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‘Peace
Peace can only exist in the present moment. It is ridiculous to say “Wait until I finish this, then I will be free to live in peace.”
What is “this”? A diploma, a job, a house, the payment of a debt?
If you think that way, peace will never come. There is always another “this” that will follow the present one.
If you are not living in peace at the present moment, you will never be able to. If you truly want to be at peace, you must be at peace right now.
Otherwise, there is only “the hope of peace some day.”’
Thich Nhat Nanh, The Sun My Heart, quoted in The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself From Chronic Unhappiness by Mark Williams, John Teasdale, Zindel Segal, and Jon Kabat-Zinn [my paragraphs – DC]
I discovered the Mark Williams book recently and it has been a marvellous introduction to mindfulness for me. Where have I been, only recently sitting down to explore this fascinating topic?
I have now read or are reading a number of books on this topic and can honestly say that the mindful way has a lot to contribute to the addiction recovery field.
For you lucky people based in the States, I can see that there is an excellent looking online course on mindulness-based relapse prevention coming up soon (mid-April). If I was you, I would sign up fast.
Anything connected to Alan Marlatt’s group has got to be top quality. In fact, I found an Alan Marlatt “Mindfulness for Addiction Problems” video you can purcase.
Again for you Americans, there is an interesting “Awakening to Mindfulness” conference coming up in San Diego on April 2-4th. Just wish I could be there.
I’m sure I’ll be writing about mindfulness in the future and pointing you in the direction of good material. For now, I leave you with the above and with Google.
Anyone out there using mindfulness in the addiction recovery field, either as a personal tool or as professional?
Peace??,now there is a notion!!.This is something that i have been searching for all my life and still yet to find.
Yes, Chris, I’m looking for that as well. Maybe that is why I am on other side of world! Not getting it though!!
Seriously though, I’ve started to do mindful training. One of my early problems was (is) falling asleep in one of the exercises – it’s meant to help you become more aware of the present, not LESS AWARE.
Give the book a whirl Chris. Forget that it is about depression. The philosophy and exercises are just as relevant to addiction. I think you will like what they say about faulty thinking. And how to correct it.
Will do D.C,i cant speak for others on this one,but the issue with me lies in the fact that im torn between a peaceful life and the rush of living on the edge(i feel the most alive when im close to death) if that makes sense???.
Anyway,i will check the book out,thanks for the tip!!
P.S..Whats ‘ faulty thinking ‘??
Hi
I use ACT – Acceptance and Commitment Therapy with stimulant clients. It comes from the behaviour tradition and one of the main components is the use of mindfulness exercises. This is what is called the third wave CBT, which includes Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), Dialectic Behaviour Therapy (DBT) and ACT, amongst some others. I also use the techniques for my own recovery especially the ACT techniques – I find that they sit with addiction really comfortably. I book to check out is The Happiness Trap by Dr Russ Harris; you can get the first chapter from his web site to give you a taste.
Thanks
Thanks Tony. I’ve downloaded chapter ready to read later. Where are you based?
Irene & I have a good relationship with the Nelson Trust, our local rehab in Gloucestershire, and attended a session on mindfulness on one of our visits there. We found it fascinating and it gave us much food for thought.
In a nutshell, the message was ‘while we spend our time looking back at the past (often with regret), or being fearful of the future, we actually lose the ability to enjoy living in the present’.
We try to remind ourselves of this in our busy day-to-day lives, and often apply it to both ourselves and our clients.
Hi
Based in Manchester
cheers
What a great nutshell!
We also spend too much time in trying to close the gap between the way things are and the way we think they should be.
Or too much time trying to deal with the perceived mismatch between who we see ourselves as, and who we want to be.
I, for one, spend too much time in the past and future. I’m working on that though!
Mindfulness – I am a cynic – I was a cynic. Much to the rides of laughter from some of my colleagues.
I went on a short 2 day course introducing us to Mindfulness, where we looked at some of the theory and thinking behind it but more importantly experienced some of the exercises. I giggled through the first quarter and found it hard – I wasn’t sold but then I was a cynic and was thinking like one, so I was not going to be sold it was I. Half way through the 1st exercise I thought I had better try and take it a bit more seriously after all my employers had forked out for the course and I am a ‘professional’. Before I had reached the half way mark of the exercise I was finding myself drifing in and out of sleep but what I was doing also was experiencing the here and now that Mindfulness promotes. I did the next exercise this time with an open mind – not as a cynic and guess what, again experienced similar feelings. Yes I did drift away a little but in ‘Peace’ we can, its only natural – thats how our minds work isn’t it?
