Mindful Happiness

Anthony Quintiliani, Ph.D, LADC

  • Home
  • Dr. Anthony Quintiliani
    • About
  • Mindful Happiness
  • Mindful Expressions Meditation CD
  • Contact

August 23, 2017 By Admin

Beyond MBSR- Quick Start Skills

Beyond MBSR – Quick Start Skills

Self-calming for counselors and other helpers is one of the most important survival practices to master.  Self-calming consists a set of basic mindfulness skills, all of which must be practiced regularly to achieve desired emotion-regulation effects. The utility of these skills is well established in clinical research, and not only do they calm helpers but they are also excellent forclients.  Once a counselor has practiced these skills on a regular basis, it may be time to share such practices with clients. Live-practice therapy sessions are always more effective than simply “talk-therapy” about skills. Talk is cognitive, thereby impacting our executive brain more so than our body and limbic brain. Live mind-body practice impacts both the executive and limbic brain areas, and the body. In the same way that cognitive and psychodynamic interventions alone often fail to impact limbic system reactivity, these mind-body practices impact both mind and body – if we are lucky they may also impact the soul. A side-effect of regularly practiced skills may be increased personal happiness in life. These skills, if practiced regularly, will improve emotion self-regulation for most people.  Here are the skills.  This is simply an introduction, so you may have to research and learn “how to do” these skills via additional help. Be aware that if you suffer from severe physical illnesses, you may want to check with your healthcare provider before starting these practices.  The same may be true if you suffer from severe psychological conditions.

  1. Mindfulness Breathing Techniques – Try calm, slow, deep abdominal breathing as a practice. Once mastered add exhalation extension; extend the exhalation slightly and maintain a similar length of the breath extension as you practice. Try mid-line breathing; imagine your breath entering your nose and moving on the mid-line of the body to your lungs and eventually into your hara, or deep abdomen. If you are experiencing low mood, you may want to try excitatory breathing; breathe in and out fast and completely. See if it improves your mood. Lastly, experiment with happiness breath; each time you take a long, slow, deep breath recall a pleasant memory from your past.  Be sure the memory is an authentic one, one without mood-altering substances.
  2. Buddha’s Best Friends – I have added to this list. Your always helpful “best friends” are your calming breath, your smile, your standing body, sitting body, moving body, and lying body.  All these practices have positive neurobiological effects. Try them to see if you feel better.
  3. Mindful Movement – It is often very helpful to practice yoga, tai chi, qi gong, and walking meditation.  Instructional classes are often available at the community level
  4. Middle-Way Practices – Do your best to remain in the middle way regarding most human interactions and experiences.  Being in extremes, especially in emotional experiences, is generally unhealthy for us all. When you catch yourself at extreme ends of experience and reactivity, breathe calmly and take control over your executive brain. Move your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors towards the more moderate position. This is especially important in all interpersonal relationships.
  5. The First and Second Arrows of Suffering – We all suffer, and we all will suffer. This is simply part of life.  When a horrible things happens to you (the first arrow), there is usually nothing you can do about it.  Some good old radical acceptance may be helpful.  However, human suffering is deepened and prolonged because we often do not have emotion regulation skills. The second arrow generally causes longer and deeper suffering than the first arrow – even when the first is traumatic. The second arrow is what our mind and body do after the first arrow. Our negative thoughts and emotions (also action urges in behavior) set us up to suffer even more and for longer periods of time. We need to practice middle way moderation and executive control over emotional/behavioral reactivity when we are upset. Regular meditation and/or yoga will help improve your emotional capacities here.
  6. Gratitude – Best to practice regular gratitude for what you do have now rather than crave and react to what you wish you had now. This reactive stance causes more suffering, especially unhappiness, envy, and greed. Did you eat today? Did you sleep in a bed last night? Is your overall health moderately good?  Do you have a job?  How about having a or several friends? Is there a family member you care about and/or who cares about you. Take a moment for gratitude for things you may be taking for granted because you have them in your life.
  7. Self-Compassion Practices – Since humans suffer, we tend to become stuck in the past (may relate to “repetition compulsion”) and either fearful to craving for the future.  Being out of the present moment increases angst and sometimes unhappiness. Only by being in the present moment can you exert your human power in arising and falling experiences. It is OK to practice self-compassion for your suffering, but do not wallow in it and get stuck in it.  Just face it, and realize all humans suffer in their lives.  We also have joy! This suffering will pass.
  8. Body Scanning Practice –  This can be a very powerful practice. Simply start with your toes or the top-center of your head, and allow yourself to feel the “feeling” of directed and strong attention.  Simply move down or up the body, placing strong attention/awareness on various parts of the body.  The attention and subtle feelings alone may be relaxing.  I prefer guided practices with a touch of suggestion. As you move down or up the body, add the idea of “feeling” a subtle, relaxation sensation at each point. DO NOT look for it, just do it and see.
  9. Loving Kindness Meditation – This is my favorite meditation, and one that is popular all over the world. You will have to research the complete steps. Here I will simply get you started. Begin with yourself and say slowly: may I be safe…healthy…free from suffering…happy…living with ease. Try to feel inside the appropriate inner experience and inner sensations of each step. Now do it for a significant other. Then end by doing it again for yourself. There are many steps, so look into this if you enjoy the effects.
  10. Radical Acceptance – When primary suffering hits (you are wounded by the first arrow), do you best to recognize that we all suffer, and sometimes there is little one can do about it.  We need time to grieve and mourn losses and emotional pain. Radical acceptance simply recognized a reality in the moment. Use your mind-body-heart-soul systems to move beyond suffering – it takes time. Along with radical acceptance, you may wish to use RAIN process – recognize what is going on emotionally for you, accept it in the moment, inquire about why you feel this way, and use the concept on non-self (or the fact that all experiences even life are impermanent, so things will change, arise and fall). This bad experience arises and falls away in time.
  11. Mindful Journaling – When you practice mindfulness in everyday life, when you meditate or do yoga, it is often helpful to write some thoughts and emotions about your practice in your “special” personal journal. Journaling about ONLY positives can be a very helpful practice.  My many years of clinical experience have taught me that writing negatives in one’s journal can be far less helpful. If you decide to do this add ritual to it; be mindful in seeking out the right journal for you to write in.  You could also make your own journal if you wish.
  12. Your Best Parts of Self – Take time each day to note one or two positives about your day and about YOU. Our limbic-brain tends to keep us locked in negatives and critical/fearful mind. So we need to exert some emotional and cognitive energy to alter that pattern. It is good practice to list a couple positive traits you noticed in yourself reach day.  It is a BIG deal!

