Introduction to Mindfulness - Dean Amory

How could the course have been more helpful to you?
The inclusion of the Body-scan homework at an earlier stage… in the
John Kabat-Zinn book it seems to be the basis that you tune in to…
it’s so hard, it bored me, but that’s not the point. It’s one of the
pillars.
A bit more structure… there were times it was perceived he (Tony)
was winging it… I thought ‘have you planned for today’?
Things like walking meditation were just put in very quickly at the
end… seemed like rushing to the finish line for a while at the end. In
Bray, when Clive was doing the ‘address the thoughts, then the
emotions’ we hadn’t really prepared enough. It was confusing over
what we were meant to be doing… he kept asking ‘what now? What
next?’… you need to spoon feed for crises! Using cheesy slogans… in
your face… simplicity can come in to your head in a crisis. It is
ultimately about crisis intervention at times.
Be more forceful about insisting people do their homework, not to
criticise, but to out them, you get what you put in There’s a
responsibility element – people wandering out and in of sessions
(although when asked she did not feel we should get overly strict
about attendance)
What was a key moment in your experience of the course?
Realising that I don’t have my ears constantly shoved with noise… it
just happened… I didn’t notice for a week. Something’s different. I
don’t need it now, I choose it. The change had happened, I didn’t
catch it for a few days.
I would try practice the homework; the key thing for me was the
absolute unwillingness to do it. All talk and no action is only all talk
and no action. I need discipline. It’s important for me to recognise
that – the observation of my own reluctance.
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