Afternoon of Mindfulness – we have held the first of our Saturday afternoon mindfulness sessions this year. While others were frantically doing their Saturday activities, a small group of us took some time out to “just be”. Anyone who has learned MiCBT is invited and we do this at intervals throughout the year – give ourselves the opportunity to to engage in some sitting mindfulness meditation practice for a few hours.
Paradoxically it seems to be easier to sit with ourselves in a group context – no opportunity for distraction or telling yourself that you’re not doing it right today and I’ll try again tomorrow!
We sat in silence for the whole afternoon with short silent breaks and one short question session. There were some questions about body scanning – in MiCBT we do a lot of scanning the body – just being able to sit with whatever shows up as we scan – without reacting; simply noticing and moving on through the body. We notice how active the mind often is and how hard it can be to bring the wandering mind back time and time again to the focus of attention – either the breath or body sensations. We develop equanimity to our experience.