For more information refer to Quintiliani, A. R. (2014). Mindful Happiness…Shelburne, VT: Red Barn Books. This book is being revised and expanded at this time.

Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, VermontChiYinYang_EleanorRLiebmanCenter

Author of Mindful Happiness  

Mindful Happiness cover designs.indd

New Edition of Mindful Happiness in Production…Coming soon!

Filed Under: Activities, Featured, MBSR, MIndfulness, Stress Reduction Tagged With: MBSR, MINDFUL BASED STRESS REDUCTION, MINDFUL HAPPINESS

Twitter

Mindful Happiness -Currently in Production

Mindful Happiness Posts

My third posting on self-medication- Comes from the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont. Now we will turn our attention to how people become habituated to self-medication to obtain brief moments of joy and/or to avoid emotional suffering.  Recall that self-medication becomes a habit (dopamine released in reward centers of the […]

The Holy Year of Mercy Like the Fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet, Pope Francis in The Church of Rome, is sharing his opinion on compassion and mercy in life.  Although Pope Francis distinguishes compassion (a human action) from mercy (a divine action), the two positive conditions are quite similar in values, attitudes, and behaviors.  Pope […]

Failure and Success: After We Fail, We Succeed Humans tend to get very discouraged when things do not go our way. This may be especially true for younger people, who have grown up attached to their instant gratification digital devices. Below I will list several highly successful people, but I will also note their many […]

Advanced Meditation Practices on Perception As the Sutra story goes, the Buddha instructed Ananda to visit the ailing venerable Girimananda, who was very, very ill.  In an effort to help the ailing man, the Buddha told Ananda to guide him in the Ten Meditation on Perceptions (on sensory input and the objects of mind). According […]

An Advanced View on Meditations on Emptiness An earlier post on the Dalai Lama’s book, Meditations on the Nature of Mind, ended with suggested meditations (my own personal contemplation’s) about emptiness.  I will first review those contemplations.  Contemplate deeply on what emptiness means personally to you.  Contemplate about a time when you received a glimpse of personal emptiness. […]

Self-Medication:  Is Your Hand-Held Device a  Dopamine Device?   Mindfulness Activities: Here is a simple activity that may inform you about your personal level of addiction to your digital/electronic devices. Simply click the link below to download the PDF Worksheet;   answer each question according to your personal opinions.  Dr-Anthony-Quintiliani_HandHeldDeviceActivity Be sure to complete the meditation activity […]

Contemplative Practices – Affirmative Self-Inquiry Contemplation and affirmative self-inquiry may be helpful in improving your awareness of your better parts of self – your positive strengths and traits.  Our self-critical mind often causes us to spend far too much time on critical, negative thinking about ourselves and about others.  The practice below may be helpful […]

Practice: Yogi Deep Meditation on Inner Listening Carl Jung noted: Who looks outside dreams; who looks inside, awakens. The Katha Upanishads (800-400 BCE) noted: One path leads outward and the other inward. [The] way inward leads to grace. The Mind Cave Focus instructs us to close our eyes and expand your third-eye space to the back of […]

