Mindful Happiness

Anthony Quintiliani, Ph.D, LADC

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

February 11, 2021 By Admin

Breath, Mindfulness and Liberation

Breath, Mindfulness and Liberation

J. Goldstein, (2007).  in volume two of Abiding in Mindfulness – On Feelings… brings clear focus to the infinite importance of feelings – the sensation-based associations of various emotional and physical states. Via on-going and regular practice of mindfulness and contemplation we may access the four areas of human awareness: body, feelings, heart-mind, and dharma. The rising and falling away of all phenomena, especially human feelings, requires keen attention to internal emotional experiences. Being fully aware of how little control we may have over life experiences, or our own death, opens up the path to mindfulness of feelings as a form of liberation from typical samsaric Ups and Downs. As Sophia Newman reminds us , mindfulness awareness can flow between two poles: intense concentration and the more gentle absorption of whatever is happening right now. Now if the basis of pure experience. Be with the now of your deeper, slower breath.

Breathing as Spiritual Practice

W. Johnson (2019). Breathing as a Spiritual Practice…Rochester, Vt.: Inner Traditions, pp.142-145 presents key understandings of the role breath plays in spiritual practices a meditation. Breath meditation allows sometimes safer space for our deeper, darker personal experiences. Once you take more control of the breath, move it deeper and slower into your depths. When mind wonders off, gently bring it back to focus – the breath. Allow the breath to become a multi-faceted experience in complete awareness. After breath meditations it may be helpful to journal about your inner experiences. B. D. Lamson reminds us when facing adversity it is best to use the breath as your ally. C. Feldman adds it is better to receive the breath as it presents; only later taking more control of how you utilize your breath and respond to it. Even when receiving and allowing the breath to be what it is, simply be with your self-consciousness and uncertainty. No special focus on breath can produce soothing, but more and more practice of allowing then controlling may open up doors to empowerment. Empowerment may lead to more soothing life experience.

What does dharma wisdom have to offer here?

Breath may be associated with aspects of human trauma and recovery from it. Embodiment of emotional experiences is significant in suffering and recovery. Embodied emotional experience that was harmful can be the most visceral type of  memory based on traumatic pain. Use breath as a means to reach stabilized awareness and, hopefully, calmness may be within reach; however, without phased in experience of mind-body recall of trauma, use of the breath may be a slow-developing skills. Since breath is clearly linked to the central nervous system and its actions/reactions, breath is highly sensitive to past and present events. Whereas psychodynamic insight and cognitive-behaviors skills may be valuable in recovery, ignoring work with the breath may lead to failed efforts. Slowly integrating pleasant and unpleasant bodily experiences – mainly in memory, sensation and breath – has the potential to open up pathways to deep healing. Careful use of Eastern dharma realities in  Western psychotherapy may enhance comfort, empowerment, and outcomes of therapy. Note, however, that expertise in both Eastern and Western approaches is required.

For more information refer to Goldstein, J. (2007). Abiding in Mindfulness – Feelings, the Mind and Dhamma. Sounds True, CDs. See also Johnson, W. (2019). Breathing as Spiritual Practice… Rochester, Vt.: Inner traditions, pp. 142-145. And tricycle.org/magazine/receiving breath meditation…pp. 1-3. See also Welch, B. (Winter, 2021). Psychotherapy, embodiment and the Dharma.  The National Psychologist, P. 10

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: Breathing, Featured, Liberation, MIndfulness, Practices Tagged With: BREATH, J GOLDSTEIN, LIBERATION, MINDFUL HAPPINESS, MINDFULNESS, W JOHNSON

Twitter

Mindful Happiness -Currently in Production

Mindful Happiness Posts

Using Your Compassionate Mind in Psychotherapy For you to become a more compassionate therapist, follow the details noted below. These preconditions, skills, and practices are required as a baseline for  compassionate practice. You need the ability to access calmness in an environment of emotional suffering, chaos, or conflict.  Most people do this by breathing in […]

In The Dhammapada the Buddha includes an important section on the topic of happiness.  How to be happy in a life of changing joy, suffering, and neutrality? How to be happy in a world of attachment/craving for desired pleasures and avoidance of all suffering?  Attachment, impermanence and unhelpful experiences – all cause suffering.  It is quite […]

More on Mindful Breathing Whole-Heart Breathing – I have modified and expanded this great process from Thich Nhat Hanh.  If comfortable close your eyes and simply breathe calming and deeply for a few breaths. Add you personal half smile and allow the soothing (sometimes very subtle) sensation to spread all over your face.  Do not […]

Enhancing Hope in Psychotherapy The enhancement of personal hope is a key part of successful psychotherapy practice. Some view this requirement as a foundational aspect of the therapeutic alliance; others do not hold the same view.  In the case of serious co-occurring disorders, especially trauma and substance misuse, initiating, developing, and sustaining a hopeful future-view […]

