Featured Archives - Page 4 of 52

October 27, 2019 By Admin

Crisis Resilience Skills

Crisis Resilience Skills – Mindful Happiness

Below I will list various interventions that have proven effective in reducing the level of personal crisis. The sources for many of these skills came from Burns (1980), Ellis (1995), Seligman (1988), Linehan (1993, 2015)), Hayes (2018), and Thich Nhat Hanh (various publications). The skills noted are for immediate application in crisis and/or post-crisis practice. Due to space limitations, I will not explain details; rather I will list skills with minimum directions. If interested in improving your clinical capacities to deal with crises, you can look up the details on your own. It is a growth process. It is always a good idea to have a clear and practical crisis response plan.

Move to cognition as soon as possible – get out of body reactions and take over the thought process related to the situation. Practice Tara Brach’s RAIN skills (recognize, accept, investigate, and relate to non-self), complete a pros and cons grid (good and not-so-good things about staying the same versus making small changes – CT, MI, CBT). Also distant or distract yourself quickly. Distraction is not to be used in physically dangerous situations.
Practice mindfulness core skills. Begin relaxation breath with deep, slow breathing (polyvagal impediments may exist especially if poorly treated trauma is a reality), use positive imagery, meditate, do yoga, pray, pay attention to non-crisis variables, and live within the realities impermanence.
Practice self-soothing. Remember or engage in positive images, sounds, touch, smells, and tastes. Carry your favorite self-calming scent with you. Rub your hands hard and long until hot, then place them on your face and absorb the healing warmth.
DBT-like skills are highly effective. Use “wide-mind” skills. Try ACCEPTS. Engage in alternative activities, contribute to others, compare downwardly with others, engage in opposite emotion, push away unhelpful thoughts and move away from the situation, engage in productive thinking about what to do now without emotional dysregulation, and improve your sensations. Although not part of DBT, you may wish to practice progressing counting (distractive); say to yourself or outloud consecutive numbers and imagine them in your mind’s eye. Continue to count until the emotional reactivity has reduced.
Practice mindful movement. Do yoga, tai chi, qi gong in more vigorous modes until you notice that your body has experienced a reduction in emotional reactivity. Regular meditation practice is, perhaps, your best option here. Do vigorous exercise.
Do your best to reduce a “victim” self-image. Work on fear-based reactions and combat hopelessness and helplessness tendencies. Use your older, experienced self’s wisdom.
If in therapy, be certain to process the crisis experience. If your therapist is competent, she/he will include such skills development as part of your treatment.
Hope this quick review has been helpful to you.

Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont and the Home of The Monkton Sangha

Author of Mindful Happiness

New Edition of Mindful Happiness in Production…Coming soon!

October 23, 2019 By Admin

Amitabha Buddha – Pure Land Meditation

The following meditation had been modified by me to make it a more specific self-healing meditation and to better fit the time we now live in.

Sit quietly and complete 3-4 deep, calming breaths.
Pay attention to the quality and density of the light you see outside of your body.
Do your best to “feel” the presence of this light.
Become familiar with using the light of the earth, sun, moon, and stars to heal.
Notice closely the absolute boundlessness and emptiness of the healing light.
Imagine taking in the full colored light of a rainbow as your breathe in and out.
Do your best not to worry; be as content as possible with this experience.
Go into your memory or do this on a clear day/night – see and internalize the healing light in the rising and setting sun, in the full moon, and in all the stars above you.
Do whatever you must to transform this light energy into pure healing light. Let go of doubt, defensiveness, and resentment. Be one with the healing light.
Use your imagination to see/feel the light entering all of your sense one by one. Notice! Take it in!
See, hear, feel, smell and taste the beauty of this ever-healing light. Let it all in!
Allow in the healing light and sense its unconditional love for you.
Let it enter your mind, body, soul, heart – your whole and beautiful self.
Work hard to radically accept the healing light’s gifts to you. Accept it!
Be with and be the healing light without clinging to it, attaching to it, or seeking it.
Now breathe fully and smile fully, allowing yourself to be lit-up by the healing light.
Be one with it in your inner body and mind. Be open!
Experiment: Let inner darkness represent your deep, personal suffering – then allow tears and feeling of the healing light to “bless you.” Allow, allow, allow!
Feel the healing light calming and soothing your afflictive emotional states.
Relax into the light as it penetrates into you and your suffering mind and body.
With each breath go deeper into your relaxation and appreciation.
Feel and be the deep tranquility you are experiencing. Thank the healing light!
Chant: “Om Mani Tabba Be.” Repeat the chant if you wish to do so.
Now rest in complete healing light and inner contentment. Just be!
For more information refer to DEMI (2010). Amitabha: The Buddha of Light and Life. See also Atone, J. (2011). The Promise of Amitabha Buddha…

Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont and the Home of The Monkton Sangha

Author of Mindful Happiness

New Edition of Mindful Happiness in Production…Coming soon!

October 18, 2019 By Admin

The Failed “War on Drugs” – Let’s Try Treatment On Demand and Fund It

The New York based Drug Policy Alliance (drugpolicy.org) and other sources have provided some important information about our failed drug and alcohol policies. Here are a few astounding facts. The United Stares has about 5% of the world’s population, but it uses approximately 70% of the worlds illicit drug. In Mexico, our drug-users demand may be responsible for the decay of governmental control – the rise of powerful drug cartels. We incarcerate the highest level of people in the world, nearly 25% of the world’s prison population. With the highest incarceration rate in the world, in 2016 we incarcerated 2,205,300 people. Our population, especially the young, appear to have a “death wish” regarding the consumption of mind-altering substances. Are we Americans so, so emotional empty inside and lacking of all capacities for emotion regulation? Why do we need to self-medicate at such dangerous levels? We just experienced a medically-led nation-wide opioid crisis. Our alcohol industry, worse than the losses due to Opioids, lobbies very hard so very little interference occurs in their Big Profit Game. One might suggest the government does not wish to improve the substance-consumption problem. Now we may legalize various uses of marijuana; there are public health consequences here. At this time 33 states allow medical use of marijuana. And, of course we have, vaping! Who profits?

Our current strong addiction to electronic and digital devices is our new epidemic. Addiction to “I-Smart” phones and tablets fuel texting-while-driving, with recent increase in highway deaths and injury. How utterly stupid! We are addicted to these devices (like the nicotine, alcohol, opioid, and vaping problems); the goal of electronic/digital engineers and behavioral psychologists hired by the industry to make sure we never put the device down and stay on it – even when driving. We empty Americans will do almost anything to “connect” to something. Our emotional emptiness and poor self-regulation skills make us vulnerable to unmet emotional needs. We must “feel” connected – because we are NOT. D. W. Winnicott and S. Freud had something to say about these neurotic tendencies of emptiness. So, how many “likes” did you get today? Time to wake up.

It is estimated that the U.S. government spends approximately $47,000,000,000 a year on the “war on drug.”
In 2017 1,632,921 Americans were arrested for drug related violations of law. In 2016 the number was 456,000, with 21% due to substance use problems.
Nearly 660,000 people were arrested in 2017 for marijuana law violations, with about 90% being for simple possession.
Even if the Black and Latino population makes up less than 32% off our total population, we arrested nearly 47% of those populations in our total drug-related arrests.
In 2017 72,000 American died from a drug overdose. We are out-of-control!
It may be possible to obtain $58,000,000,000 in tax revenue from the taxation and control of currently illegal drugs.
President Barack Obama, William Buckley, Milton Friedman, and Noam Chomsky have publicly noted that our “war on drug” is a total failure.

Here is an idea. Let’s get serious about stopping the total deterioration of our nation due to drug and alcohol addictions. Let’s try complete treatment on demand – and fund it at realistic levels. Hopefully, such a change would include evidence-based interventions and recovery-oriented cooperation. Let’s see what the next administration does about our self-destructing, nation-wide problem.

Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont and the Home of The Monkton Sangha

Author of Mindful Happiness

New Edition of Mindful Happiness in Production…Coming soon!

