FPIAFW - Week 1: Waking Up to the Autopilot

[FeeHutch]

Week 1

I am not going to recap the first 4 chapters of the book but I have pulled out just a couple of things I thought might be useful. If you haven't read the book before or just want to re read, it is well worth spending a bit of time reading and absorbing them.

'Mindfulness is about observation without criticism, being compassionate with yourself. When unhappiness or stress hover overhead, rather than taking it all personally, you learn to treat them as if they were black clouds in the sky, and to observe them with friendly curiosity as they drift past. In essence, mindfulness allows you to catch negative thought paterns before they tip you into a downward spiral. It begins the process of putting you back in control of your life'
Page 5

Dispelling myths about meditation:

Meditation is not a religion, mindfulness is a method of mental training

You don't have to sit cross legged on the floor unless you want to. You can meditate anywhere, find what is comfortable for you.

Mindfulness doesn't take a lot of time but some patience ad persistence are required.

Meditation isn't complicated or about success or failure. You learn something valuable about the workings of your mind even when meditation feels difficult.

Mindfulness will not 'deaden your mind or prevent you striving towards important career or lifestyle goals. It won't trick you into 'falsely adopting a Pollyanna attitude to life' or accepting the unacceptable. It is about seeing the world as it is so you can take wiser and more considered actions.

Autopilot may sometimes be inconvinent but it isn't a mistake. It might let us down but 'it remains one of humanity's greatest evolutionary assets. It allows us to side-step temporarily a shortcoming that all animals share - namely, that we can only truly concentrate on one thing at a time or, at best pay intermittent attention to a small number of things... If there's too much information sloshing around in your mind.. you begin to feel stressed.'

So the idea isn't to pay full attention to everything all the time, instead this week the focus is about taking the first step towards dealing with life more skillfully, stepping outside the autopilot cycle and learning to make a choice about what to focus on. Page 73 -75 details the raisin meditation. Small fruit, big message! What do you think about it?

The chapter also introduces the 'habit releaser' which are designed to loosen up your habits by adding a little randomness to your life. This week notice what chair you normally sit in at home and try and choose a different one.

Next up is trying to pay attention during routine tasks. Not to change the way you feel about the task but to add in a few extra moments in the day when you feel fully awake. Suggestions include brushing your teeth, walking from one room to another or taking out rubbish. What is your chosen activity? I am going for brushing my teeth.

Finally this weeks meditation: Mindfulness Of Body & Breath
Breathing is a fundemental part of being alive and yet how often do we really notice we are doing it.
This guided meditation is just over 8 minutes long and it is suggested that you do it twice daily 6 out of the next 7 days. If you find this difficult, you aren't alone. On page 86 you can read about Hannah who initially found this almost unbareable and was striving to clear her mind but she sticks with it.

So here we are then, the start of week 1. The next 7 posts hopefully won't be quite so long!
I am really looking forward to hearing everyones thoughts.

[JonW]

Ready, steady go...
Last one in is a rotten egg.

[monkeymind]

For anyone who'd like to access the audio to the meditations in the book, below is the link

franticworld.com : free meditations from mindfulness

[JonW]

Superb idea. Thanks monkeymind.

[Cheesus]

I just completed the first meditation. I have to say that I found the audio guide to be a little bit distracting. It went through the initial scan way too fast. I realise this is probably a means to nurture a first-time meditator through it so they don't have to sit for too long, but I would usually rather really explore physical sensations before getting into mindfulness of breath. Did anyone else have a similar experience? I think for this week at least I am going to abandon the audio.

Something that I am noticing more and more is the ability of my mind to be on two things at once. Sometimes it'll be 80% engrossed in thought, but the other 20% will be kind of aware that I am breathing. Other times I will think I am 100% focused on breathing, but then there has actually been a tiny little bit of mental narration the entire time.

