Coping with Emotions

1. Humber Recovery College Humber Recovery College Coping with Emotions Session 4: Mindfulness

2. Last time, we: • Developed strategies for visualisation, cue-relaxation, higher power thinking, taking time out and living in the moment • Learnt self-encouraging coping thoughts • Learnt self-affirming statements • Consolidated our learning by drafting some new coping strategies Quick Review of Last Session

3. Today we will look at a range of mindfulness strategies that can help you to: • Focus more fully on the present moment • Recognise and focus on your thoughts, feelings, emotions and physical sensations • Begin to think about how you are integrating your newfound mindfulness skills into your everyday life • Learn about the DBT states of mind model Aims of Today’s Session

4. Focus on a single minute Pg.67

5. “The ability to be aware of your thoughts, emotions, physical sensations, and actions – in the present moment – without judging or criticising yourself of your experience” Jon Kabat-Zinn, Mindfulness Researcher What is Mindfulness?

6. Meditation is a large umbrella term that encompasses the practice of reaching ultimate consciousness and concentration, to acknowledge the mind and, in a way, self-regulate it It can involve a lot of techniques or practices to reach this heightened level of consciousness — including compassion, love, patience, and of course, mindfulness So mindfulness is a type of meditation There are many forms of meditation, including contemplation and visualization, but mindfulness is the type where you bring your full mind to an object Being mindful of your breath, for example, is common form of mindfulness Does it differ from meditation?

7. Mindfulness helps reduce: • Odds of having another major depressive episode • Reduce symptoms of anxiety • Reduce chronic pain • Decrease binge eating • Increase tolerance of distressing situations • Increase relaxation • At any one time we are thinking, feeling, sensing and doing many different things • In order to be fully aware of your experiences in the present moment it is necessary that you do so without criticising yourself, your situation or other people Mindfulness

8. Help you focus on one thing at a time in the present moment, thus gaining more control • Help you identify and separate judgmental thoughts from your experiences – the very ones that often fuel overwhelming emotions • They help you develop a skill to central concept in DBT: ‘Wise Mind’ Why are Mindfulness Skills Important?

9. It’s possible to become more mindful of what is happening to you • What are you doing right now? • Now think about all the information your brain is processing without you being consciously aware of it • What is your body doing? • Are you tapping a leg without even realising? • Imagine what’s happening at all other moments in life! No one is 100% mindful all of the time, but the more mindful you learn to be, the more control you will gain in life! So much to process moment-by-moment!

10. How many examples can we come up with of times when people are often mindless? • Driving/travelling without remembering the route • Having a conversation and suddenly not knowing what the other person is talking about • Reading something and realising you’ve been thinking of something else • Walking into a room and forgetting what you went in for • Just putting something down and forgetting where • Showering and whilst thinking of something else rewashing a body part Mindlessness

11. Focus on a Single Object Pg.68

12. Spend 10 minutes as a group coming up with as many ideas as you can think of for being mindful in your day-to-day lives Day-to-day Mindfulness

13. Do you want to start practicing mindfulness on a day-to-day basis? If so, how will you do it? Making Mindfulness A Daily Routine

15. This exercise will help you focus on your thoughts, feelings and physical sensations • It asks you to choose an emotion, and then describe it by drawing and exploring it INSTRUCTIONS • Pick an emotion • Think about whether it is pleasant or unpleasant – either is fine, as long as it isn’t overwhelming or self-destructive (If you can’t identify what you’re feeling right now, pick an emotion that you felt recently) • Write it at the top of the ‘Describe your Emotion’ sheet • Complete the rest of the sheet Pg. 76 Describing Emotions

16. Involves focusing on and observing an emotion until it begins to diminish • Extremely useful technique for developing mindful awareness of your emotions • Emotions invariably come as a wave – they escalate, reach a crest and then diminish • You can observe this, describing to yourself • Ideally, you should observe the feeling until it has significantly changed Mindful Awareness of Emotions

17. Mindful Awareness of Emotions Pg. 82

18. 3 States of Mind (DBT) Wise Mind Reasonable Mind Emotional Mind

19. Decisions made based purely on how you feel • Emotions are needed to live a healthy life • However, we don’t want to allow our emotions to take control of our life States of Mind: Emotional

20. Decisions made through analysing facts of a situation • Thinks clearly about what is happening, considers the details, then makes a rational decision • Helps us solve problems and make decisions day-to-day • However, we don’t want to be so rational all the time that we fail to live a life enriched by emotion States of Mind: Reasonable

21. States of Mind

22. The ability to make healthy decisions about your life based on both rational thoughts and emotions • Creating a balance between feelings and rational thoughts • You can develop wise mind using mindfulness skills • Through practicing the mindfulness skills even more, it will become easier to make healthy decisions based on a balance of emotions and rational thought Wise Mind

23. Your car breaks down on the on the way to an important event Discuss: • How you would react if you were in emotion mind • How you would react if you were in reasonable mind • What you might do once you are in a wise mind state Discussing Mind States

24. Wise mind is similar to intuition, or “feelings” that come from “the gut”. The idea that feelings come from the gut is supported by scientific evidence – a vast web of nerves covers the stomach area, second in complexity only to the brain, so it is called the ‘enteric brain’, meaning the brain in the stomach. Pg. 88 Wise-Mind Meditation Exercise Wise Mind Meditation

25. “Check in” with your intuition before making a decision • Does your decision feel like a good one? If not, possibly consider other options The difference between wise mind (gut) and emotion mind: • When you made your decision, were you mindful of both the facts and your emotions • Did the decision ‘feel’ right to you? • You can sometimes tell if you’ve used wise mind by examining the results of your decision Wise-Mind Decision-making

26. At some point, we all get caught up in emotions. Someone says something insulting to you (or something which you perceive as insulting) What happens next? • Maybe you feel upset all day, think poorly of yourself, get angry at someone else, or look at the world in a much gloomier way • This ‘emotional trap’ is a common experience for everyone, but for people who experience overwhelming emotions, it can happen more frequently and more intensely • Mindfulness skills help you to separate your present-moment experience from what is happening inside you emotionally, so you can choose which one you focus on Focus Shifting

27. This exercise is similar to the Inner-Outer Experience exercise • It helps you to identify what you are focusing on in your moment-to-moment stream of awareness • It also helps you shift your attention back and forth in a mindful, focused way • It helps you shift your attention between your emotions and your senses Focus Shifting

28. Focus Shifting Pg. 78

29. Mindfulness skills are all about practice – the more you do it, the easier it becomes, and the more you will benefit from all you have learnt • The sheet provided lists all of the mindfulness activities we have used today • Use the homework sheet to record whenever you have used mindfulness; not just the times you set aside to listen to a mindfulness exercise, but also any time during the day when you feel you have been mindful Homework: Integrating Mindfulness Skills into Everyday Life

30. Course Overview

31. Humber Recovery College Humber Recovery College Humber Recovery College Well Done! You’ve completed Session 3!Next Week: Session 4: Further Mindfulness & Emotion Regulation Skills