Week 2 - Perception and Rediscovering “Beginner’s Mind”

What we learned

Many things, including our moods and our upbringing, affect how we automatically interpret what’s happening around us. In today's session, we learned it may be useful to stop and check out those assumptions.

This week we moved to the "T" in STOP-ACHE-GO: "Taking notice of breathing." So in addition to Stopping and Slowing down, add focusing on breath to that process, and see what that's like for you. We dove deeper into Autopilot behaviors, as you saw on the checklist, as something that we all work with. And as we discussed, these habits, patterns of our minds, apply not just to the activities we do, but the initial reactions we have.

We also talked more about perception, and how the lenses we carry towards situations change our interpretation of reality. Being aware of this lens allows us to respond to situations rather than react to them - thereby gradually affecting our habitual Autopilot patterns.

Before getting into practice recommendations, please take a moment to complete the weekly check-in form.

Home Practice

Formal Practice:

Continue your daily body scans, aiming for 30-45 minutes a day. You may use the body scan recordings provided by our center here: https://www.chacmc.org/mtpcprogram. Or, if you would like to check out other recordings, these two are from UC San Diego and may be of interest.
20 minutes
45 minutes

Informal Practice:   

Since we often engage in automatic behaviors when we feel stressed, practice taking note of breathing this week when you become aware of one instance of Autopilot that would affect your health, such as eating too quickly or staying up late on your phone, and one stressful moment. This is similar to the journal exercise we did together.

Handouts

This week's handouts are the journal exercise about autopilot cues that was sent to your email inbox, as well as the Violinist in the Metro, a story about the ways our expectations affect our ability to notice pleasant or beautiful circumstances in our surroundings. This week’s manual and handouts are available here.

Final Note

Please keep in mind that practice is very different for each person. The body scans are there to guide you, but you can execute them in your own way. For example, you can use a different sequence, or spend more or less time in a specific part of the body (and not just the left foot!). Do what your body needs. You're also encouraged to experiment with changing the time and location of your practice to see how various spaces feel.

Lastly, remember that starting a mindfulness practice is a challenging and noble thing that you're taking on. It is totally okay and normal for things to feel difficult from time to time. Just continue trying again, and carving out the space and time you need to practice.

We will see you again next week!

Best, 

Mindfulness Training in Primary Care (MTPC) Team

The one thing that cannot be taken from man is his ability to choose his attitude in any circumstance.

Victor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning