Mornings with Hine

  The rise and fall of thinking In practicing mindfulness, we look to train in a certain set of skills that help us become more open, loving, and attentive in a moment-by-moment basis. Pause right now. Notice your thoughts.  What are you reflecting on as you move through this module? Are you taking in what you’re reading? Are various thoughts about other things, judgements, worries, daydreaming bubbling up?  By checking in with your thoughts you can become familiar with the natural tendency of the mind to jump from subject to subject almost like a monkey in a tree! When we practice regularly bringing our attention back to our breathing, we strengthen our attention muscles. Even just realising and remembering that  thoughts are not facts  can help free us from just going along with whatever thought is presenting itself at any given moment.

  Making space for emotions Just like our breathing, emotions rise and fall. When something happens that triggers a certain emotional response (excitement, anger, anxiety, sadness, etc.), we feel whatever emotion it is throughout our body. The main techniques to regulate emotions are broken into four steps. 1. Notice the feeling. Label it, and validate that it is ok to feel this way. 2. Make space for the feeling. Accept, this is how I'm feeling. I won't always feel this way.  3. Drop an anchor with mindful breathing. Allow yourself to feel the sensations in the body. Breathing helps refocus the breathing instead of getting stuck in the dialogue.  4. Remind yourself that all feelings pass.  Stay with the breathing until the feeling fades. I can see the benefits of teaching these skills to students as a whole class mindfulness lesson. Being able to identify feelings and working through the four steps to bring back to calmness. These skills w...