Workshop: Exploring Mindfulness

Join Dr. Ana Johnson as she leads you through a mindfulness workshop by exploring awareness through checking in on yourself, self-reflecting on one's past, practicing observation on past scenarios, and recognizing sensations.

Transcript

Okay,

Well welcome everyone.

So great to see everybody.

So we're going to basically talk about mindfulness.

And last week we had a session and we talked about mindfulness and basically who knows what mindfulness is maybe raise your hand.

No one's raising their hand.

I said last week that my head of department,

I was talking to my head of department asking,

Is it okay if we advertise through the department?

And he said,

Yeah,

Are you going to bring yoga mats?

And I said,

No.

So you don't always need a yoga mat to do mindfulness,

Right?

So what is it?

It's basically about being present in the moment and being accepting.

And we talked about that last time,

Except it's not so easy to do that all the time.

So why is it not so easy?

Well,

It's not easy because we have the amygdala,

The reptilian brain that we call,

And we go through fight and fright,

Fight and freeze.

And why do we do that?

Well,

We're here,

Right?

That's the top of the food chain for a reason,

Because we're always aware of danger and we're able to protect ourselves.

The only thing is in our society now,

We don't need to protect ourselves from ferocious creatures outside the door,

But we need to plan.

But we don't want to plan too much because then we get anxious,

Right?

So the idea is,

How do we then get mindful?

What do we need to do to be mindful?

So then there are different techniques.

So I use movement because I don't find it easy to just sit and ask myself,

How am I feeling and so forth,

And what are my bodily sensations and so on.

So I move.

And I find that good because when I'm moving,

Then I know I have a body.

Although sometimes I forget,

I'm sitting at the computer for a long time,

Or I'm checking email or the internet,

And then time passes.

And then I start worrying,

Oh,

I didn't do this,

Or I didn't do that,

Because I'm not aware of my body.

So literally,

I set my timer sometimes every half an hour or every 25 minutes to then remind myself to stand up,

But I don't always follow it.

But I think it's a good cue that we find.

So let's try something.

Okay,

So let's,

We're all sitting,

I invite us to make sure our feet are both flat on the ground,

And that our back is sort of straight,

But not slouched.

And why not slouched?

So that the energy can flow.

If it's slouched,

You know,

You can imagine the blood flow is not as smooth,

Or the airflow is not as smooth.

And the hands can be on your lap,

They can be clasped together with the thumbs touching,

However you feel comfortable.

And then I'll invite you to,

Excuse me,

Close your eyes,

Or lower your gaze,

And you don't have to,

You can just keep your eyes wide open,

Whatever works for you.

And then take some deep breaths,

You know,

Some breaths from the belly.

Last week,

We talked about how if we expand our belly,

We breathe in as we expand our belly.

As we breathe out,

We contract our belly.

We'll do that two more times.

In,

Breath in,

Belly out.

Breath out,

Belly in.

Breath out.

I mean,

Breath in,

Belly out.

Belly in,

Breath out.

So this is good because it activates the parasympathetic system,

Which is the rest and digest,

And it tells our brain that everything's okay.

We don't need to worry about anything.

Last week,

We went through this belly movement,

Which we can do at any time.

Today,

I invite you to also bring another sense,

Which is the sound.

Keep the breath moving,

And see if you can hear anything.

And I know I'm talking,

And I'll stop talking in a moment.

Maybe it's the noise outside,

Maybe it's your own breath,

Maybe it's your neighbor's breath,

Maybe it's your own heart.

Do that for a couple of breaths.

As we're relaxed,

I'll invite you to bring a situation to mind.

Not something traumatizing,

But something that is a little worrisome to you,

Something that rattles you a little bit,

Something that happened today or yesterday.

Imagine who's there.

Maybe you're alone,

Maybe there's someone there,

Maybe you're talking to someone on the phone or through the internet.

Listen to the intonation,

If there is some discourse,

Some communication.

Tap into any smells at the time,

Any other sounds at the time,

Any colors.

Tap into what happened.

Is it something you said,

Something they said,

Something you didn't say,

Or you worked up,

Or you're sad,

Angry?

Walk through that scenario.

And as you're walking through the scenario,

Do you feel anything?

