FPIAFW - Week 5: Turning Towards Difficulties

[James123]

whatever you do don't skip any of week 5 , it's essential to the practice.
you could possibly just do week four and carry on again without going back to week one, but don't skip 5.
starting again won't do any harm either. practice is good

Ahhh, so starting week 4 again rather than starting at week 5 may be more beneficial?

[piedwagtail91]

it would help you get back in to things without having to work with difficulties straight away. sort of a refresher for a week.

[James123]

I'm in to day 4 of the turning towards difficulty medication and I'm struggling a bit.

Not with the turning towards painful thoughts/emotions but with receiving any bodily sensations even when letting some pretty powerful stuff rest on the workbench.

Therefore I would like to try the formal meditation twice a day.

So, 1) Is it OK to do this twice a day?

2) On the second time I do the mediation I don't really want to do the Breath & Body/Sounds & Thoughts before the main meditation. Would it be OK to just focus on my breath & body for 5 minutes (without the CD) and then go straight in to the turning towards difficulty meditation (with CD) or should I do all 3 as advised?

Thanks.

[Gareth]

I'm a firm believer in making the practice work for you, but saying that, I am not a mindfulness teacher and have no experience of teaching mindfulness.

Mick is probably the regular poster in the forum who is best qualified to answer this. I'm sure he will answer your question.

Take care.

[piedwagtail91]

hi james
i have to admit to not having read the book though i'm familiar with the practices i'm not sure how they should be combined and used.

my main concern is you not experiencing any body sensations/feelings when you bring the difficulty to mind it doesn't give you much/anything to work with.

doing the WWD twice a day is ok if you can cope with that.
if you do start to really experience strong emotions and their sensations then stick with once a day.
grounding yourself and then following wwd is ok too though it does mean stopping to switch it on, which isn't too good.
you do need a really good grounding in this practice, firmly out of your head/thoughts and grounded in the body.

if you want to try our WWD which is around 20 minutes long then it's here for download http://sdrv.ms/1bFFU3D
it does what you suggest in grounding and then following but it does it all in one so no need to stop.
it is part of our MBCT mindfulness course.
it follows what you've been doing with the book/cd but is longer.
it's no different
all our in session practices are longer so it follows that all our homework cd/download is longer too.
if you find it too much then stop and go back to the book/cd.
don't force anything with this practice.

not sure if you'll get on with the lancashire female accent or not, she's no mark williams voice wise!!!!!
feel free to use it or any of the other practices.
this is our resource page so some of the folders are only relevant to our group.

hope this helps
let us know how you get on.
session 5 is important.
mick

[James123]

That's great, thanks Mick and thanks for taking the time out. I'll have a listen when I get home.

I know it's hard to describe because you don't know me or my situation, but, any idea why I haven't as yet felt any physical sensations even when thinking of some quite powerful stuff?

It's starting to bug me now and perhaps that is hindering the practice even though I know I just have to BE and open during each formal session and I'm trying to be more compassionate with myself.

[piedwagtail91]

do you notice any sensations when you let it 'bug you'?
i'm not being funny with that. do you tense up or feel like hitting something or notice any of those in the list below?
it's the same as when you become aware of thoughts and find you have none except for the thought of having no thoughts.

i haven't come across it before as there's usually always some sensation, butterflies/knot in the belly, tightness in the chest, lump in the throat, heaviness behind the eyes,or maybe a general tensing the the shoulders and neck.
it may be very , very subtle.
it's got me puzzled.

[Niloc]

I would agree with James123: I think it is very difficult to associate unpleasant memories or thoughts with physical sensations. I have certainly tried, but any physical sensations relating to anything unpleasant are very minimal, to the extent that I almost have to imagine that I am experiencing them at all. If anything, I can sometimes detect very minor feelings of tightness in the chest or "butterflies" or some degree of muscle tension, but certainly not anything that I would find troublesome. The memories of the unpleasant events or thoughts are bad enough by themselves.

Niloc.

[JonW]

Re. not feeling physical sensations when a difficult thought arises.
Mark Williams is good on this subject. "If you can't locate a physical sensation, don't let that trouble you. If it's not there, don't go looking for it. You're not doing anything wrong. Simply be with your experience."

[Niloc]

Thank you for that; I'll stop searching for them.