Introduction to Mindfulness - Dean Amory

Week 1
Our primary purpose in the first week of the program was to enable
members of the group to experience that they were a unique group,
embarking on project that had never been tried before in a setting like
Deora and to give them some idea about how were we going to
behave as a group over the next nine weeks.
We felt it would be important
1. to hear from each person regarding their expectation, goals,
concerns or misgivings,
2. to establish the usual ground rules to ensure this group respected
the need for safety and confidentiality among its members.
3. we wanted them to have one or two actual experiences of
practicing mindfulness, and give them the opportunity to reflect and
give feedback on the experience.
4. We also assigned homework to encourage participants to begin to
take their practice home, and into their daily lives.
Thirteen people showed up in addition to the mindfulness team. The
members were quiet and clearly a little tense in the opening stages of
the group.
1. Goals
As they articulated their personal goals, we were struck by how aware
they were of the need to steady their minds and become more
grounded in the present moment. It was as though the case for
mindfulness had already been made before we ever got around to
introducing the concept.
Members described how they mostly felt very out of touch with
themselves, noticed how their minds wandered a lot and how hard it
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