Introduction to Mindfulness - Dean Amory

Week 3
Today the group started with a very lively discussion of homework,
captured perfectly in one report “When I came out last week I didn’t
want to do the homework but I knew I had to. The first night I didn’t
do it, I was beating myself up for it. The second night I came in late,
the CD (body scan) didn’t work. I felt great!”
The other exercise – record pleasurable moments in the day – had
captured everyone’s imagination and seemed to work very well.
- “I did do the pleasurable moments – there were things in that. I
went to the aqua centre. The inner child is there but the macho
head is pulling it back. I rang my family, I’m happy for them but
also that I’m not there. I allowed my inner child to come out”
- “Writing the positive events down was great, to remember them,
cause I’m not good at remembering that and you’re reliving it as
you write it down. When it’s happening I don’t really stop and
enjoy it (the moment)… I skate over it. Now I stopped, was aware
of it all. It was a very powerful thing to do”
- “It was in my head during the day – journaling the pleasurable
moments – so in some ways I had an antenna for it”.
- “I did the ‘moments homework’ – I had more sad moments but
that’s probably just where I was at.”
- “I did some meditation during the week. I found it very hard. I love
coming here ‘cause I can’t give myself the time. Coming here,
realizing the amount of tension in my body… there’s a lot of
indecision in my head, change in my life, big decisions to make.”
- “Some days it was great, others I had my eye on the clock…it was
an irrational agitation. The bottom line is that sometimes I find it
hard to sit with myself. I want to escape. I was watching all sorts of
crap on telly. There are days I don’t even want to entertain the
thought of being with myself. I knew that’s exactly what was going
on”.
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