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Week 3 & 4 formal practice: Mindful Movement/ Yoga


Tine

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Posted
19 hours ago, Udumbara said:

Thanks for your reply.  I totally understand about the power of nature.  My practice of stopping this week is to say ‘itadakimasu before eating which is Japanese for receiving, but not just receiving a plate of food but to appreciate the life energy in it.  Of the animal that has given its life for you to live if it is meat or the energy of nature that has gone into plant based food and also the energy of the person who prepared it.  I usually go outside every morning to eat breakfast and when I’m in nature with the sun on my face, a breeze around me and listening to the birds chirping, it is so easy to stop and appreciate all of those things.  I take one mouthful at a time, put my spoon down in between and don’t take the next spoonful until I’ve finished what’s in my mouth.   This is relatively easy outside in nature but if it’s raining for example and I’m inside, I start to multitask, reading the news on the internet while eating my breakfast and barely aware of what I’m eating.  It’s a completely different experience even if I say ‘itadakimasu’ first.

My thinking mind has been active this week and it’s been hard to sleep so I’ve been doing a body scan in bed to take my focus away from thoughts.  It works pretty well but the thinking mind is strong and my toes seem so far away from my head when it’s in full swing :)

 

im enjoying the yoga.  I climbed a mountain on Tuesday and my body has been aching from using the different muscles, so even though it’s not exactly a pleasant feeling while doing yoga with an aching body, I know that it is helping to stretch out and can still enjoy it.  A bit like training ourselves to think that Stephens’s can be useful.  Unpleasant movement can also be enjoyable if I view it as good for me :)

I hope I will be able to transfer this to other areas of life.

i can’t find the mid way point assessment sheet.  I’ve been back through week 4 to look for the link but can’t find it.  Could anyone help with that please.

 

thank you

 

with a smile :)

 

 Midway Self-Assessment [PDF]

So you climbed a mountain this week, huh? Lol!! It does sound kinda painful ? 

 

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Posted
5 hours ago, jolaine said:

 Midway Self-Assessment [PDF]

So you climbed a mountain this week, huh? Lol!! It does sound kinda painful ? 

 

Painful but enjoyable..... :)

thank you for the midway self assessments.

and it looks like the iPad changed stress to Stephens somehow in my post......

thanks for being there.

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I am beginning Week 4 and I'm really tuned into how my body, mind and spirit have changed.  I'm gaining this general sense of calm that I carry throughout my day more consistently.  A close friend of mine said she noticed a big difference in my general demeanor.

I find the yoga (just any added movement to the meditation/mindfulness practices) is much more beneficial for me at this moment, I've recognized that it grounds me and allows me to pay closer attention to my body and breath while being fully present.  Week 3 meditations found it difficult to quiet my heightened brain and I didn't feel the benefit I had been since beginning this course and a consistent practice.  I did find myself back to feeling in my practice with the addition of the yoga.  I've been practicing yoga (informally, on my own) for many years and this course has been enhancing my ability to incorporate mindfulness into my practice, which was what I felt was missing!  

The science behind these concepts and practices is also really awesome and has been keeping my momentum going!

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So I’m having some issues with major stress knots in my shoulder that’s preventing me from doing anything physical. But for my STOP  I’m doing seated meditation.  It’s always after my lunch, which is great because after lunch I move from my adult to the youth groups of leading Recreation Therapy.  It helps me get through the day as productive as the beginning

  • 2 months later...
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I loved the yoga this week!  In the start of the practice and noticing all the parts that are stiff and sore, my mind immediately went to feeling guilty and frustrated that my body no longer moves the way it used to...that this body feels a bit like a stranger compared to the strong flexible body that I remember.  But as I moved through the practice with more compassion, it became this neat process of being "reacquainted" with the body and valuing the time to connect with it.

  • 2 weeks later...
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Posted

on the first day of yoga 1 I felt lazy to do on the floor so I did it in sitting position. 

on the third day, i did the yoga on the floor following the video. I felt so good about the body muscle  stretches and the joint getting loose and free. i feel so flexible and so less risk of body injury during the day's work. The pain on my leg seem to be considerably reduced and this makes me feel good and happy. 