October 18, 2019 By Admin

Spirit Wars and “Spiritual Warfare”

This post will discuss the topic and personal strategies. Most content will relate to both physical realities and metaphorical meanings and categories. Since a person viewing their self as fighting a spiritual war most likely holds onto certain parts of self in this endeavor, it is highly unlikely that the actual adversaries are authentic entities outside/inside the self. It is more likely that personal experience has conditioned the person to understand these variable processes as quite serious and sometimes dangerous. To maintain a clear boundary, this post is not presenting a way to treat people suffering from any form of identity disorder; rather, this post offer some ideas about how one might go about becoming healthier via less targeted clinical interventions. The remaining part of the post will offer comments and suggestions for personal consideration of the reader. Most content deals with realistic natural phenomena in life. I hope I am making myself clear here. I hope you find the content helpful.

Since pure white/golden healing light has been noted in almost all major spiritual traditions, you might wish to experiment with the experiences noted below. Do your best to see the light as a potential healing ally. Allow yourself to feel the light. Do not block!
Experiment with observing the rising and setting sun. Allow the light to penetrate you; use kinesthetic awareness to do so. Do your best to feel the light and experience its healing power. Enjoy this! Do not look directly into the intense light energy of the sun.
Study basic astrophysics to learn how gravity (one of the main constants in the universe) has direct effects on dark/black energies.
On a clear night, look deeply into the starlit sky and allow the star energies to enter you. Feel it; use it. Enjoy this!
On a clear day, look into the blue sky with moving clouds. Allow the light to penetrate you and feel its power. Enjoy this!
Go for a silent walk in nature. Notice! Use all your senses to encounter all that is there. Gently gaze at a mountain, pond, lake, or stream. Notice the transparency off the clear water as it moves downstream. Send your troubles (like a leaf) downstream with the current. Make the best of your attention and intention here. Notice! Relax! Enjoy this!
You may wish to try the Ten Directions experiment. Discern carefully what directions are helpful. What directions bring you into your deep inner self ally? Stand silently and notice the healing air/wind coming from the North, South, East, and West. Notice the effects! Now stand there and bring your attention to everything inside of you. And next – to everything outside of you. Look up and look down; notice. Now use your natural ability to project and send your troubles far, far, far away. Notice! Now move your body slowly and notice; now move your body with more vigorous energy, and notice. You have completed your Ten Directions experiment. Hope it was helpful. Thank our indigenous First Nation Peoples and Buddhist concepts for this process.
Relax and begin to breathe deeply, slowly. Notice the ease and the difficulty. Continue to breathe. Allow the deeper, slower breath to calm you. Notice how the freshness of the committed breath restores your airflow in your throat, heart, soul, etc. Allow the clean flow of healing breath to cleanse you- in your throat, heart, soul.
Now do your best to engage your helpful beliefs and helpful behaviors to support your internal healing. Engage in activities/behaviors that you find helpful. Do not engage in thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that are unhelpful. Be strong.
Examine your personal space-time continuum, and pay close attention to when your time and space are safe for you. Spend much more time in this aspect of time and space. Do the same for being happier.
Practice paying more attention to the silent, still space between your breaths, between your thoughts, between your heartbeats, and between your periods of suffering. Use the energy of your attention to enhance the space, silence, peace, and tranquility.
Use your personal, natural wisdom to disempower any obstacles that hinder your progress to improved health and happiness.
Use all of the above as metaphors of self-protection against all sources of suffering.
Know that emotional dysregulation, anger, fear all feed your inner dragons. Best to starve them!
Lastly, if you are a religious person, pray more.
If you read spiritual books, you may want to try the Lectio Divina approach. In this Latin Christian Church method one reads a spiritual passage over and over and over again, each time going more deeply into the self and core religious beliefs. This form of meditation tends to enhance the power of the spiritual information being read as well as the power of the belief.

Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont and the Home of The Monkton Sangha

Author of Mindful Happiness

New Edition of Mindful Happiness in Production…Coming soon!

October 13, 2019 By Admin

“i Rest” Yoga Nidra Practice (Richard Miller, Ph.D.)