-Steps to Mind Training Anthony R. Quintiliani, Ph.D., LADC To pacify your mind you need to train your mind. Mind training leads to liberation from brain-mind-heart-body automatic processes and reactions. A well-trained mind allows you to utilize executive functions (attention and concentration) to alter auto-reactions of the brain, body and heart. A trained mind liberates […]

Mindfulness Can Activate More Grace in Our Lives Today we all need to be cultivating more and deeper grace.  Grace needs to be activated. Given so many of our cultural problems (murders and mass murders by gunfire, rampant personal and corporate greed, ego-entitlement, chronic stress, feelings of insecurity, technological advances that do not ADVANCE us, […]

Happiness Path  – The 14th Dalai Lama His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama has suggested, among many other important things, that humans may experience true inner happiness by regular practice on the path to enlightenment. In his 2012 book, From Here to Enlightenment, he noted that personal happiness may be attained via specific behaviors and ways of […]

Meditation for Health Improvement It is estimated that between 10 and 15 million Americans participate in some form of regular mindfulness or contemplative practices; secular-based meditation and yoga may be the most common of these practices.  Many others practice tai chi, qi gong, forest-based contemplation, Taoism, etc.  The US National Institute of Health has been […]

How to Find & Choose an Effective Therapist Recently The Harvard Health Newsletter posted some interesting questions to ask while seeking out a psychotherapist. I will add a few more details and areas of inquiry in this post. Keep in mind that these questions and inquiries do not mean you will be happy and improve […]

Meditation Process in Chan Buddhism Chan Master Changlu’s The Deportmant for Sitting Meditation  (12th century China) is a clear and helpful set of instruction. 1) It begins with the making of a personal vow for great compassion, personal liberation, and samadhi – all for the purpose of delivering sentient beings from their suffering and to their […]

Money and Electronic “Friends” Are They Real ? The Sutta Nipata  (4.15, Translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu) noted “Seeing people floundering like fish in small puddles, competing with one another…fear came into me. The world was entirely without substance….Wanting a haven for myself, I saw nothing that wasn’t laid claim to.  Seeing nothing in the end but […]

The Meaning of the Present Moment in Mindfulness & Meditation Many mindfulness and meditation experts have commented on the meaning of the present moment.  Below I have noted some of the ideas presented by Eckhart Tolle.  In some cases I have added my own interpretations. What is the Present Moment?  What is the experience about? […]

Stress in America – On the Rise – The American Psychological Association recently completed its national survey on stress in America.  Stress in America for adults is on the rise! I will review below a selection of reported percentages from the 2015 survey (published in 2016). 1)  Younger people are more stressed; Xers and Millennials […]

In Times of Uncertainty; Clinical Practice H. Colodro and J. Oliver provide sound advice in their new book, A Guide to Self-Care for Practitioners in Times of Uncertainty. This 2020 New Harbinger publication is loaded with helpful suggestions on surviving, even thriving, in our time of struggle. Their core questions include: What do my clients need most […]

Review:  Deepak Chopra’s Idea’s on ” The Future of God” Part 2 of 3 In part 2 of this 3-part series, I will discuss the role played by consciousness in various levels of spirituality.  In the beginning, there was the word.  The word is sometimes associated with pure consciousness, since without consciousness there cannot be […]

Consciousness, Emptiness, and Well Being This is an advanced post on the complex relationship among consciousness (awareness), emptiness, and well being. Readers with advanced understanding of Buddhist Psychology will recognize the inherent relationships among consciousness, emptiness, and well being and interactions with core Buddhist concepts and experiences such as happiness and suffering, impermanence, non-dual nature, […]

Equanimity, Suffering, and Resilience It is said that equanimity (Pali – upekkha), the seventh factor of enlightenment and the tenth perfection, is an end-product of life-long personal practice in meditation and/or meditative yoga. It is about “walking the walk.” Some practitioners note that equanimity is the foundation for other helpful states of mind and body. […]

Gurdjieff’s The Fourth Way Meditations: A way of Being and Knowing Although Gurdjieff developed a whole way of being and knowing, including attentional practices, dance/body movements, group processes, and meditations here I will focus only on some of the suggested meditations.  In particular, I include the meditations noted by his primary student (J. DeSalzmann, 2011). […]

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 […]

Vipassana Meditation – Emptiness One of the great insights from regular, long-term vipassana practice is the experience of emptiness. The actual knowing of it by the experience of it. This is not your typical conceptual emptiness of the West; it is not total void, negative beings, or nihilistic pit, or suffering in endlessness.  It is […]

Mindful Happiness Tags

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

Mindful Categories

Mindful Happiness Pages

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

Copyright © 2021 · Mindful Happiness