I have used it since within the work I do with people in recovery (not delivering it I have to say but just like I did experiencing it for themselves via the voice over CD’s). They enjoyed it – so does it work? For me it did something, for them it did something also, so who is to say. I am glad I opened up to it though.
“Anyone out there using mindfulness in the addiction recovery field, either as a personal tool or as professional?”
An interesting bit of synchronicity – whilst getting some external debriefing last week, the psychologist i’m working with happened to mention mindfulness, along with Acceptance & Commitment Therapy. I’m now in the process of delving into this material myself, so I’ll be following this discussion with interest [and quizzing my colleagues about whether or not they are utilising any of these concepts in their work…]
Great stuff Duncan. You know what they say, ‘great minds think alike’ OR IS IT ‘fools never differ’? Hope things are good on your side of the continent!
I had the good fortune to work alongside two very experienced minfulness practitioners who are both Zen Buddhists from the Soto Zen tradition. I spent a (very) long weekend at their retreat in France learning the basics of mindfulness and have begun to use it both for myself and for my clients.
One of that weekend’s many revelations was that Mindfulness is not a technique that can be taught – it is a way of being which unfolds with practice. It is my belief that practitioners cannot ‘teach’ Mindfulness without practicing it themselves.
The cornerstone of Mindfulness practice is meditation – there is a good online guide (from the Vissipana tradiiton) available at:
http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html
I was also recommended ‘Sitting Buddha’:
While on the surface the practice of Mindfulness appears simple it is as tricky to grasp as one of those fiendish Zen koans. For example: The practice of Mindfulness is about non-doing, so if you’re trying to ‘do’ it right, you are actually not doing it at all!
My own Mindfulness practice is imperfect and sporadic – I feel I am at the beginning of a very long journey of which i have ionly begun to take the first few steps. Nevertheless it has become a useful tool both in my practice and in my personal life.
I have found ‘The Mindful Way Through Depression’ a useful self-help text for clients. Another good book those looking for a starting point with Mindfulness is ‘Wherever You Go, There You Are’ by Jon Kabat Zinn.
Thanks a lot for this Shoddy. In response to your very interesting comment:
Para 2: from my limited experience, I agree with you entirely. The depression group emphasised the latter point in their guide – they soon realised that they needed to use it themselves to to run a course. This is well-described in the excellent book ‘Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression’ by Zindel Segal.
Thanks for links, will look at.
Absolutely, it is about non-doing, not doing ‘right’!!!
Yes, I think I am on a long journey as well, no doubts in my mind.
I thought the first book you mentioned in last para is excellent. The one I describe above by the same group is more for professionals. I am reading Jon Kabat-Zinn’s ‘Full Catastrophe Living”. I’m in second half of book which isn’t as interesting to me as the first part which focused on mindfulness and their 8 week course on stress reduction.
What a man and team!
Where are you based Shoddy?
In Portsmouth Substance Misuse Service we are developing our programme around Acceptance Committment Therapy (ACT). We promote acceptance of and willingness to experience the thoughts, feeling and situations that we do not want in conjunction with techniques for defusing the impact that our thoughts can have on us. Through mindfulness and being present in the moment we get to choose whether we are hooked by our thoughts, or live a life that is in line with the things that we value.
When I was in New York, I began learning about the Insight Meditation Society, a group of psychologists and seekers who have experimented with mindfulness as a solution to a variety of contemporary problems. I began meditating and it really did change my outlook. Some friends in recovery actually went on to take vows (of refuge — the Buddhist middle path for us lay folks).
Recently I have been thinking that recovery from both addiction and mood disorders requires a radical change of lifestyle not least of which includes a sense of meaning and discipline. For people like me uneasy with the spiritual aspects of the 12-step programs, there’s a lot of beauty, wisdom and practicality in Buddhist psychology. Best of all, Buddhists don’t see their world view so much as a religion, but as a philosophy for living.
In these times when material culture seems so vulnerable and our ways of finding meaning look brittle, perhaps a little mindfulness, compassion and peacemaking could do us all some good.
Mindfulness was recommended to me by my psychologist ( for my Bipolar ),basically I found it the single most useful thing he said.
He also said the local Buddhist centres will often run free courses in it which may be worth looking up.
Dave ( GP )
David tis technique is fantastic for a variety of emotioal and spiritual ailments, I am blessed to have been taught this throughout my recover, as the basis of me staying clean is for one day at a time. Keeping it in the day, and living in the moment is a sure fire way to a peacefull and contentfull life.
Hope you are well x