My almond experiment (alas, no raisins in sight) went well. One thing I noticed that was intriguing about it was that when I was nearing the end of chewing it I suddenly had an urge to grab a handful and shove them all in my mouth. Other than that, the thing that struck me most was that eating an almond is essentially what I imagine it would be like to just munch down on a piece of wood. I think I actually realised I enjoy almonds less than what I thought I did. Am I allowed to say that?

I took a mindful shower this morning which was really nice and refreshing. It's such a wonderful feeling having warm water running over you. It was interesting, too, to look at the different routes the water would take as I moved. Come to think of it now, though, I'm not sure I was mindful of the sound, which is always one of my favourite things about water. Perhaps this is something I should keep in mind when taking my shower tomorrow morning.

I haven't done a habit releaser yet. I will keep you all updated on that!

How did everyone else get on? Any interesting experiences?

Cheesus

[rara]

You don't have to sit cross legged on the floor unless you want to......

Autopilot may sometimes be inconvinent but it isn't a mistake. It might let us down but 'it remains one of humanity's greatest evolutionary assets. It allows us to side-step temporarily a shortcoming that all animals share - namely, that we can only truly concentrate on one thing at a time or, at best pay intermittent attention to a small number of things... If there's too much information sloshing around in your mind.. you begin to feel stressed.'

So the idea isn't to pay full attention to everything all the time, instead this week the focus is about taking the first step towards dealing with life more skillfully, stepping outside the autopilot cycle and learning to make a choice about what to focus on. Page 73 -75 details the raisin meditation. Small fruit, big message! What do you think about it?

Very interesting. I have been practicing for 3-ish years now and yesterday, I just crashed on the floor with my arms spread like Jesus and had music on in the background! I haven't done that in a while.

The Autopilot thing...what a coincidence. Fee, and anyone else - see my other post in the Long-term forum too! I'm wondering about the transformation in training yourself using mindfulness to eventually be more skillful on autopilot.

[JonW]

"My almond experiment (alas, no raisins in sight) went well. One thing I noticed that was intriguing about it was that when I was nearing the end of chewing it I suddenly had an urge to grab a handful and shove them all in my mouth. Other than that, the thing that struck me most was that eating an almond is essentially what I imagine it would be like to just munch down on a piece of wood. I think I actually realised I enjoy almonds less than what I thought I did. Am I allowed to say that?"

You are.
I had the same experience with a Rich Tea biscuit last night. I ate it very slowly and it tasted a little like I imagine cardboard would taste. If you ask me, Rich Tea biscuits are best eaten mindlessly. Just wolf them down without a second's thought.
Ginger Nuts, however, are a different thing altogether. Take your time with a Ginger Nut and it will repay you a thousand times over.

[FeeHutch]

I have the problem with donuts

Seriously though, I still find paying close attention to food a challenge because of my complex relationship with food but tiny little steps like the raisin/almond/rich tea biscuit are the size steps that seem to work for me.

I will go check out your post Rara

[Steve]

In the spirit of approaching this with a 'beginners mind', one aspect I'd be interested to hear other's views/experiences on is watching the breath. As we know, breath is unusual in that we are able to breath without conscious thought yet we are also able to consciously change our breathing. When I watch the breath, it can be hard to do so without changing it - I either seems to take longer, deeper breaths or if I relax I seem to intentionally slow down and take lighter breaths. So its seems like when you observe it, it changes (or you can't be sure if its unchanged as you don't know what it was like when you weren't observing!).

If I manage to meditate for a while, breathing generally becomes more relaxed and lighter and then it feels less that I am controlling it and if it becomes very light then its more a matter of trying to observe if you are still breathing!

How do others find the intention to 'lightly' observe the breath without the observation changing it?

Steve

[JonW]

Hi Steve.
Doing week one of the course again I've realise that my focus has shifted from the breath itself to the rise and fall of the belly. I'm not sure when that changed. But it did, without me really noticing. Focussing on the belly I seem a lot more focussed and less inclined to take deliberate (as opposed to natural) breaths.