Are there any sensations in your body?

As you replay that scene,

It's as if you're watching a movie and you freeze that scene,

And you're now observing that scene from the outside.

What are the sensations in the body?

Do you have any tingling,

Or is your throat feeling tight,

Or is your heart beating hard?

Are you feeling restless?

And as you're observing,

Make sure you're okay.

You're just observing,

There's no judgment at all.

And I know our thoughts come and go,

And they tend to judge.

We say,

It's okay,

Thought.

I'm just observing,

That's right.

And as you observe,

Let it,

Let the scene play out,

And know that we're going to come back to the room.

Remember,

You're just observing,

No judgment.

Remember,

You're just observing,

No judgment.

When you come back,

When you're ready,

You can open your eyes if they're closed,

And move your hands a little bit,

Your shoulders a little bit,

Your neck.

Stretch the legs and the arms.

Hey,

How was that?

Just observing the scene.

Is it good?

Yeah.

So that's what we can do sometimes.

You know,

We can,

Throughout the day,

We can check in with ourselves.

First of all,

Maybe set an alarm every half hour or something,

Every hour,

Every two hours,

Every four hours,

Whatever works.

And then ask,

What is my body feeling?

What is my body feeling?

What does my body feel?

Are there any sensations in there?

Am I craving something?

Do I want to go to the fridge and eat something,

And even though I'm not hungry,

Or do I want to drink,

Or I don't know,

Whatever.

Am I running from anything?

Or can I observe this uncomfortable feeling?

It's not going to be fun necessarily.

And the idea is to be aware and observe.

And why did we just do this?

Well,

Research has shown that when the emotion goes through the body,

There are these chemicals that go through.

And it only lasts 90 seconds,

The chemical reactions of the emotions.

So if we feel scared,

Or frightened,

Or angry,

It's 90 seconds.

And if we can observe that occurrence,

Then it just flushes out,

Because our brain is geared towards letting it flush,

So that we can be ready for any other threat.

What happens though,

Is that because we're at the top of the food chain,

As we said,

We tend to plan,

And we tend to go over things,

And think,

And the past,

And the future,

And what about this?

And what about that?

And then it's through the thoughts that the emotions then stay,

Because the circuitry in the brain gets reignited.

And then we think about it again,

And again,

And those emotions come back,

And again,

And again.

So it's as if we're almost like we're going to the gym,

Right?

But it's the brain gym.

So instead in the alarm,

Every half hour,

Every hour,

Every four hours,

It's like going to the gym.

We're checking in.

Oh,

How do I feel about this?

How is my body feeling right now?

And for some of us who are not used to doing this,

You know,

We won't even know what it feels like,

Right?

So then it's helpful to find a cheat sheet,

And go glad,

Upset,

Angry,

You know,

Just get like five or six emotions,

And look at them.

Is it like a multiple choice?

Or it could be none of the above,

And then say,

Well,

Am I feeling more glad,

Or angry right now?

Am I feeling more frustrated,

Or upset right now?

And so we get a sense,

And what does it feel in the body?

So now I'll ask you some questions.

Who felt frustrated today?

Raise your hand.

It was like 90% of the people.

Okay.

Who felt angry today?

Not as many.

Wow.

Amazing.

Okay.

Like I would say 20%.

Who felt really happy today?

Really happy today?

Wow.

Lots.

Like everybody.

That's great.

Did we go through?

Who felt sad today?

Okay.

Like 20%.

Okay.

So how does it feel to see the hands going up?

Does it feel like,

Oh,

Wow,

These human emotions are pervasive,

Right?

Does that change the way you feel about your own emotions?

Or are you still,

As a lot of us go on about how,

Oh,

I shouldn't feel that way?

Or I need to go to the gym,

Actually,

The actual gym for,

You know,

The body?

Or does that help you,

You know,

To see the hands going up?

Does that help you realize that these are normal emotions?

We all have them.

And it's really about the relationship we have with the emotions,

Right?

Like,

Are we going to run away from the emotions by doing all kinds of things?

We could just work all the time.

We could look at email all the time.

We could look at surf the web all the time.

We could eat.

We could do drugs.

We could do alcohol.

