MiF session 4

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Session 4

Attention to breathing

The breathing movement is similar to the movement of the sea: you feel inhalation and exhalation as ebb and flow, contraction and extension, recording and distribution, receiving and donating, arise and perish.

By bringing attention to your breath, you learn to use your breath as an anchor to retake and calm yourself while being open to what you are experiencing –whatever it is.

What can your breathing do for you?

• If you focus on your breathing, it brings you back into the now. When you are worrying, your thoughts are usually with the past (if only I had...) or with the future (I have to..). By focusing on your breathing, you can more easily get out of those worrying thoughts by shifting your attention.

• Your breathing is always there. Whatever is there, you can always go back to your breathing. You can see it as a handhold. If you feel annoying, if you are bothered by your surroundings, you can always focus your attention

Session 4

on your breathing. You’ve been breathing in all kinds of situations all your life, giving you the breath in all kinds of use situations consciously.

• Your breathing can be seen as a barometer for your emotional state.

• Your breathing can change the way you see things. Breathing gives space and a broader perspective to see things.

• Paying attention to your breathing is the opposite of purpose; You don’t have to let your breathing do its work; You only observe how your body breathes. You are breathed, as it were.

In this session we introduce - the breathing space - also called the five-minute exercise. You can use this as a moment of break but certainly also to learn to feel your limits better. It increases your awareness, so that you realize earlier that you are, for example, tense and can make adjustments where necessary.

Ad van Dun

The influence of stress

There are all kinds of things that can cause stress. Examples are desires, disgust, restlessness, fatigue and doubt. You can also encounter these things during the body scan. These moods usually cause stress. You don’t want to be tired or restless, so you’re going to fight it. Or maybe you’re trying to run away. Some people respond to stress by getting angry or sad.

The effect is often that you only build up more stress. What can help you is doing the five-minute exercise. By doing this exercise you have no time to fight or flee and you get space to distance yourself from what gives you stress. After the five minutes of exercise, for example, it often feels like you can start ‘again’.

Automatic (unconscious) reaction

- Flee or fight

- Emotional response

- Minimize (block)

- Maximize (angry)

The five-minute exercise

In the five-minute exercise, you focus first on what you feel and think, then on your breathing, and then on your entire body. It is a short exercise that can help you to feel how you are at that moment and to feel your limits. The exercise can also give a moment of rest, making it feel like you are going through the day with new energy.

Many people tend to take too few breaks throughout the day. They keep going until they cross their boundaries. By the five minutes exercise you feel how you are a few times during the day. You distance yourself from what you are doing at that moment. This allows your body to recover for a while, as it were. You then take a ‘breather’.

During your activities throughout the day, you are often in do-mode. The five minutes Exercise can help you get into BEING mode. When you’re in being mode, your body can relax for a while. The being mode also means accepting that the situation is as it is at that moment. This is nice, it gives a little more relaxation. Through this exercise you get ‘out of autopilot’.

For some people, the five minutes helps exercise also to take some distance from a difficult situation, which makes it easier for them to decide after the exercise what they are going to do with that situation.

The exercise consists of the following three components:

1. How are you now?

You start the exercise by becoming aware of how you are doing at that moment. What thoughts do you have, what do you feel in your body and are there certain emotions? You can just let these thoughts, feelings and emotions be there, you don’t have to change anything. You just have to notice that they are there.

2. Respiration

The next step is to focus on breathing. Follow the inhalation and exhalation. You don’t have to change anything about your breathing. By focusing on your breathing, you focus you are on something that is there now and you are therefore not thinking about the past or the future. So you take a step back from the situation, as it were, by shifting your attention to your breathing.

3. Body

Finally, focus your attention on your body. In addition to your breathing, you become aware of your body. Feel how you sit and what you feel in your body. In this five-minute phase Exercise allows some people to feel good if they are tense or they feel other body signals. For other people, connecting with their bodies is a way to connect with the here-and-now.

You can feel your body in different ways. For some, it works especially well to feel how your body makes contact with the chair or the surface. For the other person, it is nice to walk the body from top to bottom (or vice versa). Research which way suits you and use this way.

How do you do the exercise?

Try to do the five-minute exercise three or more times a day, preferably at set times. Most people do this exercise while sitting, but of course it can also be done lying down. Above all, see what suits you. You can listen to the exercise at home, but also at work or somewhere else where you can retreat for a while. If it is difficult to find a place where you are alone for a while, you can also do the exercise on the toilet at work, or in a (stationary) car. Some people do the exercise by heart. Some set an alarm after 5 minutes (for example, on their mobile). After a while you can choose whether you want all three focus points to be discussed and also how long you need.

Quitting is the first step. If we don’t stop, we are taken into the maelstrom of life. We are lived instead of living

The question is when?

The simple answer is NOW

The pitfall is: LATER

Often our lives go so fast that we think we don’t have the time. If we wait until the time comes for that, we will probably never have time. In principle, every moment lends itself to stopping for a while. When the phone rings, let it ring three times. Three seconds to pause and stop what you were doing and then be there again.

Mindfulness is stopping (stopping) to be present in this reality with mild open attention (looking) so that you can deal with it with more freedom (act)

Exercises for next week at session 4

1 Do the long sitting meditation daily.

2.Do the five-minute exercise 3 times a day.

3. Do the movement meditation or the walking meditation 3 times in the next week.

Tip

You can also combine these exercises by doing them one after the other. For example, first a movement meditation then the 5 minutes exercise and a sitting meditation after it.

Praktijk voor persoonli ke begeleiding en re atietherapie

We have now reached the end of week 4. You have read the texts, done the assignments, listened to the audio files daily and thought about yourself in this way. Now briefly summarize what you have learned from this session.

1. What do you take away from this session

2. what are you going to do next week

3. What will this bring you?

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