MBCT Working With Difficulty Meditation

This is a guided meditation practice for working with difficult thoughts and emotions as part of the Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) Program. You are gently guided to use the gentle abiding awareness that you have cultivated through MBCT thus far to practice relating differently to difficulty as it arises. This practice is intended to be used as homework between sessions of the The Mindful Way Group.

Transcript

Welcome to this Working with Difficulty meditation as part of the Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy program.

I am your instructor,

Jen Churchill.

To begin with,

We find our seat,

Finding a comfortable position,

Whatever that is for you in this moment,

Either seated on the floor,

In the chair,

Or some other position that is most appropriate for you right here,

Right now.

Wherever you are,

Taking these next few moments to adjust,

To settle in,

To find alignment in the body.

And if you are seated,

Rooting down into your sit bones,

Feeling from the base of your tailbone,

Elongating up through the crown of your head,

Your shoulders softening away from your ears,

Shoulder blades dropping down along your spine.

And your chin coming parallel with the floor.

Feeling the contact points,

The surfaces,

The whole body here in space.

And now shifting our attention to our breath in the body,

The sensations of breath in the body,

Starting with the tip of the nose,

The breath coming in and out,

And the sensations that arise here at the tip of the nose.

Perhaps air passing,

Shifting temperature or sound.

And following sensations of the breath deeper into the body,

To the passages of the airways.

Sensation of air passing down into the throat and the lungs.

Without having to make anything happen or do anything at all.

Not changing the breath,

But observing it.

As we start to observe the movement,

Sensations of breath in the chest.

Perhaps feeling the rise and fall of the chest and the expansion of the ribs and the muscles between the ribs.

Perhaps feeling this in the front and the back and the sides of your body.

Perhaps even the sensation of your clothing,

Fabric,

Moving along the surfaces of the skin as the breath comes in and out.

And drawing awareness downwards now into the belly,

The lower parts of the torso,

The abdomen moving with the breath.

The belly expanding and contracting as the breath goes in and out here.

Following each inhale and exhale.

Exploring movement,

Sensation.

Shifting and then resting your attention wherever the breath is most vivid,

Most distinct for you.

Simply allowing the breath to do its thing,

No need to control.

Simply allow.

Noticing too how the attention wanders.

It likely has wandered many,

Many times already.

Sometimes the attention goes into the past,

Rehashing things that have already happened.

Sometimes the attention goes into the future.

Worrying or planning for some future event.

No need to judge it or chastise ourselves for the mind doing what the mind does.

This is that opportunity to perhaps label what is happening as worrying,

Planning,

Ruminating.

Even judging.

And then gently and kindly usher it back to the anchor of the breath.

Watching the mind go and then bringing it back again and again.

Every moment a chance to begin anew.

Every moment a chance to begin in the next breath.

And you might find it helpful to pay closer attention to the in-breath now.

Getting particularly curious about the sensations of the in-breath.

Like riding waves of the ocean,

Riding the next inhale as it crests,

As it ebbs and flows.

And now noticing the downward flow of your exhales.

And now the spaces between the inhales and the exhales.

Those moments of emptiness,

Of breath,

Of stillness.

The pauses and transitions.

Taking an opportunity now to check in with your posture.

Adjusting,

Realigning,

Attuning to what the body needs to be present,

To be at ease here.

Expanding awareness into the whole body.

Departing from the awareness of the breath.

And widening the lens of attention out into the whole body.

Aware of the whole landscape of the body.

From the outermost surfaces of the skin to the innermost parts of the body.

Sensations deep within the torso and the limbs.

There's an opportunity here to zoom in to narrow your attention into particular locations and sensations.

Which you will likely notice are changing moment by moment.

There's a particular sensation or part of the body that you wish to explore in more detail.

You can soften and narrow your attention here.

Becoming quite curious with whatever is arising.

Noticing the particular details of sensations here.

Attuning and becoming quite intimate with those sensations.

And playing around with this ability to narrow your attention and widen your attention from areas of the body to the whole body in awareness.

This vast,

Spacious landscape that's available to us.

Recognizing how this act of sitting for a while brings many,

Many thoughts and feelings that can take us a long way away from the anchor in the moment.

And in our practice,

We have been working with instructions that invite us to notice where the mind has gone and kindly bring it back to the anchor.

And now we will explore a different way of responding.

A way of staying with whatever has taken us away.

So especially when we notice our patterns of thoughts and emotions,

We might choose to work with these.

Instead of moving our attention away,

We want to see if we can stay with it.

Allowing ourselves to remain kindly and curiously aware.

And then also becoming aware of associated feelings,

Sensations in the body.

What package do these thoughts and emotions come along with?

And if negative thoughts are present,

We can look for other sensations such as bracing,

Holding,

Discomfort that come along as part of this package.

Noticing if there's anything here right now,

Any difficulty,

Any discomfort.

It may already be present.

This is an opportunity to bring that gentle attention.

Like we did in the body scan,

Breathing in and breathing out of what we find.

Not in the way of changing it,

But exploring it.

Seeing the thoughts,

Feelings,

Sensations more clearly.

You might find it helpful to say to yourself,

It's okay.

Whatever it is is already here.

Let me feel it.

Let me be open to it.

Knowing also that your anchor of your breath or neutral,

Even pleasant sensations are available for you to come back to at any time.

Simple sensations of sitting and breathing.

And as you bravely choose to work with difficulty,

You can invite a difficult thought experience to mind.

Something that on a scale of 1 to 10 could be in a mid to low range.

Something that you would be willing to stay with for a little while.

Bringing to mind some recent difficulty or current difficulty.

And as these thoughts and feelings come to mind,

Seeing them as they are.

With curiosity.

With kindness.

Letting them be.

They're already here.

And exploring the associated bodily sensations.

Perhaps reactions to these thoughts and feelings.

Allowing them to be just as they are,

As best you can.

You might even say silently to yourself,

Opening,

Softening.

Opening and softening.

Exploring the sensations deeply with friendly curiosity,

With compassion.

Allowing yourself to stay close to the sensations of the body in the here and now.

And reminding yourself that you don't have to like these feelings.

It's really natural to not want them to be here.

This is a choice to be with them,

To practice relating differently.

With a sense of awareness that we're cultivating here.

Even when I don't want them to be here,

I can be open to them.

Exploring them.

Watching how they ebb and flow,

Just like the breath.

Letting yourself be with difficulty the best you can,

While also having the wisdom to take care of yourself.

To shift your attention or take breaks as you need to.

This may be new and difficult work to show up for yourself in this way.

Being patient and being compassionate is at the root of this practice.

And being present with whatever is in the body now.

Whether sensations are associated with difficulty or not.

Just practice being present with what is.

Beginning to let your attention move back to breathing.

The body breathing.

This neutral anchor of our attention.

Back to breathing in and out.

Moment by moment.

Breath by breath.

This body breathing.

A source of innate strength.

Presence and peace.

That resides within each and every one of us.

Thank you for practicing with me.

And I invite you to bring this source of strength,

Presence,

And peace with you into the next moments of your day.