Mindful Meditation

[IronMolly]

I was wondering if anyone out there uses mindful meditation (Jon Kabat-Zinn).  My councilor feels this may help my anxiety/panic attacks.  If so, let me know your thoughts.

[Alisonj29]

I have always wished I was close enough to actually go to a class of his. That would be amazing. Every trip I have taken to the hospital in an anxious state I tote my Favorite Jon-Kabat with me.

[DJ873]

what a beautiful peaceful description, guess I'm ordering this too :)

[jlroesner]

LOL.  He's got some great stuff on youtube if you want to get started right away...  I could very easily become his stalker I love him so much!  J/K of course...

[IronMolly]

Wow!  I am looking forward to getting my tapes in the mail.  I have used guided imagery by BellRuth Naperstak and really like those.  Just reading your description of your meditation experience was very peaceful.  Thanks for sharing!

[jlroesner]

Me too!  AWESOME!  I had my doubts when I first started meditation, I kinda felt like it was BS but my therapist was pushing it and I felt that I didn't have anything to lose to by trying.  So, I began to meditate.  At first, I popped in the audio CD by Dr. Kabat-Zinn and sat there for the entire meditation session laughing at how slow he talked and thinking about how this was the biggest waste of thirty minutes.  The second time, I sat there thinking I wish the dog outside would stop it's never-ending barking and I wonder what I should cook for supper.  The third and fourth times, I tried to focus on my breath.  Finally I imagined that the air I was breathing in ~ OK, this is gonna sound wierd, bear with me~ was lighting me up with a golden light from the inside.  Like I imagined my lungs looking like the branches of a tree, dark.  Then when I inhaled it filled them with a golden light that kind of made my whole body glow with warmth.  That kept me quite busy for the whole 30 minutes.  I think the next couple of times I fell asleep during the meditation.  After that, sometimes I couldn't "focus on my breath" my mind raced helplessly and no matter how hard I tried to bring it back, it wouldn't go.  Sometimes, I fell asleep.  Every time I was sure there should be more happening than what was happening.  After about a month (which is long time for an instant gratification lover like myself), I was able to get into the state -quite by accident, I may add- that I think Dr. Kabat Zinn was trying to get me to.  I could get my body to enter a relaxed state, I stopped trying to clear my mind and instead just listened to thoughts and let them float away.  I pretended I was sitting on the shore of a beautiful river in Colorado in the mountains in the fall.  The leaves on the trees are the most beautiful shades of gold and brown and reds and green.  The are so beautiful, the bark is white or dark.  It's the perfect temperature.  I can hear the birds singing, the creek rushing by.  I look down from above and see myself sitting on the shore.  I am dressed in a comfortable flowy outfit, my hair is braided loosely.  I am sitting indian style in grass with my eyes closed, face up to the sun, and the cool breeze is ruffling my hair.  I have a smile of utter contentment on my face.  Then I see thoughts floating out of my head, they are like bubbles.  I can see them, I know instinctively what they are.  The bubble floats over by the trees and lands on a leaf.  Then I watch as the leaf floats down from the tree gently landing in the river and is carried away.  I look back at myself and I'm happy to let it go.  Just then another thought comes, repeat the whole process.  After another month or two I was able to concentrate enough that I could speak while meditating and not break the flow.  I just turned on my iphone with a little voice recorder app and tried to speak the thoughts that I saw floating in the bubbles before they floated away.  After my meditation session was over, I listened to the thoughts.  This was able to bring to my conciousness thoughts that I never could "see" or "hear" before.  It helped hugely with my anxiety because I was finally able to see what was causing my anxiety.  It changed my life.  Best of luck to you...  Sorry for writing a novel!  Love, Jen

[Alisonj29]

ME!!!! I have all his books and he is brilliant. I highly recommend it!