Everyday Mindfulness

FPIAFW - Finding Peace In A Frantic World
by Mark Williams & Danny Penman
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mindfulness-pra ... ntic+world

FPIAFW is the book I read which brought the concept of Mindfulness into my life. The book contains an introduction to mindfulness and goes on to lay out an 8 week course with accompanying guided meditations.

It is almost a year now since I completed the course for the first time and since then have mostly continued my formal practice using silence. I feel that going back to basics and spending some time following this course again is a good idea for me right now.

So, after discussing it on a couple of other threads I am going to post up a new thread every week for the next 8 weeks. A few people have expressed their intent to join me in exploring the course. Originally I was going to post up 8 threads at once so other community members could access any week of the program. Having thought about this I realised I don't have enough time to write 8 decent, properly prepared posts in 1 day. So instead I am going to go one week at a time and not jump ahead. I have already found how useful it can be to approach this kind of thing in this way. Over on the How To Train An Elephant Thread, Steve and I are starting week 20 of a year long course. Each week we are presented with a new task, a new way to bring moments of mindfulness into our lives, new ideas to consider and reflect on.

For around 5 months now we have kept up with these tasks day in and day out. Some have been easier than others, rewarding or frustrating. The point is, the thought of daily tasks for an entire year might feel overwhelming and frustrating but broken down into a week, a day, a moment it feels far less intimidating. So I hope the same will be true of FPIAFW. In the forward to the book, JKZ makes an important point, 'to be effective, mindfulness requires an embodied engagement on the part of anyone hoping to derive some benefit from it.'

Starting tomorrow I will post a new thread each week with some details of the reflections on the theme for the week and the guided meditation. I encourage any and all contributions, thoughts and experiences to be shared as we feel able. Each Sunday I will then post up the next weeks thread. Let's have a go and see how it goes.

I am quite looking forward to this! I have never done the course before, only read bits of the book.

Would it be okay, do you think, to also have my usual 20 minutes of silent mindfulness meditation in addition to the course? Usually I would have 2 20 minute sessions a day, one in the morning and one in the evening. I was thinking I would just replace one of those sessions with the appropriate daily exercise and leave my other meditation session as it is.

Cheesus

If that is what feels right for you then I think it is a great idea

I've just finished the week one chapter and realise that my usual meditation is essentially the same practice I guess my question was more relevant to week two!

I'm really looking forward to this.

Me too.
I just finished putting together the first post for tomorrow and reminded me yet again why I found this book so easy to get in to and how much sense it all makes

I have a copy of FPIAFW on my Kobo but must admit I have not read much of it so maybe this would be opportunity to rectify that. I also need a boost at the moment due to relationship problems

Steve

Sorry to hear that, Steve.
It's been six months since I started reading the Williams/Penman book which changed my life. I'm looking forward to refreshing myself.
I'm going to be controversial though and use a tangerine instead of a raisin.

I'm sorry to tell you, Jon, without the raisin the entire 8 weeks essentially worthless

I figured as much, Cheesus.
But I'm feeling subversive. Besides which, I can't be arsed to leg it all the way to Tesco to buy raisins when I've got a couple of ripe-looking tangerines in the basket.
Talking of orange-coloured fruit...
In Susan Murphy's Upside-Down Zen she tells the story of Brian Keenan, the Irishman held hostage for many months in Lebanon during the 1980s. For a long period in dark solitary confinement the meals brought to him never varied - some kind of porridge substitute for breakfast, some kind of vaguely meaty stew for dinner.
One morning an orange found its way onto his breakfast tray. When he saw it, Keenan dropped to his knees and sobbed.
For days Keenan couldn't bear to actually eat the orange. He held it, sniffed it...gazed at it with gratitude.
As Murphy writes, "The whole shining world of sun, vivid colour, amazing taste and fragrance that is an orange overwhelmed Keenan in his sense-deprived state, and he truly realised orange for the first time in his life."
A wonderful story that says so much about mindfulness.

Jon
You could probably take the whole week eating a tangerine - are you going to peal it first?
Steve