We could do whatever,

Right?

People do different things to run away from the emotions.

So the idea is to stay with them.

So what I'd like to do next is for us to get into pairs,

And so that we can talk about what we just went through and talk about any revelations you might have had when you did that exercise where we observed a situation where it wasn't so comfortable and we just observed it,

Okay?

So you can decide who you're going to talk to.

So what we can do is,

Because we tend to sit with our friends,

Maybe we go one over.

How's that?

Or would you prefer to talk with your friend?

Prefer to talk with a friend?

Okay,

We'll talk to the friend then.

Okay,

And discuss the situation.

How was that for you?

Do you think you can do it again?

Was it really jarring or was it a piece of cake to do that all the time?

How's everyone?

Good?

Had enough time?

Yeah,

Yeah.

What are some insights that came up?

Something that when you were talking,

You hadn't thought about maybe on your own when you were doing mindfulness exercise?

I was saying that when my situation happened,

It was really anxiety provoking.

But when I thought about it this time,

It didn't cause as much anxiety as it did the first time.

Oh,

That's neat.

And what do you think?

What was different this time?

Um,

Maybe the breathing,

Being caught in a calm,

Relaxed state when you're bringing up those emotions.

Yeah.

So do you think you can bring those calm feelings in the moment?

That's the hard part,

Right?

What do you think you can do?

Maybe the breathe?

Yeah,

I find that really,

It's immediate,

Almost for me,

The belly breathing.

We talked about last week how the,

When we breathe in and the belly comes out,

The diaphragm expands.

So there's more air in there.

And it's actually,

If we do that many times a day,

It's better than doing abs.

Because you're like,

You're strengthening your internal muscles.

If you do that all day,

You're gonna get brilliant abs.

But not only that,

Then you're more relaxed too.

The masters,

You know,

The ones who are with the robes,

And some don't have robes,

But they're the mindfulness masters,

Mistress,

Whatever.

They,

They apparently take very,

A small number of breaths per day,

Because their breathing is,

Each breath is so expansive,

That they don't need as many.

So their heart is not as taxed.

And then so calm.

That's what,

Guess what we all want to be,

Right?

Calm.

What about other insights that were different while we're talking?

That's neat,

Right?

The heat in the body,

That's,

That's one of the common ways we feel,

Right?

That and the throat,

Sometimes the throat feels tight,

Or the heart starts beating really fast,

Or we have a stomachache.

I know I was sitting across a friend this weekend in the coffee shop.

And,

And then we were talking,

My stomach is just starting to really ache.

But it was good.

That means I was noticing.

That's as far as I went.

But at least I noticed the stomach.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then the other point is that the amygdala,

Right,

That reaction is so fast.

And that reaction is faster than the prefrontal cortex,

Because it's about survival.

It's about defending ourselves,

Right?

So that,

That happens.

So that's why we are quick to anger,

Quick to be down on ourselves.

Oh,

It's me again,

Poor me,

Right,

Or sad,

Or everything,

All the different emotions.

And that's,

It's,

It,

That's much,

How it goes much faster.

And so then we can do whatever technique we can to slow down,

We can observe,

Do what we did earlier.

Yeah.

Anything else?

That was different,

That came up.

That's,

That was different.

That's really nice.

The,

The loving feeling,

Right?

Let it be.

It's okay.

It's okay.

It's normal.

It's a normal human condition.

And also the thoughts come in,

Right?

I think we were talking,

The thoughts come in to say,

Oh,

But,

But I could have done something different.

Right?

And you say,

Okay,

It's okay.

There's a thought,

Just like the sensation comes in,

And we observe it come in and out.

The thoughts come in and out,

Right?

So,

Oh,

Judging,

Judging.

That's okay.

Angry,

Angry.

That's for the feeling part.

Or the heat,

Heat,

Body,

Or the heart beating.

Yeah.

That's a good point.

Yeah.

Observing,

Right?

Yeah.

Observing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Really neat.

Like the thoughts come and go.

People use different imageries,

Right?

So there is the,

When we think of them,

That emotion coming,

Or that sensation coming,

We can think of waves in the ocean.

So there's a crest,

And then it comes down,

Right?

