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Introduction to Mindfulness - Dean Amory

Art and Benefits of Mindfulness Meditation

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Week eight: Staying clean<br />

Agenda:<br />

- Sitting meditation<br />

- Checking in with our emotions<br />

- Developing a recovery blueprint,<br />

- Review original goals and check whether they had been achieved<br />

- Personal learning from this course<br />

- Supports and resources <strong>to</strong> strengthen mindfulness practice<br />

Week 8<br />

We began with sitting practice, which the group now do with little or<br />

no guidance. Afterwards we checked in with how they were feeling<br />

and their reactions were as follows: ‘Uneasy’, ‘brilliant’, ‘grand’,<br />

‘chilled’, ‘anxious’, ‘relaxed’, ‘complete’.<br />

Recovery blueprint<br />

We systematically went around each person and had them answer<br />

three key questions:<br />

1. What made you s<strong>to</strong>p using?<br />

2. What’s making you stay clean?<br />

3. What have you learned in this course <strong>to</strong> help you in recovery?<br />

Tables 4, 5 and 6 give a summary of comments made in answer <strong>to</strong><br />

these questions.<br />

The members of the group described reaching a point of insight<br />

where they experienced that even heavy substance abuse couldn’t<br />

entirely block out the realities they were trying <strong>to</strong> escape. And when<br />

they realised that there was something more <strong>to</strong> their life than being a<br />

slave <strong>to</strong> addiction. Their personal s<strong>to</strong>ries of turning their lives around<br />

were shared with great honesty and emotion. The personal insights<br />

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