When a person’s thoughts start to stray, they can tend to go in one of two directions.
Sometimes people find themselves dreaming of an upcoming vacation or looking forward to a get-together with friends . . .
. . . or, maybe they’re distracted by worries about approaching deadlines or unpaid bills.
Even though the former scenario seems preferable to the latter, both instances of mind-wandering could be detrimental to happiness.
Why? Dan Siegel, MD reveals his answer in the video below, and shares one way to refocus.
If you would like to find out about more ways that presence can transform people’s lives, and how it can even create new neural pathways in the brain and improve integration, check out our courses on mindfulness.
What strategies have you shared with your clients to help them maintain focus? Please leave a comment below.
To me mindfulness is the process of being aware of ones own actions in relationship as well as the others’…….and mind wandering is letting the mind roam free to explore. It is creative and an avenue toward problem solving vs. sticking in rigidity to the present only. Indeed, be present in driving, in normal aspects of living (don’t let teapots run dry, dinners burn, traffic lights or children overlooked). Be an explorer in thinking and considering alternatives and possibilities and the greater world. I guess I am an unrepentant day dreamer.
I am an as-yet unlicensed mental health counseling master’s student who has worked for ten years as a paraprofessional yoga therapist, so my scope of practice is limited to facilitating embodied presence and awareness of body experience as a cultivated skill for checking into present moment individual truth as an ultimate life guide. It’s amazing work and I look forward to enhancing my competency and credential as a MH counselor to enhance the way we (the client and I) are able to work with what comes up from this place of deeper self-awareness.
I’ve passed quite a few decades and at some moment in time, I learned to say,”wherever you are, be there!” I doubt if it’s original to me or to another…but as I speak it to others, they seems to get it, My thanks to Dan from reminding us that it’s not just the negative aspects of mind wandering!
I practice daily being still with self regulating breathing and encourage my clients to settle easier as we meet as a presencing beginning moment..Alan Grills
I have trouble seeing were staying in the present is helpful for some people and situations. If you are in a war zone with bombs dropping, if your child is very ill and suffering, if you are in constant pain, If you were a child in a dangerous and terrifying home with addicted parents… Many people don’t live in sane, middle-class, or safe lives. When their minds wander off to more positive places or to alternative ways they might actually one day get to, wouldn’t that be a solution rather than focusing on the current pain, fear, and violence?
I have trouble seeing were staying in the present is helpful for some people and situations. If you are in a war zone with bombs dropping, if your child is very ill and suffering, if you are in constant pain, If you were a child in a dangerous and terrifying home with addicted parents… Many people don’t live in sane, middle-class, or safe lives. When their minds wander off to more positive places or to alternative ways they might actually one day get to, wouldn’t that be a solution rather than focusing on the current pain, fear, and violence?
I have trouble seeing were staying in the present is helpful for some people and situations. If you are in a war zone with bombs dropping, if your child is very ill and suffering, if you are in constant pain, If you were a child in a dangerous and terrifying home with addicted parents… Many people don’t live in sane, middle-class, or safe lives. When their minds wander off to more positive places or to alternative ways they might actually one day get to, wouldn’t that be a solution rather than focusing on the current pain, fear, and violence?
If I suggest that a client, who is in an extremely anxious state with intrusive thoughts, I suggest that they focus on their internal state: i.e. the feeling of energy in their feet or hands, or the places where they are tense (relax those), as well as the areas that can start to feel relaxed. This seems to be helpful when the mind has hijacked the mind into a tendency to worry, panic, etc. Is this bringing them to a state of presence? P.S. I would use this differently if a client had panic about a body/health issue. I love Dan’s work.
Thank you. Cindy
Mindfulness i writing a comment and not expecting or looking later on how the comment was received or reinforced
Hello
I am running a hospice and we train our Volunteers who are allowed to give basic care to the patients in Mindfulness practice to help them be present to the patients. It prevents them to be overwhelmed by the suffering of others and be Aware of What is happening in their own bodies.