So we need to go,

Remember,

It's 90 seconds.

If I can just observe this,

Instead of reacting,

It's 90 seconds.

I can even put my clock on probably,

Right?

90 seconds.

And,

And research has shown that people have looked through the brain,

Through the MRI,

To show that when we can observe the sensations,

That,

That part of the brain that,

That ignites anger and all that,

That calms down,

Right?

So the prefrontal cortex gets activated.

So we can observe.

Or some people like clouds.

The clouds come and go.

Some people like rooms with two doors.

So the sensations are coming,

Like here,

There are two doors,

And they come and they go,

Right?

They don't stay.

So there are different ways,

Right?

And maybe anybody come up with anything else?

That's kind of the idea.

Anything else?

Anything new that came up?

Oh,

That's neat.

Yeah,

That's neat.

And,

You know,

Today we're just probably going to just have time to go through that part,

Which is the observation and letting go.

And then as the sessions come along,

We're going to work a little bit more with the emotions and nurturing ourselves,

Which,

Which we can delve into that as well.

As you say,

Yeah,

I mean,

We're going to have these emotions,

Right?

Why?

Because we're wired that way.

Because we survived.

We're here.

Why did we survive?

Because we're able to plan and organize ourselves and,

And protect ourselves,

Right?

Those who want,

Imagine you're what's a cute animal?

Someone say a cute animal?

Koala.

Koala bear.

Imagine a koala bear going,

Oh,

I'm going to meditate right now,

You know,

And then it gets swallowed up by the tiger.

Right?

So I mean,

There's a reason why.

Sorry.

There's a reason why we have these thoughts,

Right?

We need them.

We also don't need them all the time.

And that's the key.

That's what we're trying to say.

Mindfulness teaches us that there's a time and a place.

Sometimes we need to react really fast.

We need to run from the road so we don't get run over,

Right,

By the car,

Not by the lions.

These days,

The car is fast,

Right?

And sometimes we do need to talk to that koala and say it's time to meditate now.

And sometimes it's not right.

So,

As I said,

On that note,

Any other thoughts that came up that might be new?

It's like the brain gym we were talking about,

Right?

The different techniques that we can use to train ourselves to do that.

Yeah.

If we're,

You know,

We have a habit of reaching for the refrigerator,

Or whatever,

Reaching for whatever,

The phone,

Then we can maybe do body movement.

And we went through some of that last time.

I think we were talking about how I find it much easier to just move rather than sit.

But,

You know,

My alarm goes every half hour.

I just don't always move.

But,

You know,

This is good because in talking about it today,

It reminds me that I don't always have to move.

I can ask myself,

How is my body?

What are the sensations?

What is the cheat sheet?

Am I sad,

Glad,

You know,

Angry,

Upset?

Mm-hmm.

So,

Let's do an internal weather right now.

And then that's kind of the exercise.

And I know sometimes we do that in the beginning.

So,

Maybe we'll go around and say,

Because we never did that,

Say your name and then internal weather.

So,

Basically,

You know,

What,

How are you?

Or you can say,

I have tingling in my feet,

You know,

Could be a sensation,

Could be thought or emotion.

And that's the idea of doing that throughout the day.

And then what you want to see in these sessions.

Okay.

So,

Who wants to start?

Great.

Well,

Thank you,

Everyone.

I'm Anna.

And my internal weather is like a sunset.

Orange,

Purple,

Blue,

Beautiful sunset.

Feel so calm,

Surrounded by all you guys.

And yeah,

I think,

You know,

It's really fascinating because if we really think about life,

Right,

We don't really know why we're here.

I'm always asking that.

And how come we're here?

Those of you who know me really well know I'm always reading books and doing workshops,

Always asking those questions.

And really,

It gets really complicated,

Right?

First of all,

We don't know why we're here,

How we got here.

There are different beliefs,

Different religions,

For sure.

And we will go away,

And others will go away,

Right?

And the issue is that sometimes we don't want to put all those emotions into relationships or with people because we're afraid we might lose them.

So,

It's really a plundery,

Isn't it?

It's about,

So when we talk about the exercise we just did,

It taps into that,

Right?

It says,

It's okay.

It's okay.

