Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World

by J. Mark G. Williams

be a good idea to be more present and less judgmental, you won’t get very far with the idea alone.

as Mark Williams and Danny Penman point out, is actually a practice. It is a way of being, rather than merely a good idea or a clever technique, or a passing fad. Indeed, it is thousands of years old and is often spoken of as “the heart of Buddhist meditation,” although its essence, being about attention and awareness,

by seeing what happens when you begin to pay attention and act with kindness and compassion toward yourself and others, even if it feels a bit artificial at first.

You come to the profound understanding that thoughts and feelings (including negative ones) are transient. They come and they go, and ultimately, you have a choice about whether to act on them or not. Mindfulness is about observation without criticism; being compassionate with yourself. When unhappiness or stress hovers overhead, rather than taking it all personally, you learn to treat them as if they were black clouds in the sky, and to observe

Meditation is not about accepting the unacceptable. It is about seeing the world with greater clarity so that you can take wiser and more considered action to change those things that need to be changed. Meditation helps cultivate a deep and compassionate awareness that allows you to assess your goals and find the optimum path towards realizing your deepest values.

A one-minute meditation

A brief moment of sadness, anger or anxiety can end up tipping you into a “bad mood” that colors a whole day or far, far longer.

when you start to feel a little sad, anxious or irritable, it’s not the mood that does the damage but how you react to it.

When you begin to feel a little unhappy, it’s natural to try and think your way out of the problem of being unhappy. You try to establish what is making you unhappy and then find a solution. In the process, you can easily dredge up past regrets and conjure up future worries. This further lowers your mood. It doesn’t take long before you start to feel bad for failing to discover a way of cheering yourself up. The “inner critic,” which lives inside us all, begins to whisper that it’s your fault, that you should try harder, whatever the cost. You soon start to feel separated from the deepest and wisest parts of yourself. You get lost in a seemingly endless cycle of recrimination and self-judgment; finding yourself at fault for not meeting your ideals, for not being the person you wish you could be.

We get drawn into this emotional quicksand because our state of mind is intimately connected with memory. The mind is constantly trawling through memories to find those that echo our current emotional state.

Have you ever revisited a favorite childhood vacation destination? Before the visit you probably had only hazy memories of it. But once you got there—walking down the streets, taking in the sights, sounds and smells—the memories came flooding back. You may have felt excited, wistful or perhaps even a little bit in love. Returning to that context encouraged your mind to recall a host of related memories. But it’s not just places that trigger memories. The world is full of such triggers. Has a song ever sparked a cascade of emotionally charged memories? Or the smell of flowers or freshly baked bread?

You can’t stop the triggering of unhappy memories, self-critical thoughts and judgmental ways of thinking—but you can stop what happens next. You can stop the spiral from feeding off itself and triggering the next cycle of negative thoughts. You can stop the cascade of destructive emotions that can end up making you unhappy, anxious, stressed, irritable or exhausted.

Mindfulness meditation teaches you to recognize memories and damaging thoughts as they arise. It reminds you that they are memories. They are like propaganda, they are not real. They are not

you. You can learn to observe negative thoughts as they arise, let them stay a while and then simply watch them evaporate before your eyes. And when this occurs, an extraordinary thing can happen: a...

Mindfulness operates on two levels. First and foremost is the core mindfulness meditation program. This is a series of simple daily meditations that can be done almost anywhere, though you’ll find it most helpful to do them in a quiet spot at home. Some are as short as three minutes. Others may take twenty to thirty minutes.

Mindfulness also encourages you to break some of the unconscious habits of thinking and behaving that stop you from living life to the full. Many judgmental and self-critical thoughts arise out of habitual ways of thinking and acting. By breaking with some of your daily routines, you’ll progressively dissolve some of these negative thinking patterns and become more mindful and aware.

At http://bit.ly/rodalemindfulness you will find eight tracks containing the meditations you will need to guide you through the program, narrated by Mark Williams. We suggest that you read through each meditation as you come to them in the book, and then do the meditation itself, following the guidance on the audio tracks.