Hello
I am running a hospice and we train our Volunteers who are allowed to give basic care to the patients in Mindfulness practice to help them be present to the patients. It prevents them to be overwhelmed by the suffering of others and be Aware of What is happening in their own bodies.
Yes, I use some small moments at the beginning of my business coachings and then during the conversation we would pause, me supporting my clients to become aware of their physical presence in this very moment. Exploring together, which effect the conversation has on their emotional or/and physical state. At the end of session we would go “wrap up” by recentering in the body.
Great clip, thanks! I feel that for clients with anxiety, this is something very hard for them to do. I call it ‘notice the noticing’ – and have found myself grounding in the senses, just as Siegel does when the plane noise comes in… this was a wonderful moment to witness how he stayed attuned to presence.
I use mindfulness to help ground clients when they appear to be very dysregulated. There are some clients with whom I will use mindfulness and/or grounding routinely at the beginning and/or end of sessions. I also provide psychoeducation to clients about mindfulness to assist them to self-regulate on their own between sessions.
I have many of my clients, especially children ,before we begin our work and after a few minutes of just connecting, We do a ,few minute mindfulness activity, together. Before each session,I review what it means to be mindful and how mindfulness helped them during the week. Then,We might walk out side,listen to an App, turn on a website or observe a tree from a window . The improvement in concentration is even noticed and commented on by my clients.
I also include this activity in groups for individuals who are socially challenged. The mentors share how mindfulness assists them in school, home or socially when they are stressed.Then,it is better accepted by the socially challenged participants.
empathy, Compassion and Awareness are the Tools I would use to be With the client. Dan said “I’m here with you, I hear the plane flying and I’m talking to you”, if he Say instead That “I realize that you are not there, and I miss you When you are Not here “For example, we can find this Paradox In the example of immigration issue for families who Have to be apart and live their days without their childs and Spouses by their sides. Coming to the Realization of that Feeling of missing someone is to Be alive and feeling Connected mindfully. dOES THIS makes any senses?
Sure. It makes a lot of sense to me. Teaching clients, especially children, that that they can be missed, and how it feels to us when we are missing somebody, increases their capacity for love and compassion. This includes learning how to feel other people’s presence even when they are not physically there. We too often push all this away which, definitely, does not lead to mindfulness. It creates restlessness and does not allow us to be with what simply is.
I like that concept! Thank you!
I suggest a mindfulness exercise of being an observer, i.e. stepping back and observing one’s thoughts and feelings, and learning to not identify with them.
Yes I use mindfulness daily with every client. Amazingly, even clients who don’t want to use mindfulness eventually start doing it after seeing the effects others get.
Interesting, I am a very proud of my students and classroom, but my middle school students let their mind wander all the time.
I found out that there is always a reason why your brain is taking you to those worries, even when you are trying to practice mindfulness. If we concede that practicing mindfulness leads to the brain finding damaged areas in the brain/body, then there is purpose to that “mind wandering” or “distracted thinking.” In the search for damage, as the brain is constantly doing, mindfulness helps the brain find that damage, so it triggers other memories in it that are associated with the damaged areas. So you can “stay in the present” by asking your brain what does thinking about that “distraction” do to the process of repair? Is it associated with the damage you are trying to repair? A strong feeling of “yes” means that the brain is on to something.
But if you keep returning to that worry, then you are just chasing rabbits if you do not realize that you have to step into the process to help the brain find the damage. You might have to ask if it is associated with something in your past that caused you excessive trauma. It is often helpful to first find out what year and even what month in the year is associated with the trauma. This is where muscle reflex/response testing (MRT) helps you find the answers and makes easier the process of guiding the brain to where it must look. You become happier when the brain finds the event, repairs the axons/cells associated with it, and triggers the satiety cells to signal the neocortex that the repair is done. This happens even when you are telling yourself to avoid a topic as is suggested by Dan Siegel. But is it permanent? Maybe not.
