Your Stories
When did you first start practicing mindfulness and why were you motivated to do so?
I have always had an interest in meditation and dabbled with it over the years, but without real commitment, understanding or discipline. Then in the summer of 2010 I developed a daily practice of meditation/ relaxation and started reading about mindfulness. For the first time in my life, I felt comfortable in my own skin and felt my relationships (especially with my son) change and my stress levels decrease.
Sadly, shortly after, this my mother became ill and died. I then had a 6 month period off work with severe depression (having suffered, I realized in hindsight, with mild to moderate depression for the last 8 years). I knew mindfulness meditation would be my way out, but for a few months I didn't have the energy, motivation or concentration to do anything about it. Then I read The Mindful Way through Depression by Jon Kabat-Zinn et al which turned me around. I began a daily practice of 10 minutes of sitting meditation, as well as mindful moments through the day and I felt myself start to ease out of the valley very slowly.
Read more »When did you first start practicing mindfulness and why were you motivated to do so?
I've been practicing off and on for years at the recommendation of a therapist I had as a teenager. Only recently have I started becoming more serious in my practice. I think it's because I've finally grown up enough to see the benefits and appreciate them.
Did you take a class? If so, what sort of class did you take?
No, although I do plan to take an insight meditation class.
Read more »When did you first start practicing mindfulness and why were you motivated to do so?
I started mindfulness practice during the spring of 2009, after being diagnosed with breast cancer and also [after] feeling increasingly stressed out by things at work, etc.
Did you take a class? If so, what sort of a class did you take?
Introduction to MBSR and also, in the fall of 2009… a class on facing fear and finding joy.
How has mindfulness made a difference in your life?
Much more awareness of trying to live in the present moment, hard as that may be.
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When did you first start practicing mindfulness and why were you motivated to do so?
In 1994 Jon Kabat-Zinn’s, Wherever You Go There You Are, was recommended by The Institute of Noetic Sciences. Intrigued by the title and out of curiosity I bought it and worked through it. Since that time I have tinkered on and off with mindfulness practice. My most consistent efforts have been through yoga. It was not until I began my Naropa University Contemplative Education Master’s degree in 2008 that I began to consistently practice.
Did you take a class? If so, what sort of a class did you take?
I self-explored for many years then found myself immersed at Naropa. Each Naropa faculty brought a unique perspective to awareness, mindfulness, presence and meditation. Naropa is where I began to understand and experience mindfulness.
Mindfulness is something that is hard to teach—it must be experienced.
How has mindfulness made a difference in your life?
I am more aware of many aspects of my environment, my reactions, others and myself around me. I can feel and sense emotions rising and can better look at them with curiosity and choice rather than with unaware engagement. This is not all the time of course, but more often than before. Even when I do find myself reacting, rather than responding, I am aware of it and can look at the situation more nonjudgmentally rather than beat myself up.
I also allow “stuck times” to have their space too. I used to feel anxious, restless or bored when I couldn’t figure out what to do next or how to fill empty time to be productive. Mindfulness has helped me honor all feelings not just the ones I judge as “good.”
What do you do for your livelihood (e.g., homemaker, teacher, firefighter) and does your practice of mindfulness affect that?
When did you first start practicing mindfulness and why were you motivated to do so?
I would say I first informally started practicing mindfulness when I was very young. My family has a lake home in Minnesota, where we would spend the weekends together. At our lake home, we do not have a telephone, television, computer, or much technical connection to others, etc. As a result, our days were spent mindfully cooking, eating together, walking in the woods, swimming in the lake, sitting, observing the world/nature around us.
When I think in my mind's eye of my favorite place in the world...it is here. I recognize that it is not necessarily a place as such for anyone who comes to visit. I have come to believe it is because of the years spent at the lake, it is a place of emotional and physical attachment enriched with mindful existence connected to my family.
Therefore what brought me to MARC (Mindful Awareness Research Center at UCLA) was a natural or organic walk.... I worked for the geneticist who is one of the founders of MARC. We connected on our conscious intention to be "mindful" of living in an environment that has created a certain level of anxiety within each of us that did not "sit well." So I guess I sought out a different way in which to formally as well as informally "sit" in life differently... more mindfully... and as an adult who cannot run off to the lake home every weekend.
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In this blog, practitioners share their experiences of practicing mindfulness, awareness, and compassion. To share your mindfulness experiences, click here to see the short questionnaire, and then email your answers to us at profiles@mindful.org.