in the face by making a sour face, like you just ate a lemon, holding that face for four seconds and then release the muscles in your face.
4. Tense the muscles in the shoulders and neck by pressing the shoulders towards the ears and holding for a count of four seconds and then release.
5. Tense the muscles in both of your arms by curling the arms up towards your biceps and holding them as if you are lifting weights and holding it to your chest, holding for four seconds and then release.
6. Tense the muscles in the hands by clenching it into a tight fist, holding for a count of four seconds and then release.
7. Tense the muscles in the upper back by pressing the shoulder blades together and holding for a count of four seconds and then release.
8. the muscles in the abdomen by imagining that we are trying to touch the belly button to the spine, pressing the low back to the chair and holding for a count of four seconds and then release.
9. Tense the muscles of the lower leg by pointing the toes towards the knees, and again holding for three seconds, and then releasing the calf muscles. With your awareness in the calf muscles, now tense the calves and hold for four seconds, and release.

The Game of Five

  In this mindfulness exercise, all you need to do is notice five things in your day that usually go unnoticed. They could be things you hear, smell, feel on your body, or see. For example you might See the walls, hear the birds, feel your clothes or smell the flowers. Of course you may already do these things, but are you really aware of these things and the connections they have with your world?

Andy Puddicombe: All it takes is 10 mindful minutes 
http://www.ted.com/talks/andy_puddicombe_all_it_takes_is_10_mindful_minutes.html

“Most people assume that meditation is all about stopping thoughts, getting rid of emotions, somehow controlling the mind. But actually it’s… about stepping back, seeing the thought clearly, witnessing it coming and going”

The transformative power of refreshing your mind for just 10 minutes a day.  Worrying thoughts are very distressing to people and is almost constantly running through ones head. Mindfulness allows these thoughts to come through your mind without judging them. I can see myself using this in clinical practice with clients who are open to the idea of mindfulness and relaxation. It takes practice to get the hang of it, but has so many positive effects that I felt after on session!

Even I was hesitant about engaging in mindfulness when I first heard about it in lab. I think that it would be easy to discredit it because mindfulness activities are not the typical activity one might engage in every day. I think it is important to be sensitive to the personality of the client I might be working with before introducing this. I think the best attitude to take with this is a "let's just try it and see how it goes" attitude. That way there is no pressure to feel that one has to perform in a certain way.

Additional resources:

This website offers free mindfulness exercises in the form of guided audio tracks. http://www.freemindfulness.org/download

This is an online guide to Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy
http://www.mbct.com