You may not feel comfortable,

And it's okay to observe these feelings,

And it's okay to love someone and really be close to someone,

And it's okay that they may go away one day,

And that we may go away one day,

And it's all okay,

Right?

So,

When we can take that,

What we did earlier about a situation,

Right,

And make it into something bigger,

Because really,

That's what's lurking.

That's what's really behind everything,

Right?

When we get upset or angry,

Sure,

Part of this is the evolution,

The amygdala,

But it's also this underlying issue of what is this all about?

Do I want to play the game?

And sometimes we check out.

We don't want to play the game,

And we literally go into a virtual reality of our brain,

And we surf the internet,

Or we eat a lot,

Or we don't eat a lot,

Or we drink a lot,

Or we do drugs,

Or whatever,

Right?

Whatever it is we do to distract ourselves,

Work a lot,

And so the idea is the mindfulness.

So,

I'll walk you through now what I do when I get up.

When I get up,

I do some body movement because I don't really know how I feel,

And I don't want to have to sit there and think and go,

Well,

How do I feel right now?

So,

I move,

And in moving,

I ask that question,

How am I,

Right?

Because then I know I have a body.

So,

I'll invite us to do that now,

Okay?

So,

We stand up,

And then bring your chair like really far from you.

Everybody has lots of room.

So,

When I get up in the morning,

I literally get out of bed.

Well,

I try to do that every time,

But I don't,

But most times,

And I go like this.

Yeah,

Everybody can see,

Yeah?

So,

What we did last week,

Where I have my feet hip width apart,

And I bend my knees,

So we really feel the ground,

Right?

So,

Like we said last time,

We are humans between heaven and earth,

Or between the ground and the sky,

Right?

Just to situate ourselves,

And we bend our knees just slightly,

So we really feel grounded,

Yeah?

Make sure the toes,

Lift the toes,

Wiggle the toes.

We're not grasping with the toes,

Right?

We just let it relax,

Right?

And then I bring my arms to the side and wide,

And I bring them up,

Up,

And then I bring my hands in front of my body down,

And then right around the belly button,

And that's where is our creativity sector,

Right?

We have our umbilical cord,

That's where our reproductive systems are,

Right?

It's our creativity sector.

So,

Some people say this is where we're born with this creativity,

And we want to nourish it,

Right?

We want to nourish,

We want to find out who we really are,

Right?

Without all this anger and everything.

So,

Then we,

That's where we can take some deep breaths,

Right there,

Right?

Those breaths we talked about,

So we could lower your gaze if you'd like,

Or close your eyes,

And do the belly breathing again.

So,

Belly out,

Air in,

Belly in,

Air out,

Air in,

Belly out,

Breathe out,

Belly in,

And then we can do it again.

You can do it as many times as you want,

Just do it once if you'd like.

Yeah,

Whenever you're ready.

And that's so relaxing.

When I get up in the morning,

It's such a nice way,

Because then I'm not anxious,

You know,

I'm there.

And now I'm going to show you one more thing that I do when I get up.

It's really nice.

So,

I bring my feet together,

And I bring my arms up.

So,

Again,

I just imagine here I am a human between the sky and the earth.

And then this year,

If you know,

The Chinese New Year is the year of the dragon,

Wood dragon.

And a lot of people say it's about actually consciousness and transformation.

So,

Those of you who want to be transformed,

This is the year apparently.

So,

I go into the dragon movement.

So,

I basically bring my arms to the right and the hips to the left.

See?

See?

Okay.

Now,

I'm going to do the same the other way.

So,

Do you feel your spine?

And do that back and forth.

You see how there's a movement in the spine,

Right?

The discs,

They're all moving,

The discs.

And basically,

You're trying to separate your torso from your hips.

Okay.

So,

When you're ready,

You're going to bring your arms to the right,

And you're going to cut across,

Almost like you're cutting across the height of your neck.

Okay.

And then you're going to bring your arm down.

So,

The creativity sector.

Okay.

Then you're going to come,

Bring it to your belly button.

I know you were just there,

But that one was lower,

This one.

Okay.

Then now your neck again,

And then up.

Okay.

So,

You do it again.

So,

We go down.