She exists, rather than truly lives.

And with this understanding has come the realization that we can “step outside” of our troubles and liberate ourselves from unhappiness, anxiety, stress, exhaustion and even depression.

Take thoughts as an example. Several decades ago, it became apparent that thoughts could drive our moods and emotions, but it’s only since the 1980s that it’s become clear that the process can also run in reverse: moods can drive our thoughts. Think about that for a moment. Your moods can drive your thoughts. In practice, this means that even a few fleeting moments of sadness can end up feeding off themselves to create more unhappy thoughts

But it’s not just thoughts and moods that feed off each other and end up wrecking well-being—the body also gets involved. This is because the mind does not exist in isolation; it’s a fundamental part of the body and they both continuously share emotional information with each other. In fact, much of what the body feels is colored by our thoughts and emotions, and everything that we think is informed by what’s going on in the body.

Emotions are “bundles” of thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations and impulses to act.

a bit strange to realize that the act of smiling can itself make you happy. It’s a perfect illustration of just how close the links are between the mind and body. Smiling is infectious too. When you see someone grin, you almost invariably smile back. You can’t help it. Think about that for a moment: just the act of smiling can make you happy (even if it’s forced); and if you smile, others will smile back at you, reinforcing your own happiness. It’s a virtuous circle.

But there’s an equal and opposite vicious circle too: when we sense a threat we tense up, ready to fight or run away. This so-called “fight-or-flight” response isn’t conscious—it’s controlled by one of the most “primeval” parts of the brain, which means it’s often a bit simplistic in the way it interprets danger. In fact, it makes no distinction between an external threat, such as a tiger, and an internal one, such as a troubling memory or a future worry. It treats both as threats that either need to be fought off or run away from. When a threat is sensed—whether real or imagined—the body tenses and braces for action.

In practice, this means that if you’re feeling a little stressed or vulnerable, a minor emotional shift can end up ruining your whole day—or even tip you into a prolonged period of dissatisfaction or worry. Such shifts often appear out of the blue, leaving you drained of energy and asking, Why am I so unhappy?

brooding reduces our ability to solve problems; and it’s absolutely hopeless for dealing with emotional difficulties.

The evidence is clear: brooding is the problem, not the solution.

Yet there is another way. If you stop and reflect for a moment, the mind doesn’t just think. It can also be aware that it is thinking. This form of pure awareness allows you to experience the world directly. It’s bigger than thinking. It’s unclouded by your thoughts, feelings and emotions. It’s like a high mountain—a vantage point—from which you can see everything for many miles around.

Pure awareness transcends thinking. It allows you to step outside the chattering negative self-talk and your reactive impulses and emotions. It allows you to look at the world once again with open eyes. And when you do so, a sense of wonder and quiet contentment begins to reappear in your life.

Depressed mood, depressed body Have you noticed how low mood affects the body, such as the way you move?

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking out new landscapes but in having new eyes. ATTRIB. MARCEL PROUST, 1871–1922

Viewing your life from a different place can equally transform your feelings.

If Doing mode is a trap, then Being mode is freedom.

Mindfulness meditation is the door through which you can enter this Being mode and, with a little practice, you can learn to open this door whenever you need to.

Mindful awareness—or mindfulness—spontaneously arises out of this Being mode when we learn to pay attention, on purpose, in the present moment, without judgment, to things as they actually are.

Doing mode only becomes a “problem” when it volunteers for a task that it cannot do, such as “solving” a troubling emotion. When this happens, it pays to “shift gear” into “Being” mode. This is what mindfulness gives us: the ability to shift gears as we need to, rather than being permanently stuck in the same one.

