hey there everybody and welcome to this presentation on mindfulness
and cognitive behavioral therapy this is part of the cognitive behavioral therapy
nuggets series i'm your host dr dawn elise snipes
mindfulness means turning off autopilot and being non-judgmentally aware of your thoughts
feelings needs and behaviors in the present moment there's a lot in that sentence there turning off
autopilot is the first thing and autopilot is when you are going through the motions doing what you
always do and not even really having to think about it when you get up in the morning for me
a lot of times in the morning i'm on autopilot i get up i kind of stagger out of my bedroom
and go into the kitchen start making coffee sit down pick up my phone and start reading the news
i mean that's i do it every morning and i don't even really think about it anymore and
i'm actually trying to become more mindful and not open the news in the morning but
it's important to recognize and really think just for a minute about your day today or even your
day yesterday how much of your day was spent on autopilot and how much of it were you really aware
and making conscious decisions about what to do next the second part of this phrase
is or sentence is being non-judgmentally aware and so often we should ourselves to death
and it's important when you notice your thoughts your feelings your needs your behaviors it's just
notice it be like oh okay i'm doing this or i'm feeling this way or i'm thinking this way it
is what it is and i know that that phrase drives some people crazy
um it is one that i use a lot so if you don't like it um you can choose your own or you know own it
so you find that it's empowering whatever you want to do with it but non-judgmental awareness
means noticing what is in the present and not judging it it's not good it's not bad it just is
that's mindfulness okay mindfulness helps you connect your thoughts feelings and behaviors
when you start becoming mindful you may start noticing that when you are feeling anxious
then you start having thoughts that tend to be more helpless and hopeless which may trigger you
to want to self-medicate by eating or drinking or doing something else so mindfulness can really
start helping you connect the dots and that's really one of the best things about mindfulness
mindfulness promotes prevention and early intervention mindfulness if you're being mindful
and you're checking in with yourself you're saying what am i thinking feeling and needing right now
so you can notice before your blood sugar drops that hey it's been a few hours since i ate maybe
i need to eat or you know what i haven't had much water to drink today maybe i need to drink
or i've been sitting at the computer for an hour and a half and i haven't gotten up and moved
around or stretched probably ought to do that before i start getting a kink in my neck or back
or something so mindfulness can help you be more aware of what you're doing to prevent problems
as well as be aware when your stress response is starting to kick off or you're starting to
have pain or discomfort somewhere so you can do something about it before it becomes a big problem
how much faster do you recover if you notice that you're not feeling so well you're starting to feel
a little run down and you start taking care of yourself versus waiting until you have a fever
of 104 and you're snotting all over the place you know then it may take longer to get better
and yes i know most viruses run their course in seven to ten days however you can mitigate
the intensity of the symptoms if you start taking good care of yourself and doing things to bolster
your immune system think about how operating on autopilot may have contributed to sickness
anger outbursts or even relapses of depression over the past few months for you
how do you do it mindfulness is difficult and easy at the same time it's difficult in that
it requires some discipline to do it is easy in that doing it is actually pretty straightforward
so start with being mindful as soon as you wake up at each meal and before you go to bed and you may
be thinking i'm going to spend all my day my whole day being mindful not really mindfulness takes a
minute maybe 90 seconds most of the time when you wake up in the morning start with being mindful
just think to yourself how do i feel this morning physically and emotionally generally when we
wake up we have a pretty good idea whether we're optimistic and excited for the day or we're waking
up on the wrong side of the bed or somewhere in between so just lay there for a second or even
think about it when you're drinking your first cup of coffee how do i feel physically and emotionally
non-judgmental however i feel is how it is why do i feel that way
maybe i feel anxious why why do i feel anxious apprehensive or why am i dreading
going to the office today just explore it think about why that's going on so you can
make more informed decisions about how to address it and then what do i need right now
to continue feeling great or to improve the next moment so if i wake up and i'm feeling
great i'm feeling energized i'm feeling happy i'm excited to go to the office well that's wonderful
what do i need to do to keep that momentum going what's the next step forward if i'm feeling
tired and dreading go going to the office then i need to explore why do i feel that way
and what is what do i need to do what is the next thing i can do
to improve the next moment to make to help me lean into that distress so i can get through it
become more mindful in your actions either as you're doing them or at least in reflection
at the end of the day and oh let me go back to that last slide for a second for
your morning and evening mindfulness and at your meal times you can download apps you know like
they use for reminding you to take your medication or set up push notifications in your calendar
to remind you to do it at least for a month if not three months having those push notifications
coming in can help you create that habit okay so you're doing your mindfulness when you wake up
and before each meal and at the end of the day great now we want once you get the hang of that
it's important to start trying to become more mindful in your actions either as you're doing
them or in reflection at the end of the day by asking yourself is doing this an effective
use of my energy to help me move toward the things and people that are important in my life
or is this what a happy healthy successful person would do so some examples getting
sucked into video games i have a bad habit of getting sucked into i call them video games
i don't know what you know they're technically called but the game apps on my mobile device and
you know i can spend an inordinate amount of time doing that becoming mindful of my actions
asking myself before i even open it is this an effective use of my energy to help me move toward
the things and people that are important in my life and generally the answer is no
if i want to play for a little while to help me relax you know what can i do how can i
mindfully do that and that may mean setting a timer for 30 minutes so i can engage with the
game for 30 minutes but then i will get off so it's helping me relax but it's not sucking up
hours and hours out of my day dwelling on resentment oh my gosh that takes a lot of energy
holding on to anger remember anger and anxiety that's part of the fight or flight response
that's part of your stress response it's there to tell you that there might be a problem and to
give you energy to check it out and if there is a problem give you more energy to deal with it
anger and anxiety are not meant to be nurtured they are not you know things that we want to hold
on to so dwelling on resentments is almost never a effective use of our energy so when you recognize
that you're doing that remember asking yourself what can i do to improve the next moment if i
notice that i'm dwelling on anger or resentment you know i know that it's not an effective use of
my energy so what can i do to improve the next moment eating unhealthfully it's another one
mindful awareness of what i'm doing does that mean i eat healthfully all the time oh heck no
yeah i love food and i love junk food as well as healthy food having a snack being mindful of
what i'm doing if i want right now ginger snaps um being mindful of what i'm eating not just sitting
down with a box and eating it while i'm watching tv but being mindful of what i'm eating and
recognizing how it fits in to my goals in life how does that fit into my vision of being a
happy healthy successful person you know healthy people have snacks and occasionally have treats as
well so healthy people don't bar themselves most of the time from you know junk food
but healthy people are wise about it and they eat mindfully and pay attention to what they're doing
an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure and mindfulness can give you that ounce
of prevention it can make you aware of what you need so there's so that you don't end up having
problems and when you start having problems you know if something triggers your anxiety
for example mindfulness helps you intervene early so it doesn't spiral out of control and
wear down your energy and break down your immune system and impair your sleep and make you grumpy
and hurt your relationships you know if we let things go they can really fester out of control
mindfulness helps us become aware as soon as they start happening so we can figure out how
do i improve the next moment mindfulness is essential to health and well-being it just is
if you live on autopilot you are probably going to miss big things that will end up festering and
spiraling out of control so being mindful is essential basic mindfulness is not meditation
all mindfulness is is becoming your own consistently empathetic and responsive best friend
you are becoming your own bff checking in with yourself a few times a day and going how you doing
what can i do to help you out and when you start becoming aware of your actions as your own best
friend you're checking in going is this really the best way to use your energy so mindfulness
can be a very practical useful tool to help you begin your journey towards health and happiness