I use MRT to answer questions in the same order: when, where, who, what, and the why question gets answered as my brain puts together all of these answers. Many others who use this technique have reached the same conclusion about the order in their tests. Memory never gets stored in one spot. It uses the sensory areas across all brain structures. All of the primary senses are processed in both conscious neocortical regions and unconscious brainstem regions. Just go to any neuroscience textbook and track all sensory relays to the nuclei/structures in the brain and you can see this the received wisdom.
So putting together of all of the sensory associations with an event involves both conscious and unconscious processes. Of course you do not want to trigger hallucinations (which can happen as you involve the unconscious regions), but most memory recall avoids that by only sending to the conscious brain what you need to remember to tell someone or to analyze what happened.
Furthermore, the brain might have set up blocks to certain areas so you can’t relive any trauma, but will send the brain down these rabbit holes when you are having difficulty staying on track (“staying in the present”) in mindfulness exercises, until you spend the time trying to find out why the brain is doing this. The questions you ask in muscle reflex/response testing allows you to say “distant” from the event(s) but addressing how the brain processed or did not process the event(s).
So the answer to the “distraction”/”mind wandering” question is just not that simple.
I use mindfulness right at the beginning of each session, inviting my client to take a moment to land on this cushy sofa that’s supporting them and to let go of what they needed to do to get here.
It’s amazing & always works. Folks will oftrn sign drop their arms by their sides & release. I have found mindfulness to be the key in creating the nonjudgmental space for clients to heal and grow.
Thank you!
Thank you for the explanation about thinking two to three things at a time or doing multitasking. It is known that the brain can only do one thing at a time, but it is becoming unrealistic, until you live in the wood (and can afford it) for 2 months and do some observation.
Being a client who has had traumatic events in my past, I have not been diagnosed as such. But the implicit symptoms are there. So when I go back far in my therapy, it is very tense in my body and I do not have the impression of wanting to stay in this past and on the contrary to want to get away from the present and to speak in a fictitious way. my dreamed future that makes me happy. Does this have a clinical impact on my depression?
Laura I hear you wanting to find tools to resolve or create a different ending for those earlier traumas.
Your body is speaking to you and I’d urge you to have a dialog about this with your clinician. Not all therapists are donatically trained I wish you the best. Keep on going.
Laura I hear you wanting to find tools to resolve or create a different ending for those earlier traumas.
Your body is speaking to you and I’d urge you to have a dialog about this with your clinician. Not all therapists are donatically trained I wish you the best. Keep on going.
Sometimes a diagnosis is “overlooked” because it is not essential and it is obviously urgent to work on another aspect of the person. Symptoms can often be alleviated by becoming aware of their presence while learning to relax. Being aware of this by placing your hand on your heart or on your chest can be helpful. or put the hand on the temple and the other on the neck, a very ingenious and typically “somatic” technique: 0) Thank you for these videos which have become invaluable for remembering how trauma / anxiety / depression have to be dealt with.
This is a valid appreciation for the difference between “the wandering spirit” and “the free spirit”. It just has a little distinctive difference in terms of connection. To whom and with whom do we think when we “wander”, it seems to me that one brings “insight” and gives a feeling of loneliness, and the other is pleasure which gives a feeling of creativity fully productive, creating the oxytocin. Carl Jung had the same idea that his inner life was filled with wandering against liberation and that his loneliness weighed on him when he was young
I’ve used mindfulness to assist students to resolve challenges in relating with other students, and occasionally with teachers, in my role as a school principal.
I myself practice mindfulness and encourage my clients to be present.
However for some I have to say this can be difficult being present when experiencing trauma flashbacks .Its easy to say hold on the tiger in the room is from your past so its ok dont worry. Be present with whats happening but when the present is frightening and the body is reliving the trauma thats tough.
I start most of my sessions doing what I call the BFM 2 minute mediation (Body,Feelings, Mind) This allows them to bring themselves (and for myself too) fully present into the room. Most of my clients really value this way of starting the session.
