Week 8: Reflecting on the Journey and What Lies Ahead
In Week 8, the focus turned towards introspection and reflection on the transformative journey taken throughout the MBCT 8-week course. As mentioned in the Week 1 post, participants undertook a questionnaire analyzing their minds, thinking patterns, judgment, awareness, and observation.
Personal results
The course proved instrumental in addressing areas of discomfort, notably enhancing the participant’s Non-reactivity to inner experience by an impressive 28.6%. This positive shift in non-reactivity, a personal struggle, manifested as a noticeable improvement in both personal and professional spheres.
Observing: these questions relate to noticing your senses, such as the sensations you feel when walking, taking a shower, or what you can hear, taste or see in your daily activities. It also includes noting how your emotions affect your thoughts and behaviours.
Describing: these questions look at how at ease you are with being able to put your experience into words and to express your thoughts, emotions and the sensations you feel in your body verbally.
Acting with awareness: these questions relate to how focused your attention is in daily activities or how much you tend towards distraction and daydreaming. This includes any tendency to run on automatic pilot or to rush through activities without being fully present in them.
Non-judging of inner experience: these questions relate to self-critical thought patterns, telling oneself not to have certain thoughts, and making judgments about thoughts being good or bad.
Non-reactivity to inner experience: these questions relate to the ability to notice thoughts and emotions in a dispassionate way rather than reacting to them, letting them go rather than brooding on them and the ability to recover quickly after having difficult thoughts or emotions.
Tool Box
Over the last 8 weeks we’ve been introduced to the following meditations:
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Body scan
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Mindfulness of breathing
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Breathing space
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Exploring Difficulty Meditation
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Sounds and Thought
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Extended Breathing Space (including difficulty)
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Loving Kindness
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Self-compassion meditation
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Walking Meditation
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Five Tibetans
The course has covered:
Rumination – thoughts that are not new, don’t give a way forward, and don’t make you feel better. Remember: thoughts are not facts!
The avoidance system and the approach system (the mouse in the maze) – avoidance shuts down creativity whilst approach, or accepting, allows the mind to stay in an open and create mode.
Being mode v doing mode: doing mode looks for answers and solutions, being mode is happy to be with uncertainty and not knowing. Doing mode looks for a way out, being mode is willing to experience what is there in the present moment without judgement or criticism.
Gratitude: holding one experience each day in mind to fully experience it and counter the rumour mill of the mind that tells you nothing is good in your life.
ABCD model of emotions: the situation/event, what we add to it and how we think and feel as a result of this. The willingness to simply be with experience means going back to A and noticing the story or drama we then add.
Disputing self-talk: challenging the propaganda machine of our mind by questioning the validity of what it says.
The Stop method: saying “stop” Or “enough of this” to assertively challenge negative inner chatter.
Diffusion methods: It’s just a story, “I notice I’m having the thought….”
Turning off the struggle switch: allowing things to be as they are, accepting “this is how it is”,it’s like this”. It’s OK to feel what I’m feeling.
Fight, Flight and Freeze: recognising when you go into this automatic response to stress.
I highly recommend this course to anyone looking for personal growth, dealing with difficult thoughts and wanting to understand them rather than letting the thoughts control yourself. Anyone dealing with anxiety or stress, and for many other reasons that you may find to be yours. The MBCT 8-week course has truly been a game changer that is serving me in my everyday.
There is no better investment than investing in yourself. Find all information on here https://evolvingminds.org.uk/ – if you wish me to connect you to Nick feel free to drop me a message, otherwise, you can simply reach out through their website.
As we conclude this post, the invitation is extended for readers to share their thoughts or experiences in the comments—a platform for a community to connect and grow.
Namaste.