Tag: Awareness

Reduce the negative, develop the positive…

Karl Duffy1 Comment

When we are having a tough day, finding the positive side of everyday happenings can be difficult.  It is an even greater struggle for people suffering from depression. But by developing skills to tune into the positive, depressed people can strengthen their overall wellbeing and mental health, a 2009 Ohio State University study found. By staying mindful of the positive elements of daily events, or by documenting each days happiest moments in a journal, a person may lower their stress levels. “Positive emotions build resilience to stress, in addition to having an undoing effect on depression” says Alan Keck, Psychologist at the Centre for Positive Psychology.

He goes on to say that we should consciously build up our positive resilience by really focusing when we are having an experience that we find especially pleasant. This may simply be a good cup of coffee, a special brunch, a visit to friends, a nice meal. To magnify the results, he says, pay attention to what you see, hear, and feel, both physically and emotionally, and smile. Then consciously tell yourself to “remember this” experience for which you feel grateful. Doing this helps the mind store the positive effects of the moment for future use.

Developing your Meditation Practice, Stage 1

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

There are a number of simple stages in the establishing of a consistent, daily, meditation practice.  The preparatory stages can be found in the link in the header entitled “Starting a Meditation Practice”  and they concern time, place and posture. This series of posts will move us on from those important preparatory elements.

Once we have established our posture and relaxed the body, we begin by placing our mind on the breath. In other words, we consciously and deliberately take our mind from wherever it has been up to that moment and focus its attention simply and gently on the awareness of the breath. We are conscious that we are letting go. We knowingly mark a change from what we were doing to this activity, to the next ten or twenty minutes of awareness of the breath. So three elements: settle the posture, deliberately change the focus, recognize thoughts and let them go. We gather the mind which has been scattered on a number of activities up to that point and begin to focus it softly on the simple act of breathing.

This is the the first part of the first stage, turning our attention to  the breath, marking a change from what activity we were engaged in up to this point.