All regular meditation and yoga practices are capable of bringing us closer to our true self and our relationships in the world. A by-product is deep relaxation and equanimity. Richard Miller, Ph.D. (Clinical Psychologist, yogic scholar, spiritual teacher), has created a yoga nidra practice that promises to return us to our authentic self and provide deep, relaxation and inner peace in the process. The iRest method is based on long-term practice and research. Yoga nidra is a pathway to improved health, awareness, and inner healing. It has been effective in problems related to stress, anxiety, sleep, trauma, and physical pain. I suggest it may be equally effective in all psychological pain. In neuroscience theory yoga nidra may reset your central nervous system, improve coping capacity, and open doorways to spiritual development. In the following yoga nidra meditation I have integrated my own yoga nidra practices with the iRest method presented by Dr. Miller. Let’s begin!

Place your body in a comfortable positions sitting, lying down, or standing. Enjoy silence in the pause. Close your eyes if ok.
Allow your body to settle down and simply notice your full awareness. Notice silence in the pause.
Open up your senses without evaluation, and notice delicately your body contact with parts of the world beyond the body boundary. Pause.
Be open to noting the contact experience, and prepare to go inward inside your body. Notice as we pause in silence.
Gently notice without evaluation the sensations you feel as we move up and down the body. Quickly at first. Up and then down!
Starting with your toes, simply notice sensations; then move up slowly all the way to your hips, noticing sensations as you move your intentional kinesthetic awareness. Be with the silence in the pause.
Continue your inner, private body scan moving from the hips all the way up your chest and to the top of your head. Silence!
Just notice sensations and continue to be aware without judging.
Now move slowly from the head back down your back to the hips. Notice the quality of the silence in the pause.
Again, with intentional attention without thinking move down from the hips all the way back to the toes. Remain silent inside.
Now ever so gently notice your intentional in and out breaths. Breathe deeper, slower. Notice.
Notice and allow the sensations of breath passing into your nostrils, down the throat, into the chest and lungs. Notice the rise of the belly on the in-breath. Do all this without thinking – only noticing the sensations your feel. Enjoy this silent pause. Let go.
Now notice the out-breath and follow the same sensation track as your exhale. Notice! Remain silent inside and outside.
At this point in our process, bring attention gently to an area of the body where you feel discomfort, pain, or suffering.
Simply allow and welcome this sensation as if it were simply sensations – like those you just experienced. Pause in silence.
Blend the earlier pleasant sensations with this uncomfortable sensations. Notice! Settle deeply into the silent pause.
In your effort to accept all sensations, notice the discomfort and note if it is stronger at its center or at the periphery. Where?
Focus more attention where there is less discomfort. Go deep into the silence here.
Does your unpleasant sensation have a color? Focus on the color. Now focus on an opposite color or your favorite color. Notice.
Let go of reactions to the discomfort on each and every exhalation, and especially in the gaps/spaces between breaths and awarenesses. Be with the silence now.
Continue to let go in the longer silence here.
Does the sensation have a character texture? Is it dense or loose? Heavy or light? Sharp or dull? Go to where there is less discomfort. Be in your inner most silence now.
Radically accept all your bodily sensations – the pleasant along with the unpleasant. It is only sensation; it is your reaction to it that causes you problems. We wish to flee discomfort and hold onto pleasure. Just be with what is! Just be in silence now.
Allow your body to remain aware, accept, integrate all the forms of sensation you are experiencing.
Examine your control by bringing focus to the pleasant sensations, now to the unpleasant sensations. Accept them all as simply sensations without evaluating. This may be challenging. Find some peace in the silence.
Now allow your senses to open up and notice what you feel, hear, see, taste, smell. etc.
Use the power of your inner spirit to help you improve this moment of perfect being. Empower spirit! Sit in silence now.
When you feel ready slowly bring yourself to a full alert state. If your eyes have been closed, gently open them.
Now just rest!!!!! Enjoy the silence. I will cue you when we are ready to end yoga nidra.

Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont and the Home of The Monkton Sangha

Author of Mindful Happiness