Dr. Joe Rhinewine, psychologist, continues his edu-tainment series on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Today he takes on the 2nd of 4 “Mindfulness” processes dealt with in ACT, namely, “Willingness,” also sometimes called “Acceptance.” He clarifies what is meant in ACT by Willingness, and once again enlists the aid of stuffed animals, fake brains and other corny devices to illustrate his points.
Like these apple blossoms, we can bloom in any weather, under any conditions. Whatever your amount of experience with meditation, you will learn, grow and thrive this Spring as you cultivate mindfulness. Learning to meditate or revitalizing a meditation practice could be the single best thing you do for yourself in 2013. Register for a class today!
Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation
This four-week class is perfect for absolute beginners, or a wonderful refresher, even if you have a longstanding mindfulness meditation practice. We will explore many tools of mindfulness.
Thursdays February 7th, 21st, 28th, and March 7th, 6:30 – 8pm
$100 early registration, $120 after February 1st.
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Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)
The 8-week class originated by Jon Kabat-Zinn, supported by 30 years of research. Mindfulness is a way to bring vibrancy to our lives. MBSR can also be a powerful adjunct to therapy or medical treatment, and has proven beneficial for chronic pain, various health conditions, or just simply “living the full catastrophe.” Free (required)
Orientation dates:
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MBSR Refresher
By popular demand, a regular opportunity to come practice the tools of mindfulness. This is a wonderful way to support an ongoing (but maybe flagging) home practice. Of course, we are all beginners, so everyone is welcome.
Thursday, March 21st, 6:30-8pm
$15
Filed under Class Announcements
With winter comes the opportunity to make a fresh start
Do you want to make a fresh start? Begin a new year in a whole new way–
This class will offer participants the means for a new experience of life in the new year, using mindfulness techniques.
Clean Slate: Keeping Resolutions in the New Year will include basic instruction in mindfulness meditation, values clarification exercises, goal-setting and guided discussion. Beginning and intermediate meditation students welcome. Class is facilitated by Portland Mindfulness psychologist and director, Joe Rhinewine, PhD.
Mondays January 7th, 14th, 28th. 6:30 – 8pm
Filed under Class Announcements
We have a bevy of new class offering in 2013. Bevy. I like that word.
Click here to check them out and register for the one that suits you best!
…or read on!
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Clean Slate: Keeping Resolutions in the New Year
Begin a new year in a whole new way. This class will offer participants the means for a new experience of life in the new year, using mindfulness techniques. The class will include basic instruction in mindfulness meditation, values clarification exercises, goal-setting and guided discussion. Beginning and intermediate meditation students welcome. Class is facilitated by Dr Joe Rhinewine, who is a psychologist. He specializes in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and draws heavily from this and other mindfulness modalities.
Mondays January 7th, 14th, 28th. 6:30 – 8pm
$75 early registration, $90 after January 4th
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Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation
This four-week class is perfect for absolute beginners, or a wonderful refresher, even if you have a longstanding mindfulness meditation practice. We will explore many tools of mindfulness.
Thursdays February 7th, 21st, 28th, and March 7th, 6:30 – 8pm
$100 early registration, $120 after February 1st.
—
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)
The 8-week class originated by Jon Kabat-Zinn, supported by 30 years of research. Mindfulness is a way to bring vibrancy to our lives. MBSR can also be a powerful adjunct to therapy or medical treatment, and has proven beneficial for chronic pain, various health conditions, or just simply “living the full catastrophe.” Free (required)
Orientation dates:
—
MBSR Refreshers
By popular demand, a regular opportunity to come practice the tools of mindfulness. This is a wonderful way to support an ongoing (but maybe flagging) home practice. Of course, we are all beginners, so everyone is welcome.
Thursdays, January 17th, March 21st, 6:30-8pm
$15
Filed under Class Announcements
Portland Mindfulness offers a range of meditation classes for various levels of commitment. We are all beginners, so beginners are welcome at every level. It’s just a matter of how much time you want to commit. If you are just starting to meditate and want to try things out, I recommend the first class listed below, Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation. On the other hand, if you have some experience and/or are highly stressed and motivated to practice, I recommend MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction). If you have already taken MBSR, and could use help in maintaining your meditation practice, try one of our MBSR refresher sessions to get your practice back on-track.
Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation
This four-week class is perfect for absolute beginners, or a wonderful refresher, even if you have a longstanding mindfulness meditation practice. We will explore many tools of mindfulness. Come and learn how to practice “Beginners Mind.”
Classes are Thursdays February 7th, 21st, 28th, and March 7th, 6:30 – 8pm
$100 earlybird registration, $120 after February 1st.
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)
The 8-week class originated by Jon Kabat-Zinn, supported by 30 years of research. This is a powerful adjunct to therapy or medical treatment, and has proven beneficial for chronic pain, various health conditions, or just simply “living the full catastrophe.”
Free (required) Orientation dates:Wednesdays January 30th OR February 6th, 6:30 – 8:30pm.
Classes are Wednesdays February 13th – April 3rd 6:30 – 8:30pm.
Day-Long Retreat Saturday March 16th, 9 – 4. Previous MBSR Graduates welcome to retreat.
$350 earlybird registration, $400 after February 8th.
MBSR Refreshers
By popular demand, a regular opportunity to come practice the tools of mindfulness. This is a wonderful way to support an ongoing (but maybe flagging) home practice. Of course, we are all beginners, so everyone is welcome.
Classes are Thursdays, January 17th, March 21st, 6:30-8pm
$15
Filed under Class Announcements
| In the pressure and busyness of the holidays, it is easy to lose sight of what is really important. Give yourself a gift this holiday season; one that will benefit everyone around you. We will learn: Skills to cultivate compassion, barriers to self-compassion, and how self-compassion is anything but selfish. From Dread to Joy: Self-Compassion in the Holiday Season is is a three-class Series on Wednesday evenings, 6:30 – 8:00pm. It begins November 28th; subsequent classes are December 5th and 12th. The class is taught by Laura Martin, LCSW, a veteran mindfulness instructor and psychotherapist.
$75 earlybird registration, $90 after November 26. REGISTER NOW! Call 503.222.2361, ext. 1. You may leave a message with your phone number if you reach voicemail. Our staff will return your call within 2 business days. |
Filed under Class Announcements
Fiery, explosive, caustic and destructive, anger can ruin relationships, even lives.
When we indulge anger, rage and irritability, we do not really FEEL them: we act on them without full awareness of our feelings or of the potential consequences of our actions. Much can be said on that topic, but I want to keep focused on how to channel these upheavals skillfully.
Using mindfulness, you can channel the energy of these common, human emotions into valuable endeavors. To do so you must be aware of body sensations.
Direct attention to the body, not the mind. The mind cannot solve these problems, and the mind cannot skillfully redirect the underlying energy. Only the body, infused with mindful awareness, can do this.
So bring awareness to the body, shine awareness into the body, as you would shine a flashlight into someplace that is dark. As you do so, consciously separate from the “story,” from the “reasons” you feel angry. Keep detached from that beloved story about why so-and-so is wrong, and why you are right. Why things and people “should” be different from how they in fact are.
Notice exactly what the emotions feel like in THIS MOMENT. Do you sense heat? Pressure? Prickliness? Swirling? Try to find some words for these immediate sensations. Even better, find some imagery: If these sensations were painted by an artist, what would they look like? If they were smells or tastes, what would they be like? Practice with them for several minutes. Notice how difficult it can be to detach from the “story,” from the “reasons” you are angry, and focus on the sensations themselves. Keep coming back to the sensations.
Now that you have practiced in this way, you are ready to use that underlying, powerful energy for anything that you choose. Something physical would be perfect: Exercise, dance, practice martial arts. Or, write that articulate and civil, but strongly-worded letter to the bank that you’ve needed to write for some time. Or, do some artwork or music. Just stay detached from your anger-story, and focused on the sensations themselves.
You may be surprised by what happens.
Filed under Anger and Hate
Rush! Race! Hurry!
Write that paper!
Deliver that deliverable! (what the heck is a ‘deliverable’ anyway?)
Tote that barge! Lift that bale!
This is your brain on “Pusher” mode. The “Pusher” is what Voice Dialogue practitioners call that voice inside your head that pushes you to do more, more, always more.
The “Pusher” takes its standards from an inner “Standard Setter.” They work together with the “Inner Critic” as an unholy Trinity; the Inner Critic punishes you when you fail to do everything the Pusher tells you you must do.