Many Benefits of Mindfulness and Vipassana Meditation The Dalai Lama (Gyatso, Tenzin), the world leader of Tibetan Buddhism, and Paul Ekman, the world famous Psychologist of human emotions, have teamed up to discuss how to use mindful emotional awareness skills to become more emotionally balanced and compassionate. These two highly skilled practitioners have listed 21 […]

Trauma Therapy:  Basics from Some Expert Clinicians For many years trauma therapist have used many approaches in their psychotherapy. Most of these approaches lack strong empirical support for outcomes, and are often the “favorites” of these therapists.  One might wonder what benefits therapists derive from using approaches that are not evidence-based. If an intervention fails […]

Interoception and Your Inner Self-Helper Interoception (sometimes called neuroception) is a sensory experience, in which you feel sensations in your body (viscera, heart, throat, etc.) that may be warning signs of limbic surveillance or inner continuity of your inner self-helper – that part of you and your brain that hopes to help you in whatever […]

Tantric Meditation on Emptiness of Self Mind training on emptiness of self requires single-pointed attention and concentration on space, empty space. Emptiness awareness in equipoise of meditation appears as the empty of space. When we practice this repeatedly with calm abiding we can attain direct experience of non-conceptual realization – true emptiness. Awareness of emptiness […]

Basics of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction is, perhaps, one of the major contributions to evidence-based mindfulness therapies. Jon Kabat-Zinn’s development of this model of intervention was both timely and exquisite.  In clinical care of psychological and physical problems, these skills and practices are of utmost importance for improving (according to the most recent […]

Pathways for Coping with Loss and Grief Jeanne Cacciatore, a Zen priest and bereavement specialist, offer sound advice on the process of loss and grieving.  In her book, Bearing the Unbearable: Love and the Heart Breaking Path of Grief (2016), she presents the process as a series of contractions and expansions; contractions are the inward path of […]

Taoist Meditation on Healing Colors of Light In Taoist views the four seasons (five if you include “Indian Summer”) are strongly associated with emotional moods and bodily energies. Healing colored light is also part of this viewpoint. For each of the colors we use, follow the process noted below. Sit quietly and breathe calmly. Circle […]

Mindfulness Defined… There are many definitions of mindfulness.  Here I have combined several popular views into one.  This definition and process may be helpful to readers who cannot quite grasp what it is, what it feels like, and what steps can make it happen.   Good luck in your regular practices!   Mindfulness is: Paying […]

Plasticity – The Amazing Human Brain We humans are very fortunate in that our brain is one of the most complex entities in our known universe. Natural selection, genetic modifications, and use-related neuroplasticity have blessed us with a brain quite capable of some of the most complicated tasks imaginable. Some of these tasks (medical miracles, […]

Human Beings Have Trouble BEING Human – Some Sound Advice from Dr Anthony Quintiliani The world today appears to be even more destructive than ever before in human history.  However, historians and violence researchers inform us that we as average persons are safer today than we were in the past.  Finger-tip access to world-wide media […]

Practice Approaches to for Mindful and  Enhanced Emotion Regulation Brought to us by way of  The Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont Mindful Approaches for Enhanced Emotion Regulation; here are some approaches to practice. 1)In some ways you could understand the progression from auto-pilot mind to greater stability and equanimity of […]

Zen Buddhist Practices – Egolessness In our practice we often inquire, and sometimes experience, the no-self and/or egolessness. What is egolessness? Who and what do we think we are? Some say that when we die the essence but not the ego lives on into new experiences. Karma and re-birth are givens in this spiritual view. […]

Mindful Happiness Tags

THERAPY. ELEANOR R LIEBMAN CENTER TRAINING ADDICTION SUFFERING MINDFUL HAPPINESS EXERCISES WALKING MEDITATION MINDFUL TRAINING MINDFUL BRAIN ACTIVITIES JOURNALING ENLIGHTENMENT SELF CARE MINDFUL MEDITATION MINDFULNESS TRAINING PSYCHOTHERAPY WISE MIND MBSR MEDITATION VERMONT MEDITATION PRACTICE HAPPINESS CONSCIOUSNESS THICH NHAT HANH COMPASSION SELF ESTEEM SELF MEDICATION CLINICAL SUPERVISION SELF BUDDHISM BREATHING TRAUMA SELF COMPASSION PRACTICES ANTHONY QUINTILIANI ACTIVITY VIPASSANA MEDITATION DR ANTHONY QUINTILIANI VIPASSANA MINDFULNESS PRACTICE COVID-19 EMPTINESS

Mindful Categories

Mindful Happiness Pages

  • About
  • Contact
  • Dr. Anthony Quintiliani
  • Mindful Expressions Meditation CD
  • Mindful Happiness
  • Site Map

Copyright © 2021 · Mindful Happiness