10 Rules For Survival: Mindfulness & Compassion In Challenging Times

This session includes an introduction to mindfulness and compassion. Vidyamala also knows there will be times when you’re too stressed to meditate, or your circumstances don’t allow you a period of quiet. She offers some tried and tested mindfulness and compassion approaches that you can draw on any time.

In this session, Vidyamala invites us to live one moment at a time and practice being in the here and now. The past is a memory and the future just an idea - the present moment is the only moment we can directly experience and make choices in how we respond to challenge. In times of uncertainty, it is easy for the mind to get swept away by worries for the future and a great antidote is to keep coming back to the here and now and cultivating calm and clarity.

In this session, we take present moment body awareness deeper by investigating breathing. Vidyamala builds on the 3 B’s of the Breath introduced in Rule 1 and expands it to include Back Breathing and being aware of releasing in the Brain. This is the 5 B’s of breath awareness. Vidyamala explains how resting awareness deeply within the flow of breath in the whole body brings online the parasympathetic part of the nervous system which is restorative and calming.

Vidyamala explains how the mind can be our greatest resource once we have trained to it be present and kind. Of course it can also be our greatest tormenter and Vidyamala shows ways to be-friend your mind so it can work with you rather than against you. The mind naturally gravitates to what it is interested in and Vidyamala suggests ways to make the experience of embodied breathing more interesting than our normal compulsive ‘thought trains’. Time and again we can catch the mind wandering, and invite it back to the body to rest in the flow of breathing.

In this session ,we look at the importance of Stretching, Strengthening and Stamina - the 3 S’s of movement. Vidyamala will suggest practical ways to address these three areas in any circumstances, including lockdown and social distancing. She guides some gentle mindful movements to help get an experience of moving with a soft breath and with balanced, appropriate effort. This approach can then be taken into the various movements of everyday life.

In times of uncertainty, life can feel chaotic and frightening and we can easily fall into giving ourselves a hard time. Maybe we feel exhausted and unproductive. Maybe unhelpful habits have taken hold. Maybe we compare ourselves to others and always come up short. In this session Vidyamala helps us appreciate that we are all doing our best and show ways to cultivate patience and kindness towards ourselves and others. We’ll practice a Kindly Soothing breath meditation to help cultivate this deeper acceptance and self-compassion.

When we feel under threat, our ‘negativity bias’ gets activated and it is all too easy to only notice difficult and painful experiences. But even when times are tough, we can train ourselves to notice, and dwell upon, simple pleasures. It might be the quality of light in the room or outside, soft hands or the call of birds. By dwelling upon simple pleasures, we can re-set our nervous system to a more restful and calm state. Vidyamala also introduces the importance of recognizing qualities within us and suggests ways to build these qualities in meditation. This session includes an Opening to Goodness meditation to help cultivate this skill.

This is a beautiful expression from the 13 century Zen master, Dogen. It points to broad yet stable awareness that we can train ourselves to cultivate. Rather than experiencing things as hard edged and static we can train ourselves to rest within the fluid and changing nature of all phenomenon. This frees us from the struggle of resisting painful experiences as if they were static and fixed, or trying to cling onto pleasant experiences only to be disappointed when they eventually fade. We can rest in broad, open, fluid awareness and taste freedom.

Building on the previous session, we now broaden our field of awareness to include an appreciation of others and all life. Human beings are built for connection. It’s hard wired as part of our survival strategies. In times of physical isolation, such as quarantine or lockdown, we can use our imagination to cultivate empathy for others and focus on all that we share in common. Scientific evidence shows that such imaginative engagement is good for our health. It brings about a profound shift from feeling isolated to feeling connected.

In this session, we will summarise all the key points from the previous nine days to embed the learning of the course. These can be summarised as calm, care and connection – qualities which provide a road map for greater ease, courage and resilience in the face of any kind of challenge.