Front Office Football Central - View Single Post - Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Course

Radii · 03-09-2015, 11:42 PM

This week involves lots of smaller events/discussions/practice compared to the last couple weeks.

Monday, March 9th - Week 3 Class

There is a different instructor. She seems to have a bit of a different attitude than the guy I'm used to but its quickly obvious that she just has a weird/different sense of humor, she's fine, no more than a few minutes of worry about whether its going to be an issue having someone I'm uncomfortable with leading the group.

Opening Discussion

The instructor asks us to briefly take a meditative posture. We breathe for a few moments, and we're asked to look over ourselves briefly, and to determine "am I at ease right now, in this room?". What comes to mind when asked that question? Could something be done to make you feel at ease in this moment? This only lasts a minute or so.

We discuss the reasons that we might not be at ease. One guy mentions physical discomfort. Another mentions that he was unsure if he would make it on time, so he was rushed on the way here and stressed about being late, and he is still a little amped up from that. One person mentions that he didn't look for physical cues, but emotional ones, "is everything in order", or are there things he didn't get done today that have him stressed.

During this I note that I am not at ease. I am in a group of approximately 20 strangers. I am automatically not at ease. I do not know how I could be made to feel at ease when actively thinking about this fact. I am also not at ease yet with the new instructor. As mentioned above that feeling didn't last long.

This leads to a discussion of using meditation (the "sitting practice") to help set oneself at ease in more places besides alone at home. Those with physical tension, could you focus on your breathing, note places you are tense, and relax? Those who feel stress because you didn't get something done at work today, you aren't going to be doing it right now, in this moment. This is an opportunity to make a choice to be in the present moment, to do something to remove/reduce a little of that stress, since you can't do anything about it right now anyway. This is given as a real world example on how to use the things we're learning in class to help us in our daily lives.

A specific example is given of being in a waiting room and choosing to meditate there. Which is pretty neat since I did that just a couple days ago!

Mindfulness Meditation

As always, we spend time at the start of the class doing the thing that was the main focus of our previous week's homework. I'm not sure how long we did this for, but it felt like a long time. The chair I was sitting in was uncomfortable, and my back was hurting pretty quickly trying to maintain a decent posture. I found my posture slipping consistently throughout as a position would get too uncomfortable to maintain, so I'd relax it a bit. My focus would alternate from my breathing to thinking about my posture.

03-09-2015, 11:42 PM	#46
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	This week involves lots of smaller events/discussions/practice compared to the last couple weeks. Monday, March 9th - Week 3 Class There is a different instructor. She seems to have a bit of a different attitude than the guy I'm used to but its quickly obvious that she just has a weird/different sense of humor, she's fine, no more than a few minutes of worry about whether its going to be an issue having someone I'm uncomfortable with leading the group. Opening Discussion The instructor asks us to briefly take a meditative posture. We breathe for a few moments, and we're asked to look over ourselves briefly, and to determine "am I at ease right now, in this room?". What comes to mind when asked that question? Could something be done to make you feel at ease in this moment? This only lasts a minute or so. We discuss the reasons that we might not be at ease. One guy mentions physical discomfort. Another mentions that he was unsure if he would make it on time, so he was rushed on the way here and stressed about being late, and he is still a little amped up from that. One person mentions that he didn't look for physical cues, but emotional ones, "is everything in order", or are there things he didn't get done today that have him stressed. During this I note that I am not at ease. I am in a group of approximately 20 strangers. I am automatically not at ease. I do not know how I could be made to feel at ease when actively thinking about this fact. I am also not at ease yet with the new instructor. As mentioned above that feeling didn't last long. This leads to a discussion of using meditation (the "sitting practice") to help set oneself at ease in more places besides alone at home. Those with physical tension, could you focus on your breathing, note places you are tense, and relax? Those who feel stress because you didn't get something done at work today, you aren't going to be doing it right now, in this moment. This is an opportunity to make a choice to be in the present moment, to do something to remove/reduce a little of that stress, since you can't do anything about it right now anyway. This is given as a real world example on how to use the things we're learning in class to help us in our daily lives. A specific example is given of being in a waiting room and choosing to meditate there. Which is pretty neat since I did that just a couple days ago! Mindfulness Meditation As always, we spend time at the start of the class doing the thing that was the main focus of our previous week's homework. I'm not sure how long we did this for, but it felt like a long time. The chair I was sitting in was uncomfortable, and my back was hurting pretty quickly trying to maintain a decent posture. I found my posture slipping consistently throughout as a position would get too uncomfortable to maintain, so I'd relax it a bit. My focus would alternate from my breathing to thinking about my posture.