Do you find yourself preoccupied with the future or the past?3

In other words, are you driven by the daily routines that force you to live in your head rather than in your life?

temporarily to suspend judgment. It means briefly standing aside and watching the world as it unfolds, while allowing it to be just as it is for a moment. It means approaching a problem or a situation without preconceptions, so that you are no longer compelled to draw only one preconceived conclusion. In this way, you are saved from closing

Mindful acceptance does not mean resignation to your fate. It’s an acknowledgement that an experience is here, in this moment—but, instead of letting it seize control of your life, mindfulness allows you, simply and compassionately, to observe it rather than judge it, attack it, argue with it or try to disprove its validity. This radical acceptance allows you to stop a negative spiral from beginning; or if it already has begun, to reduce its momentum. It grants you the freedom to choose—to step outside your looming problems—and, in the process, it progressively liberates you from unhappiness, fear, anxiety and exhaustion. This gives you far greater control over your life.

Mindfulness teaches us that thoughts are just thoughts; they are events in the mind. They are often valuable but they are not “you” or “reality.” They are your internal running commentary on yourself and the world. This simple recognition frees you from the dislocated reality that we have all conjured up for ourselves through endless worrying, brooding and ruminating. You can see a clear path through life once again.

Being mode, on the other hand, encourages you to “approach” the very things that you feel like avoiding; it invites you to take a friendly interest in your most difficult states of mind. Mindfulness does not say “don’t worry” or “don’t be sad.” Instead it acknowledges your fear and your sadness, your fatigue and exhaustion, and encourages you to “turn toward” these feelings and whatever emotions are threatening to engulf you. This compassionate approach gradually dissipates the power of your negative feelings.

When you are under stress, you tend to remember only the bad things that have happened to you and find it difficult to recall the good. A similar thing happens when you think about the future: stress makes you think that disaster is just around the corner, and when you feel unhappy or a creeping sense of hopelessness, you find it almost impossible to look to the future with optimism. By the time these feelings have bubbled through to your conscious mind, you’re no longer aware that they are merely memories of the past or plans for the future, but have instead become lost in mental time travel.

We re-live past events and re-feel their pain, and we pre-live future disasters and so pre-feel their impact.

Meditation trains the mind so that you consciously “see” your own thoughts as they occur, so that you can live your life as it unfolds in the present moment. This does not mean that you are imprisoned in the present. You can still remember the past and plan for the future, but Being mode allows you to see them for what they are. You see memory as memory and planning as planning. Consciously knowing that you are remembering, and knowing that you are planning, helps free you from being a sl...

Being mode restores the balance by helping you sense more clearly the things that nourish you and those that deplete your inner resources. It helps you sense the need for time to nourish your soul and gives you the space and courage to do so. It also helps you deal more skillfully with those unavoidable aspects of life that can drain away your energy and innate happiness.

Consciously shifting gear Mindfulness meditation progressively teaches you to sense the seven dimensions (as these points are known) outlined above and, in so doing, it helps you to recognize which mode your mind is operating in. It acts like a gentle alarm bell that tells you, for example, when you are overthinking and reminds you that there is an alternative: that you still have choices, no matter how unhappy, stressed or frantic you might feel. For example, if you sense that you are tying yourself in knots with overthinking and judgmentalism, mindfulness helps you to become more accepting and allows you to approach your difficulty with a sense of warmth and curiosity.

You don’t need to compare yourself endlessly to others. There is no need to compare your life (or standard of living) with either a fictitious life in the future or some rose-tinted view of the past. You do not need to lie awake at night trying to judge the impact that a passing comment you made in a meeting will have on your career prospects. Nor do you need to concern yourself with a throwaway comment made by a friend. If you simply accept life as it is, you will be a lot more fulfilled and increasingly worry free. And if any action should need to be taken, then the wisest decision you can make will most likely pop into your mind when you are not brooding about it at all.

In the long run, mindfulness encourages you to treat yourself and others with compassion. This sense of compassion liberates you from pain and worry, and in their place arises a true sense of happiness that spills over into daily life. It’s not the kind of happiness that gradually dissipates as you become immune to its joys; rather, it’s a flavor that soaks into the very fibers of your being.

They discovered that mindfulness training allowed people to escape the gravitational pull of their emotional set-point. Their work held out the extraordinary possibility that we can permanently alter our underlying level of happiness for the better.