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I'm in the 4 week now. I am able to notice some changes within me and I'm so happy and excited about it. Sometimes negative thoughts just comes in and it takes me to far bigger thoughts and let me grow weaker physically and mentally. Now that I'm able to accept things as it comes and just let it flow over or through me and let it go vanish.

Doing the mindfulness Yoga for the last one week brought a relief to my body physical pain. Those pain I had on my right leg cuff muscle and the hip joint is considerable reduced and I'm feeling much at ease and pain-free. This mindfulness meditation and yoga had worked on me like a magic spell, it is such a powerful tool for my body physical and mental pain & stress. It is amazing!

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I have found the mindful yoga to be so enjoyable, and am striving to incorporate it into my day on an ongoing basis (not always easy!!).  I have found week 4 to be a tough week to connect with at large.

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Today is the last day of my 4th week. I want to share with all a part of my Mid-way Self -Assessment, on the specific incident that stands out in my life related to work in this course.

 

It was one night that I was going through the pain in my cuff muscle and feeling cold and finding difficulty in getting sleep. My sweetheart asked me if I need anything. She went to the kitchen and brought the hot waterbag filled and placed on my feet. It gave me such a relief, it warms my body, the pain seems to slowly go away and I went to sleep in no time.

 

Next morning at breakfast I said ‘Thank you’ to her, sincerely looking at her eye. Her eye immediately got filled with tears. This emotional experience and reaction made me realise the appreciation & gratitude people deserves for the extra mile service they have done towards me.

 

I have learned to practice more showing kindness and compassion with this course so far. I’m so happy about big changes happening in my life.

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I am loving the mindful yoga & intend to make this a daily practice as well as well as a meditation. I do Dylan Zambrano's Body Scan mediation on Insight Timer, which I adore. The basic sitting practice is my least favourite, I much prefer a guided mindfulness meditation.

  • 3 weeks later...
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Posted

Mindful yoga, meditation, and walking are powerful combinations.  My wife loves it, and it is a yoga for everyone without the skimpy outfits - plain folk stretching and getting in touch with their body.  I am really loving the MBSR class.

 

Mike

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The body scan continues to be the hardest, but I am not going to abandon it.  Meditation, and yoga come easier.  As mentioned earlier I like the slow yoga, and find meditating outside at night under the stars the most productive.

  • 3 months later...
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I found that even though I practice asana yoga regularly, I struggle with being aware of how my body is feeling in different poses. In modern classes, I often feel the urge to push my body past my limits, and it's something I'm working on not doing as much.

  • 3 weeks later...
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Posted
On 9/21/2020 at 12:22 AM, Danica2020 said:

I often feel the urge to push my body past my limits, and it's something I'm working on not doing as much.

Being kind to ourselves can be the hardest. I would never push others as hard as I push myself. There's a lot to learn in those "simple" practices. ❤️

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Posted

I'm coming to the end of week 3 now. This week has been very hard.

I've done some MBCT before, and I found the body scan/ sitting meditations to be as expected. I've also done quite a lot of yoga before.

But I've been finding the mindful yoga really hard to get into. Normally with motionless meditation I get enough instruction about how to observe my thoughts etc and am able to 'settle down' and focus. With more challenging yoga, I feel like my brain calms down while my body does the work, and I'm better able to meditate afterwards. 

With the mindful yoga I felt myself getting very impatient and getting carried away by thoughts a lot, as there are a lot of instructions about how to place your body but I don't get the stronger physical sensations and stretch that help to keep me in the moment. I kept feeling like I was either wasting time and it would be better to do yoga 'properly' to the point where I tire myself out or meditate 'properly' without so many distractions. I'm keeping with it for now as I'm trying to bring open-mindedness to it and accept whatever experience I am having, but I definitely feel more 'scattered' this week as a result. Not sure whether to just substitute my own practice and bring mindful awareness to what I'm doing, in future (to be honest, I feel like the videos I now use and the instructors I've had in the past have all made mindfulness a part of practice any way).

I've also found sitting meditations harder than usual, as a result of personal issues. I've been carried away by emotions and broken into tears a couple of times now. When that happens, I'm not sure whether it's best to persevere and try to feel the feelings mindfully, or just cut the session short. I know the stages of dealing with difficult emotions are approaching in the following weeks - any tips of how to deal with this until then?