Dr Siegel, said being “aware of what is happening as it is happening” is a (simpler) way of defining “being present”. But how does that differ from the trauma feature called, hypervigilence? How do we distinguish those 2? I have clients seeing me whose trauma (and grief) is unacknowledged. Some of them have jobs that requires them to be “hypervigilant” or what Dan said “being present”. Some of these individuals belong to the population I researched at The University of Melbourne entitled “Lives unseen: unacknowledged trauma of non-disordered, competent Adult Children Of Parents with a Severe Mental Illness”. If people google my name, Suzette Misrachi, it can be downloaded at no cost. One can also locate my brief article on medium.com entitled “Will resilience work while trauma lurks?” which questions Ruth Buczynski’s point about Mindfulness “boosting resilience”. Using the word “resilience” without context, i.e., without appreciating or screening for a history of trauma, can dig further underground someone’s unacknowledged trauma (see also Dr Felitti’s ACE Study). Despite functioning fantastically with “resilience”, trauma does need to be acknowledged. My thesis, among other things, argues for this.
Being present is not at all the same as being hyper vigilant. Being present requires a sense of groundedness, which allows the “present” person to be aware of all or almost all aspects of a situation, both positive and negative, whereas hypervigilance is the filtering out of the positive and extreme focus on the negative or potential dangers.
Hi Suzette: Some of Dan YouTube have been helpful to me. It gets me to read his book, but not for now yet. I would check this out. Thanks, Laura.
I agree. Hyper vigilance is the state of mind which exists, after trauma, when the limbic system is dysregulated. I am working on this myself, learning how to be pres3nt in the moment, and not to be constantly ‘hyper vigilant, ie in crisis mode when the amygdala and hippocampus are producing too much cortisol and Adrenalin. I’m doing somatic exercises to remedy this, as taught by Irene Lyon who has worked with Peter Levine, and Ed Barrera, a Hanna somatic educator.
I agree going through Trauma and always been alert i had burn out.
Somatic practice like Limbic refexology has helped with the trauma and now side by side I can and am building resilience through mindfulness.
Ignoring the presence of Trauma is like having a tiger in the room but pretending its ok.
Acknowledging the trauma exploring understanding speaking kindly can actually allow the tiger to be present but sleeping and passive while building resilience
at younger age, i was told that theere was an “elephant’ in the rooom, meaning there is an immense problem that no one would wnat to tackle. Far from being traumatic, it cause a feeling of being burried and hoarded and out of order. Chaotic but ehn then we start to make this a joke on ourselves and just let it be. So e;ephant rather tahn tiger ? :
It’s useful. Thank you.
George Orwell, the great novelist, when he was a child had a habit of saying to himself whatever he was doing physically as he was doing it. Such as “I am now grasping the brown handrail with my right hand.”
i like that you made reference to the screenwriter from 1984 – the passage of time “on the number line” of the continuum can give us some clues as to how our mental wandering has an impact on the future effect of clients with dementia or stroke. In its fragility, it is difficult to keep the memory intact when it has not been worked or erased in the mind. i love going to museum and this kind of wandering make me as happy
I have used mindfulness to help my clients be more present through meditation and breathing exercises.
Very enlightening
Mind wandering. I hadn’t thought of it like this. His insight into even the positive mind wandering having a negative affect on presence is a gem of an idea.
For me, I agree with some other comments, that presence goes beyond the here and now awareness that Siegel defines presence as. Rather, authentic presence brings me a sense beyond safety — a sense of wholeness where I do feel that I’m standing with God.
Tara Brach taught me (radical self acceptance) and now when I see my mind wandering (that Segel is discussing) I just allow that it’s there and let it go. His insight for me is that even the positive is a step away from the presence. Very good stuff! Thank you Mr. Siegel!
Exactly. The mind wanders into fantasy, either positive or negative. Both are equally unhelpful. Positive Fantasists ignore dangers while negative fantasists ignore the positive aspects of a situation
Thank you for Dan Siegal’s presentation.