I'm going down on the right,

You can go by the left.

So,

Neck,

Belly button,

And down.

Almost like you scoot down.

And then you go again.

Belly button,

Neck,

And up.

So,

Go down again.

Do you see how when you do it a little bit faster?

Belly button,

Down,

Belly button,

Neck,

And up.

Do you see how now your spine is all curvy?

You're not holding on to anything.

Talk about the 90 seconds,

Right?

It's all going away.

That's going away.

That's another way to get your 90 seconds.

Get up and do a little bit of this,

Right?

So,

Neck,

Belly button,

Down.

Then belly button.

I know it's kind of a little bit confusing at first,

Yeah?

Then you can go to the other side.

I'm going to the left now.

Down,

Neck,

Belly button,

Down.

Neck,

Up,

Neck,

Belly button,

Down.

Belly button,

Neck.

Yeah,

Don't worry about it.

But the key is,

Right,

You feel your spine moving.

Okay,

My spine is all creaking.

Okay,

And then when you finish,

You can just bring your arms down.

And when you come to the heart,

You bring your hands,

Arms down.

And again,

Your energy is coming to your creativity sector.

There we go.

So,

I find that's really helpful when I have strong emotions or when I get up in the morning just to get the spine moving.

And why the throat?

Those of you who do yoga,

You know,

There's this throat chakra and the heart chakra and the creativity chakra.

So,

The idea is we tend to have a lot of feelings and emotions.

They happen in the throat and the heart and the stomach,

Right?

So,

That's why we want to encounter all of those.

So,

We're basically invoking all parts of the body.

Okay,

So we can have a seat.

So,

You can do that at any time.

Okay,

And we're going to do one final exercise.

We're almost at the end.

So nice to be with everybody.

But we'll do it fast now because we know how to get into that position,

That relaxation mode,

Because we just did that.

Okay.

Okay,

So let's do that again.

So,

We have our,

Remember,

Feet flat on the ground.

The hands can be on the legs.

They can be together with the thumbs touching if you'd like.

Excuse me.

We're going to lower the gaze.

We'll close the eyes.

The back is erect but not too erect,

Just relaxed but not slouched.

We take three deep breaths through the belly like we did before.

Belly out,

Air in.

As I mentioned before,

You can also look,

Pay attention to sounds or the breath.

I'm going to walk you through when you are three years old.

Maybe you're at daycare.

Maybe you weren't yet.

Maybe you're at home.

Then you're six years old.

Maybe your first day at school.

Then you move on to primary school,

Ten years old.

You're in high school now.

Just call for some events.

Then you graduated from school and maybe you're studying.

Maybe you have some jobs.

Recall maybe your first relationship,

Your first relationship with a friend or romantic relationship,

Relationships with friends,

With family.

And what is the one part that remains the same?

You know we change,

Right?

We change over time.

What's the one aspect of yourself that has remained the same?

That has remained the same?

Thinking through all those relationships and all those years,

You know we change and there's that one aspect that remains the same,

A quality about your being that has not changed.

Okay,

So now bring yourself to now.

Today,

The day today.

Knowing that we're coming back to the room.

When you're ready,

Come back.

You can move your neck if you'd like,

Your shoulders,

Stretch your legs,

Your arms if you'd like.

And we're right at time.

So just for the last few seconds,

When you're ready,

Can someone tell me?

Just say out loud,

What's the one quality that stays the same?

Joy,

Wonderful,

Joy,

Gregariousness.

Okay,

And think,

Now that we're here,

Some words,

If you come up with anything.

Yeah,

Anyone else?

Acceptance or accepting?

Yeah,

Accepting.

Accepting,

Gregarious,

Joy.

Okay,

Yeah,

Well,

That's okay.

Stubborn.

So that probably stubbornness relates to the going back and observing.

Observing,

What is the underlying feeling behind the stubbornness?

Sometimes it's,

You know,

We feel out of control and we want to be,

You know,

Controlled.

So think some more.

It's not an easy one to finish.

Something for you to carry through the week.

Empathy,

Yeah,

Empathy,

Gregariousness,

Joy,

Fullness,

Acceptance.

Anyone else?

Wonderful.

Yeah,

Okay.