Mindful matters.

So its been a while and I am glad to say its been a positive time. I have found the practice of mindfulness very interesting and also useful. It is strange to think that long journeys commuting to London from here in South Wales can be a place to practice, but they can. With a CD of meditation practices on my IPad, I can use the time to practice my practice!I guess that means so can you if you decide to follow this way of developing mindfulness/awareness.
What though are the tangible benefits? Like many people I find that the practice of "bare attention" can reveal not only much about myself but also much about what surrounds me. Perhaps an example will help.
I undertook my practice as usual in the time between Newport and Bristol on the train. Its a handy 20 minute space where I can close my eyes and practice the breathing exercises that help develop practice.
It was a rather uneventful  journey, and a very grey and drizzly early morning as we approached Didcot on the journey to London. Yet I noticed that looking at the grey skies of Berkshire just how many textures and shades of grey there were in that early morning sky. It was a really positive moment of awareness. It didn't make my journey any quicker , but strangely pleasant.
So there is much to be seen and more to experience if we truly are aware of where and importantly who we are.

Show less restraint!

Since june of last year I have been busy leading a consultation process for the DH which culminated in a guidance document being launched by Care Services Minister Norman Lamb on the 3rd of April. Its all about reducing restrictive interventions. I guess most people will think of restraint , but its more than that . it can embrace physical but also chemical processes and the most common such as environmental. That's very much about practices such as blanket security processes such as locking areas, denying access to places (kitchens etc) and just being inhibited in what you can do.
But why have these practices crept into place. Its been a 300 year old debate about the balance between freedom and autonomy and the risk to self and others when in places of care and treatment. It remains a distinctive feature of mental health services that we have the ability to compel and coerce and also have a client group that at times wishes to not only endanger others but also themselves to the point of destruction.
I have met many people in this process over the last year that are really trying to do the right thing by those they care for and yet seem frustrated by what they are required to do and also the environment of scrutiny and resources allocated for their role.
Its been a 300 year old journey, but still far from over.

Mindfulness Week 3 : 22/7/13

There's much to write about in mental health services at the moment , but with your patience I am going to continue to consider the issue of Mindfulness and my on going practice. It has been really hard to build a sense of discipline into this area of my life and I guess discipline is not a virtue I possess but am keen to develop. It really is striking what can get in the way when you have to find all of 8 minutes for a meditation exercise. I recall clearly when I have had the task of writing or even the dreaded marking when a lecturer.
It was surprising then how much time I could waste on walking from room to room , or tasks that needed doing suddenly seemed urgent. I found myself engaged in any distracting behaviour rather than get marking that pile of dissertations.
In many ways this is similar , there are lots of reasons why I should do other things rather than pay attention to the needs of practice. Yet I persist, and have found real moments of calm and quiet. If we wait for the world we live in to be like that , then we can wait a very long time!
I have found one of the most revealing issues to be the constant chatter of internal dialogue that demands attention but which can be really fruitless, at worst this seems to take the form of ruminating and can be tiring. Yet a simple attentive episode of "noticing" can be so restorative, it seems to have the capacity to introduce actual choice as to the significance of what we experience.
I have found the exercises related to listening quite revealing (although dominated by the local jackdaws) , as they clearly point towards the listening we can undertake to internal thought "chatter" and whether choose to do more than notice its presence.
So yes still persisting and even more importantly feeling a real sense of benefit.

Mindfulness : an Eight week programme

I have been discussing recently the issue with colleagues of levels of morbidity amongst the nursing proffession. The RCN provides a excellent welfare service and the level of demand is rising year on year. I couldn't help wondering if there was more that could be offered or even done in order to try and adopt a more healthy approach to the stresses of life than all the usual coping mechanisms we may all use at some time.
My attention was drawn by various events to the work of John Kabat-Zin who like Lord Layard before him has caught the eye of the top level of Goverment. The approach of Mindfulness whilst drawn from Buddist meditation practice has been integrated into approaches such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and also Stress reduction. Well Ok you may say but isn't it all a bit West Coast USA?
Not really , apparently endorsed by  NICE , MBCT is recommended for people who have endured repeated episodes of depression.
So armed with such endorsements I have purchased the book Mindfulness by Mark Williams and Danny Penman and I am embarking on a 8 week course in Mindfulness practice.
First exercise involves eating Chocolate so should improve my journey home tonight
I'll keep you posted
Ian