I have used mindfulness by teaching a simple belly breathing exercise and by having my clients stay with the issue they bring up instead of wandering from one issue to another. I have taught them how to use gratitude to overcome critical thoughts, anxieties and negative thinking.
Yes! I began teaching Mindfulness to my clients this year. The results are clients who are more aware of their mind’s power over their life.
I agree with this statement…
“The mind is a great servant, but a terrible master.”
In My case once I was Taught, or asked to explore, Mindfulness, &, Then Mindfulness Meditation, Follow up Interviews with my Therapist showed me that following these Practices, Allowed me to to be more “Present”, Less Worry, Anxiety, &, a “Keener daily Awareness. As a Result I now have, &, keep developing a Mindfulness / Mindfulness Meditation Practice, Which has greatly helped in developing a “Balance in Life” not a cure-all but sure helps ! Peace
I use mindfulness of the body (interoception) practice when I teach trauma-informed yoga to survivors of domestic violence and sexual abuse.
We have started using HeartMath in our integrative family practice with great results: essentially a mindful breath-based meditation with a biofeedback component that has profound implications for physical and mental health. Although the HeartMath proponents do not make this explicit in their literature, I believe its benefits derive from
increasing ventral vagal tone and thereby creating an internal sense of safety which enables growth, connection, gratitude and other positive, prosocial emotions. Fascinating stuff and accessible even for the folks who feel their mind is too restless for meditation. It also has the benefit of bypassing the narrative limitations of the neocortex with deeply liberating results!
Would have liked for him to make an association with trauma and disassociation. Mindfulness is tricky when you are dealing with trauma patients. Disassociation is their learned response.
Mind wandering sounds like the same thing but it’s different. Disassociation is more like super spaced out. Wandering is for normal people to concern themselves with. With wandering you are still somewhat on the planet.
I am speaking as a trauma person with disassociation who just took a 6 week mindfulness course at a hospital. It’s was helpful in a way. Scary also. I did Vipassana once, the mother of all mindfulness and almost lost it, thought I was going to lose my mind. It touches and brings up stuff I didn’t know was there even. I didn’t even know what was happening to me. I just felt my head explode and then I couldn’t stop crying.
Yet, I do mindfulness practice now, and it helps. Just a little meditation every day. Body scanning has the potential to bring up trauma. It’s been interesting.
Hello my name is Michelle Lenox …I’ve been depressed all my life…and can’t find anyone to help me with this . My mind is so going crazy….I don’t know what to do anymore…it’s like this is a never ending cycle….I can’t think…it’s all scarder in my Head…I can’t handle bad news at all…I’ve tried to commit suicide so many times I can’t even count on my hands…my body hurts and I’m never Happy….never…I need help…but none of the doctors here they don’t know….what to do so I leave….I don’t think I will be here on this Earth to much longer….if I can’t get help…I cry all the time…I don’t have friends or family member… because I suffer so bad with depression… bipolar depression….yea umm I do… bad…I don’t know who esles to turn to… please call me if u can help me…cuz I don’t want to leave my son behind… please please help me….(850)490-6552
Hi Michelle. I hope you are finding some help! I feel sad for what you are going through. Such a challenge it must be to get through each day. Obviously you are strong and seeking help, so have faith that you will find a solution! Trial and error is the only way to approach a problem until you find a solution. Know that all things are temporary (sometimes it feels like forever) and all things must pass. Look at alternative solutions Especially Diet!! Go seriously hardcore on Food as Medicine and look into gut health, magnesium, DE… And practice gratitude through the pain, for your son’s health, the shelter over your head, the health of your body, food, clean water, …
Woebot, the app. It’ll teach you daily techniques for handling conflict and getting rid of distortions. If you can’t make things better, you can not make them worse. Good luck to you for a life you’re more satisfied with and becoming a person you like.
