Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy is available for both individuals and groups within the practice - Naas, Kildare & Dublin
One of the most appealing parts of mindfulness is that it doesn’t involve a lot of knowledge of Eastern religion, nor does it require you to commit to a certain faith or set of rules. There are plenty of meditative variants, but many demand extensive study and skill honing. Mindfulness meditation does not need to be a meditation exercise at all, but rather a process you can experience any time. You don’t need to sit in a certain position, and you don’t need to train your body to effectively perform special breathing techniques. When it comes to mindfulness, you just need to be aware. Many people find mindfulness through being aware of simple life experiences bring a tremendous sense of taking and being in control.
Many of us spend much of our time focused either on the past or on the future, paying very little attention to what is happening in the present, this means that for much of the time we may be unaware of much of our experience. Mindfulness is the practice of staying in the moment, spending more time present to ourselves, and our surroundings. Not trying to change things but trying instead to accept the way that things are for better or for worse.
Mindfulness has become an increasingly beneficial treatment for mental health problems. A specific form of mindfulness combines it with cognitive-behavioral principles and techniques. Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy involves the recognition of thoughts and feelings as fleeting mental states rather than becoming caught in habitual, self-defeating thought patterns that undermine mood, well-being, and/or performance. The aim is to try and change your reactions to emotions or thoughts that you experience, while being careful not to judge or reject them.
Being mindful requires that you become aware of physical sensations, thoughts and emotions as they present in the moment. Furthermore, the mindful individual is aware but does not get involved or attached. Sensations, emotions and thoughts are viewed and examined in detail, from a third party point of view, with no attempt being made to deny or block them, or distract from them. This allows you to become more familiar with all this mental activity, appreciating how it arises and if left alone, passes.
Mindfulness is non-judgmental, so observe your emotions and thoughts passively. Remember, acceptance does not mean passivity. The goal is a calm but increased awareness of the current situation. We will all have disturbing or upsetting thoughts and emotions from time to time - after all, we are human...
But mindfulness can help you change how you relate to, or perceive your emotions. Instead of seeing disturbing emotions as a distraction, you can actually bring them to your attention and, in a way, change them from being troubling to accepted. This does not mean that they will go away, but it can change your perception of them.
What causes depression/anxiety to return?
If you have been depressed or anxious, and then recovered, you may have noticed that a small amount of sadness or disappointment can trigger a large amount of negative thoughts (e.g. ‘I am a failure’, ‘I am weak’, ‘I am worthless’). The same small amount of negative mood can also trigger bodily sensations of weakness or fatigue or unexplained pain.
Both the negative thoughts and fatigue often seem out of proportion to the situation. You may find yourself ruminating: ‘what has gone wrong?’, ‘why is this happening to me?’, ‘when will it all end?
So what is going on here?
During an episode of depression or anxiety, negative mood occurs alongside negative thinking and bodily sensations of sluggishness and fatigue or muscle tension. When the episode has passed, and the mood has returned to normal, the negative thinking and body sensations may disappear as well. However, they have not really gone. The mind has learned an association between the various symptoms. This means that when negative mood happens again (for any reason) it will tend to trigger all the other symptoms. When this happens, the old habits of negative thinking will start up again, negative thinking gets into the same rut, and a full-blown episode of depression or panic may be the result.
The discovery that, even when you feel well, the link between negative moods and negative thoughts remains ready to be re-activated is of enormous importance. It means that sustaining recovery from depression depends on learning how to keep mild states of depression and stress from spiraling out of control.
Can MBCT help me?
If you answer ‘yes’ to any of these questions, you may find MBCT helpful.
- Have you suffered from 3 or more episodes of depression or anxiety in the past? If ‘YES’, have you recovered enough to consider taking steps to prevent future episodes?
- Do you find that, when you become sad or anxious, you tend to ruminate about things?
- Does your thinking rapidly become negative in response to small downward shifts in your moods?
- When your mood negatively affects you, do you find yourself thinking about why you always react this way?
- When your mood negatively affects you, do you find yourself thinking about how it will all end?
- When your mood negatively affects you, do you find yourself trying to analyze everything?
Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT)
Research has found that a new combination of meditation and cognitive therapy can help. Through professional treatment, and by practicing at home during the week, you learn the practice of mindfulness meditation and how to use it to disentangle yourself from depressed or anxious mood and thinking.
Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy includes simple breathing meditations, developing awareness and taking conscious control to help you become more aware of the present moment, including getting in touch with moment-to-moment changes in the mind and the body. It also includes basic education about depression and anxiety, and several exercises from cognitive therapy that show the links between thinking and feeling and how best to look after yourself when low mood or worry threatens to overwhelm you.
How does it work?
MBCT helps you to see more clearly the patterns of your mind; and to learn how to recognize when your thoughts are unhelpful and your mood is adversely affected. It helps break the link between negative mood and the negative thinking that could lead to a relapse. You develop the capacity to mindfully disengage from distressing mood, and negative thoughts. You find that you can learn to stay in touch with the present moment, without having to ruminate about the past, or agonize about the future.
The mindfulness approach is meant to enhance, and work well simultaneously with whatever type of treatment you may be receiving for depression, whether antidepressants or psychotherapy. The aim is to continue the envelope of care into those periods when you are feeling well, and beyond. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy differs from mindfulness meditation as it is normally taught by the way it integrates mindfulness practice into a psychological model of depression and depressive relapse, and the way it uses specific exercises to bring mindfulness to bear in stressful situations.
Mindfulness is the practice of becoming more aware of the present moment, rather than dwelling in the past or projecting into the future. It generally involves a heightened awareness of sensory stimuli (really noticing your breathing, feeling the sensations of your body, etc.) and being "in the now." It means seeing things as they are, without trying to change them. The aim is to try and change your reactions to emotions or thoughts that you experience, while being careful not to judge or reject them.
Being mindful requires that you become aware of physical sensations, thoughts and emotions as they present in the moment. Furthermore, the mindful individual is aware but does not get involved or attached. Sensations, emotions and thoughts are viewed and examined in detail, from a third party point of view, with no attempt being made to deny or block them, or distract from them. This allows you to become more familiar with all this mental activity, appreciating how it arises and if left alone, passes.
Mindfulness is non-judgmental, so observe your emotions and thoughts passively. Remember, acceptance does not mean passivity. The goal is a calm but increased awareness of the current situation. We will all have disturbing or upsetting thoughts and emotions from time to time - after all, we are human...
But mindfulness can help you change how you relate to, or perceive your emotions. Instead of seeing disturbing emotions as a distraction, you can actually bring them to your attention and, in a way, change them from being troubling to accepted. This does not mean that they will go away, but it can change your perception of them.
