- So, yeah, just to reiterate briefly,
we don't want to lead people down
into too intensivist experience,
without, a lot of training and rapport (laughs)
and confidence that you know what you're doing
or that you have training around
trauma sensitive mindfulness principles.
But, in leading this type of practice,
I usually ask people to reflect
on something mildly frustrating.
I want to work within people's window of tolerance,
and so if I feel like their window of tolerance
is at a five out of 10 intensity level,
then we'll go there and then I'll ask them
to think of something frustrating, that was frustrating,
but not too frustrating,
like around a four through a six intensity level,
or if I feel like they're capable of being
with more intense situations and we'll go there.
But for general, everyday people I usually work
with the mild territory,
but in kind of transitioning out of it,
it kind of depends if I'm working one-on-one,
it'll change, if it's a group,
it'll be a little bit different, but,
I think it's important to, in the practice itself,
to work with judgments, noticing judgments,
and softening the judgments and just bringing
this gentle curiosity, speaking from a place of care,
speaking from the heart,
but I'll usually kind of segue
into a self-compassion practice,
inviting a sense of care into the body
or to reflect on someone offering you care,
whether it's imagined or real,
but kind of opening to receiving a sense of care
or loving kindness or compassion of some sort,
allowing those feelings to come
or just directing a sense of self compassion
towards an area of the body that's most effected
by the feelings of frustration.
So if you really feel it in the head,
can we kind of bring a gentle, caring, curiosity
to the sensations around the head
and just kinda hold it lightly and, wish those areas well,
or around the heart, or for yourself in general,
to reflect on the common humanity
that this experience is shared.
It's nothing personal, like we all go through this,
it's gonna be okay.
Like this is common,
but it's also,
I think it's also important to notice
how the sensations change over time
as we stay mindful of them,
'cause usually they will process,
usually they will lighten a little bit
and we can notice that, we can not take that for granted,
we can experience the transformation that mindfulness
often brings us in the short term.
And to realize, "Oh yes, this has been helpful for me
to actually tend to it with a sense of caring curiosity
or gentle awareness or non-judgemental presence,"
that, "Oh yeah, it's a little bit lighter now,
I can appreciate that.
It may not be fully gone or might not have
the challenge resolved a 100 %,
but I can see how this practice has been helpful,
and I can appreciate that."
All right.
There's a sense of gratitude for that.
Everyone here has different skill sets,
so you could also transition into breathing exercises,
like, box breathing
or mindful walking (laughs)
to help transition.
So those are a few examples of how I might
come out of that unpleasant experience,
but my main
practice would be sort of self-compassion centered.
And so, we have a recorded workshop
from Christopher Germer, he taught a few months ago now,
self-compassion and he has lots of great practices
in the recording there.
And, Kristin Neff has written about this extensively
with Chris Germer.
So, but that's usually the main thrust,
is self-care or inviting a sense of care into the body
and into your experience, as the main point of transition.