Treating severe depression may take more than seeing a doctor. I’m not sure if you’re talking about a primary physician or psychiatrist, but chronic and severe depression needs both of these and therapy. And it takes time. It sounds like you leave if they don’t have a solution immediately. Depression can be the result of a chemical imbalance in the brain, but since there isn’t a simple way of finding out which chemical is off balance, medication management is somewhat trial and error until they find the right combination that works best for you. While the doctors work on monitoring your symptoms, counseling helps with developing resilience, learning coping skills, processing trauma, and learning about depression and how to better manage the symptoms. I am a counselor at an outpatient facility (Partial Hospitalization Program/Intensive Outpatient Program) where we provide this type of care. I have seen many people who have had severe depression and have had many suicide attempts. They have been able to find relief and I’ve seen them happy! But it hasn’t happened overnight. You may need a higher level of care at first such as inpatient psychiatric hospitalization. I pray this helps you. Please know there is help available and there is hope. I am praying for you as I am writing this and will continue to keep you in my prayers.
Michelle i am sorry to hear of your suffering and understand your desperation. Please check out a website and process that has transformed my life and thousands of others.
Interesting definition of Presence. I experience it differently. I’d be aware of all that Dr Seigal described, but more importantly, I feel whole, full, grounded, filled with love; I see with God’s eyes; see the beauty and light in everyone. That’s how I experience Presence. I am One with all that is, Connecting Heaven and Earth.
Ditto!
Just wondering …. is mind-wandering helpful to the creative process?
I have noticed that mind wandering with presence can be like getting up for the sunrise some morning and going outside. Taking in the smells, sights, hot/cold, dry/damp, sunshine/clouds I am filled with a curiosity and anticipation of what I will encounter and become aware of. There is an inclination towards exploring some outer experience (mindfulness?). Everything is new. My mind might leap from one experience to another while the sensations are fresh, alive and up lifting. I think the key hear is a direction of awareness outside the dark, depths of the mind. Thus, the key to healthy mind wandering is keeping the “fresh” state of mind (presence)… either going for a walk; or intentionally pausing (Pause) from the routine, taking a slow deep breath and clearing the mind. Both work to to re-center and re-set the overworked body-mind.
On the other hand, if the direction of awareness is directed away from the present (past or future) or “held up” in the mind (inward) there is a greater chance for cyclical and repetitive thoughts. This is more apt to lead to worry, anxiety, stress and anger. Also, the body-mind burns a lot of energy while making no progress and getting nowhere. It is the same thing over and over. The causes of the worry, stress, etc. are temporally removed from the present and yet the worry, etc. predominate thought. They are unreachable and cannot be addressed until they are brought to the present and faced objectively.
Thus, it appears to me that healthy mind wandering can stem from getting out for that early morning walk, 🙂 or taking a moment out for a mini-meditation or Pause to get out from “down under,” alone or with a friend. 😉
Wish to stay present, enjoy the sun and sea water of the marina where I am listening for the second time Siegel’s video. Monitoring my stomach craving lunch with plans to satisfy the hunger. It is so easy to spend time writing about the video but then I would not be enjoying my present moment, not acknowledging my physiological needs. Thanks, Dan. Too many years of the top down focus. Not enough bottom up nervous systems joyful understanding, not to be confused with hedonism. Just need to do more dancing or listening to the water sounds or the birds singing and now lunch.
Dr. Siegel’s presentation was informative for me. I have practiced being present for myself and with clients but I hadn’t been able to formulate it in the clear way he did. I would find myself resisting the mind wandering to the point that the resistance began to take dominance over being present. His thoughts helped me relax and be present with whatever the surroundings are within or without at any given moment.
The comments on and to these Videos are mostly too fast and poorly articulated, thus not easy to follow, less even to enjoy.
I hope you take note of this, because it happens over and over again.
I wonder if mindfulness works when people are in pain or in a war zone, for example. Does it work because most people‘s situation is neutral so they can be mindful in a stable, functional and neutral environment. If you were physically feeling bombs dropping around you, or you detained at the border, or experiencing symptoms from terminal cancer, would staying in the present be helpful or would distraction be an improvement. I guess I’m questioning who were the research subjects, how the study was structured and whether there was a bias of initial neutrality.