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Posted

@ias206 Thank you for the level of insight. What you write resonates with me as I find myself in similar situations. What I hear is the struggle between different forms of self-care, and this is something we can only answer for ourselves. So my "advice" is to continue investigating and trying things out. Each day and each week are different, and we are different, so the best way is to try, learn and understand better.

My personal rule of thumb is "the more my thoughts try to reason me out of doing something, the more important it is for me to stick with it". As Jon Kabat-Zinn says "you are the expert for yourself".
You wrote that you are keeping with it for now and I am curious to hear how that went. ?

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Posted

@Tine Thank you for your detailed response!

I've extended week 3 for an additional week as I  missed a couple of days along the way and didn't have time to do the readings for the next week either.

I had one really 'good' yoga session writing my last comment, where I was determined to be present and accept whatever was there. It almost felt like the body scan and led me to feel more in contact with my body, and I felt a sense of relief afterwards. 

I had  one really 'bad' yoga session that I had to cut short as I got so distracted that I started to think of upsetting things to the point I'd totally tuned out and started crying.

And I had one that felt 'pointless' as I felt I was just putting my body in different positions but not paying attention to what I was doing at all.

I also tried a different 'yoga for ptsd' practice on a day that was difficult for me and was astonished by how much physically weaker I am when feeling very depressed. 

I think the best day I had with the prescribed video on this course was when I was feeling very low indeed, and even slight movement was a challenge. It provided maybe just enough of a challenge on those days.. Maybe on days when I'm feeling stronger, it would be good to push myself a little more, in order to keep myself more engaged. I think while I'm following this course, I'll try to follow it to the letter as closely as possible, just to be able to notice how the same practice can feel different on different days. But once I've completed it, I'll select practices that I feel will be the most helpful to me on a given day. Just trying not to waste too much time in the mornings wondering which video would be 'optimal' rather than actually just doing something (a very real challenge with ADHD haha)

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Posted

@ias206 This resonates. Such a nouanced observation.
I only practice the yoga sessions of the course and I picked one additional on youtube that is a bit shorter. But I do not experiment. So far I am busy managing my expectations and reactions to the practices. As they are recording I can be sure they didn't change so everything different was somehow brought to the session by me.

  • 1 month later...
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Posted

mindful yoga ! i was fully present in my body feeling every contraction and expansion in my body as it eases from tension into openess or space.

i love how this practice opens up unknown parts of yourself. 

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Posted

These days I have switched to a more energetic form of workout as I did notice a negative impact of rarely leaving the hourse for so long. However I am trying to do it mindfully. I remember Jack Kornfield saying: "Don't rush. If you need to rush, rush mindfully." Which is a good reminder and aso makes me smile. ?

  • 1 month later...
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Posted

I enjoyed that mindful yoga is an active practice. The constant physical sensations from stretching, moving, and breathe prompts to focus in the present. It also allowed me to become more aware of "striving" thoughts and even recognize when thoughts take a turn to negative because I was striving to be better (pushing myself to try a harder version of the posture, be critical of my own body/abilities). I became aware of how often I have "planning" thoughts. While I found great joy in practicing mindful yoga, I also started to "crave" in a way the intentional attention to the present that I thought came more naturally in sitting meditation. It was easier to be present and aware of my thoughts in sitting meditation then attend to them without judgment and compassion than in mindful yoga because of the distraction from movement and physical sensations.

  • 1 month later...
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Posted

I love this course and i am thankful that found it - it is Just what i need. I am struggeling concentrating with sitting meditation, but it helps me to know that so do others. I love the yoga sessions the pace is slow and i really Feel the benefit. 

  • 1 month later...
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Posted

What came up for you during the exercises? How do the practices evolve as you get more familiar with them?

 

I really appreciated the yoga exercises I found it was a beautiful way to start the day and connecting my breath with movement added power and presence. I found that it helped me meditate deeper because my mind and body were more awake afterwards. I think sometimes when I was more familiar with the practices I found that I had to apply more attention to remain present and not just make it a habitual movement. Beginners Mind! 

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