The intention of this blog is to create a place to talk about Mindfulness, what it is, and how it can be helpful to us as human beings living in the world, in relationship to each other (and ourselves).
I also intend to use this blog as a place to process and percolate my own ideas about the usefulness of mindfulness practice and its application in psychotherapy, personal growth, and healing. I hope that this site can offer a resource for dialogue among friends, mental health professionals, meditation practitioners/teachers, spiritual seekers and anyone interested in personal growth.
My name is David Robbins. I am a counselor/psychotherapist, meditation practitioner, yogi and spiritual seeker in Boulder, CO. I have studied and practiced Vipassana meditation since 1997, and been engaged with the practice of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga for the last 4 years. I have used my own experience as a laboratory to test the effects of mindfulness and mindful meditation and have found it to be a potent cocktail for stress reduction, self-awareness, inner healing, personal growth, and change. I have also had the privilege of learning from very special and creative people, in my private practice, and their experiences with using mindfulness-based techniques learned in our therapy sessions. I have heard from them that mindfulness simply makes life more enjoyable and satisfying. In our culture, we often live in the future or obsess over the past. Mindfulness offers a gift of simply being present with what is happening, and the organic satisfaction that comes with fully engaging the present and our experience of it.
In upcoming posts I will offer explanation and resources on what mindfulness and mindfulness practice are, how they can help, and simple practices to bring them into your life.
Filed under: Buddhism, Mindfulness, Practice
David – I can’t wait to hear more! I’m particularly interested in hearing about how you’ve been able to introduce mindfulness to your clients and how it has affected their lives. I have found this task to be a little challenging, so would love some tips from you.
Of course, I’m also interested in how mindfulness and meditation can improve intimate relationships, as well. Seems like any practice that slows us down and helps us to increase our self-awareness would naturally help us be better partners.
Thanks, and I look forward to your next post,
Becky
Thanks Becky!
I will try to address the issue of bringing up mindfulness with your clients and creating interest and motivation around that. I have been lucky to have had clients come to me that already have meditation practices, and in that case they already know the value of this practice, and we can learn how to use it in specific applications within the session and for homework.
I have also had a number of clients who do not meditate and I have tried different things with varying degrees of success. I will share these experiences in a later post. I will be writing a post exclusively on Why we practice? and that will list many of the benefits of the practice. Basically, we have to show the benefits to clients and also help them to experience them in the session through skilled guidance. Obviously this isn’t an appropriate intervention for everyone, but anyone seeking relaxation, greater presence, listening skills, anxiety reduction, less focus on obsessive thoughts it can be very impactful. Particularly if the client is motivated to practice on their own….which can be an essential ingredient. The mindfulness interventions tend to work best, in my opinion, if it is tailored to address and in some way alleviate or impact the negative feelings around the presenting issue of the client.
Another important point is that we, as the therapist, believe in the intervention and that it will work. If we have a practice ourselves and have accrued benefit in our own lives it will be much easier to pass this on in a genuine way to clients.
More on this to come!
David
Hi David,
I just wanted to give you positive feedback about your blog. I find it very clear and insightful (no pun intended)..and also it makes me want to get on the cushion. I also appreciate the reference for the book giving guidance for daily practice. I am going to check that out for sure.
Thanks and keep up the great contributions to the inquiry into consciousness-
Daphne