Jaye, I have the same questions! I’m totally tracking with the value of presence in a neutral situation, but yes, how does it look when to stay present is to endure overwhelming stimuli?
It does make me wonder whether mindfulness is more of a middle or upper middle class value, where your life is basically OK, you have your food and your medication, a roof over your head and only worry about money on occasion. For someone who is in a constant struggle for survival, Just sitting and experiencing dysfunctional circumstances is unlikely to make them happier. It might be better to dream of a better place and try to get there.
So while it does seem that most people don’t pay attention to the circumstances they’re in and are distracted by other possible options or choices on their cell phone, mindfulness might help them be present with the connection they could have right now. But, if their current circumstances are not safe or sane or helpful or supportive, maybe it’s better to be elsewhere, trying to get to some place better.
Even a few minutes of mindfulness or presencing or placing one’s hand on one’s heart or visualizing a healing light or imagining a gentle rainfall of compassion, any of these things can help one get the calm and clarity necessary to make a better choice in meeting any situation one finds oneself in unless the situation demands running away in that instant. Even if experiencing hunger or cold or heat taking a moment to breathe more deeply can make a difference. When I was in severe pain in the emergency room of a hospital and wasn’t being treated properly to the point that I collapsed, still, attending to my mental attitude in how I coped with it made a difference. Also, sometimes there’s another option available one wouldn’t have seen otherwise. In my case I was able to see someone and call out to her to help me.
From my trauma toolbox even in an overwhelming panic attack taking few deep breaths and a quick minute of mindfulness ( like the act of smoking a cigarette without doing the toxic breath in of nicotine and chemical) or presencing or placing my hands on myself in a “butterfly hug” or visualizing a healing light or “imagining a gentle rainfall of compassion,” or my visualization of my anchor and inner safe place helps me to gain a sense of calmness and clarity. I am not being drowned in panic and I can begin to make a better choices in survival of any level of dangers. Practice in this crisis technique and helping others in meeting any situation even in overwhelm helps oneself find themselves and not lost unless the situation demands core immediate action for safety like fight or flight and run away in that very instant for immediate survival. Even if, a quick presence check to take a moment to breathe more deeply can make a difference of a life or death action choice. When triggered, or in danger, in severe pain one can choose not holding onto a victim mentality but becoming empowered to attend to my mental attitude and becoming mindful of self needs and helps me and others in how we coped and made our choices. It made a difference. Also, In a panic attack or in overwhelm being present is an anchor to grab hold of like a life preserver and enables me to see where I am at and to notice someone beside me and feeling not lost but a chance where I can find my place and voice to call out for help.
Dan, I would love to hear about the nuances that form the differences between presence and mindfulness. Thanks in advance.
Yes. Virtually every time we work we begin with the Wheel of Awareness
I have been using mindfulness with clients for some years to help clients learn to ground themselves.
There has been marked changes with anxious and depressed patients.
The good news where I work in Auckland,New Zealand is that more and more GP’s are recommending a Mindfulness course also to patients. So gradually more and more people can learn for this to be a normal way if being.
Bea
I teach my patients to run their life like they would run a corporation. And, when their mind begins to wander, they can employ the skill of purposeful procrastination. In other words, if they get interrupted by a thought that wants their attention, they can tell the thought I’m not gonna deal with you right now; I will deal with you at 7 PM tonight. This is a great skill, also, to apply toward the principle of putting off worry until it’s at a time that is more convenient…thereby managing the mind more like the overly chatty employee ?
Dan‘s Wheel of Awareness is a beautiful tool in learning presence and I’m doing it in a day clinic for Burnout patients in a group setting. I find it extremely clever, useful and peace generating. My buddhist meditation practice experiences help a lot in leading it.
In my understanding psychology nowadays takes a very useful and uniting direction.
As an accredited counsellor/psychotherapist, I use mindfulness, when working with a potential client by consciously holding in my mind that the client knows what is best for themselves even when outwardly it may not look like it!