What needs to be done? What’s a good reason to do? What are not-so-good reasons?
Our sources of motivation and inspiration determine the flavor of our lives. If we are motivated primarily by fear, life will be bitter. If we are motivated primarily by our values, by our loves and devotions and beliefs and aesthetic preferences, our lives will be sweeter.
What are you hurrying for?
If you’re hurrying primarily out of fear, please slow down. I’m thinking you will not be physically killed if you slow down. You MIGHT kill someone or yourself with your car if you do not slow down.
If you’re hurrying primarily out of realistic assessment of the pressure of time, from a temporary determination to accomplish a time-bound goal, from a place of love, of valued living, then please, hurry mindfully. And be mindful of whether you REALLY need to hurry so much.
Filed under Everyday Mindfulness
Anxiety stinks. We hate it. Feelings of anxiety can be incredibly uncomfortable. We often respond to them by wavering, seeking safety, and even abandoning our valued goals.
We have a whole range of ways we try to feel safe when our minds say “I am not safe.” One of them is worrying. ”Maybe if I think about this enough, I’ll feel safer.”
Avoiding feared situations, or entering the situations and “white-knuckling” through them are other ways we try to feel safer. All the various ways we avoid the basic feelings of insecurity and “Not-safe-ness” can result in a lot of long-term losses. Often, they do not even make us feel better in the short term. When they do, they are often very costly in the long term, and ultimately, unsuccessful in making our world seem safe and secure to us.
If you’ve been reading this blog or other articles on mindfulness for awhile, it probably comes as no surprise that our suggested response to anxiety is acceptance: learning to allow insecurity to exist, learning to be open to discomfort. We practice mindfulness in order to learn how to keep going with our lives, even when we do not feel safe.
Fundamentally, we are not safe: we cannot avoid illness, pain and death, and never will succeed in doing so. Worse yet, we cannot avoid failure, embarrassment, shame, humiliation, and other emotionally painful experiences. Neither our social world nor our physical world is safe.
We practice mindfulness meditation regularly, following the breath, opening our minds and hearts to our experience, letting thoughts be thoughts, letting discomfort be discomfort, not trying to fix anything, cultivating open observation. As we do this over a long period of time, and as we deliberately apply in our everyday lives what we have learned on the meditation cushion — perhaps with the help of a teacher or therapist — we gradually become more “OK” with not being safe.
Then, in time, much more time than our hurried, anxious minds would like, in time, we begin to feel that, not-feeling-safe, is not unsafe. We lose, gradually, our fear of fear. We become more open to “I Don’t Feel Safe,” begin to let go of the struggle to feel “safe,” and focus more and more on living this incredible life in which we find ourselves existing.
Filed under Anxiety and Fear
Well, I just wrote a great post (or so I think) on hopelessness and suicide… and then lost it somehow.
So I guess, as Newage-y people say, “The Universe” wanted me to write about something else. I’ve previously talked about Mindfulness as Sticktuitiveness.
So let’s put a slightly different spin on it today. Let’s say, “Mindfulness is Endless Resourcefulness.”
I’m not going to try to re-write the Hopelessness post; it will circle around again as suicide is always an issue in life, especially in clinical psychology and social work.
Rather, a few words on persistence and resourcefulness.
BUT BEFORE I CONTINUE, I WILL SAVE MY FILE SOMEWHERE ELSE… 
Mindfulness is also remembering to save your file.
What is ‘Resourcefulness’ and how does it relate to persistence and creativity? In some senses, I think the most basic trait we are looking for in mindfulness practice is resourcefulness. We don’t always need to stick to something. We need to be selective about where we persist with our goals, and where we abandon them in favor of more suitable ones. Mindfulness is not banging your head against a brick wall.
Resourcefulness can be a basic faith that, if THIS isn’t worth my time, then SOMETHING ELSE is worth my time. It is a commitment to always having my eyes open for what is worth my time and energy NOW, not 5 minutes ago, not tomorrow, but NOW. What is there to do now that is worth my time and energy?
A very wise woman was once asked to summarize her philosophy of life. She said simply, “Choose again.”
No matter what is happening, you can always choose again. Always.
Now, I wonder if this post will post this time? No matter. I have it saved in another file. And emailed to myself. And photographed…
Filed under Everyday Mindfulness
