Beginners mistakes! Mindfulness in eight weeks Book Review ...LOST

Bab AL Shams, Dubai

Ok so I'm very new to this blogging lark.... but I'm Learning fast because today I lost one of my posts on the blog or rather it just disappeared >  UNHAPPY! 
Well maybe not?
It was the book review that I had written on "Mindfulness in eight weeks by Michael Chaskalson. The book I had read on a respite holiday in Dubai last October.
Michael had kindly tweeted the review to his followers and It just so happens that it was becoming the most viewed post too : (
SO here I am, having to put in to practice what I wrote about in the review. I was thinking about recreating the post but I'm not going to do that. Instead I'm going to retest the practice of mindfulness.

Stop the ruminating thoughts.... what did I do wrong? Where did it go? How can I get it back?  ....and move on.... to now.
I guess its gone...and I  move my attention to being here and now. I have had to let the "case be the case". Whats done is done.  
 Now is the prime time to listen again to one of Michael's free downloads and just chill and forget. 

Well I decided to pause from writing for a while and go to the link (below) and  practice one of the exercises I recommended  in the last review to you. 
I have just literally finished the "3 step breathing space" exercise ( track number 8). It took three minutes to do and I'm back here to tell you the effect.

The exercise focuses you on what is here right now.....  
Whats up? What am I thinking? What am I feeling? ....Frustration. Irritation that the post can just disappear in to the ether....
A tincy bit of regret that I can no longer see the reach of the message...
What sensations are there in my body? Tightness in my back and lower rib cage
Impulses? The desire to hold my breath and resist the urge to let out a big aaaaaaaghghghghggh!

After acknowledge my thoughts and feelings, sensations and impulses  I am then redirect to
follow my breath. In breath and out breath... following the instruction to pay attention to my breathing. In out, in out, in out.
Breathing in to any tensions, aware of changes happening in my body. 
So simple, so quick, so effective. 
Three minutes that ANYONE can find in their day. Sitting at a desk between projects, standing in a queue, on the train on the way home. Any time, anywhere. Three minutes of redirection to the now.

 So I guess I don't have to be in Bab al shams, Dubai on holiday after all. I can be here sitting at my desk typing away after an irritating learning experience. Mindfulness is a tool, a practice that you can have with you where ever you are, whatever you are doing, feeling or experiencing.

Thanks Michael for "Mindfulness in eight weeks" but I have a better title for you, how about  "Mindfulness in three minutes?"


Just to remind those of you who read the previous review... the mindfulness practice downloads can be found at www.mbsr.co.uk/mp31.php
...and the book is a great read to understand more about mindfulness and its effects.


Jx