Mindfulness for Everyone: Managing Difficult Thoughts and Feelings

Course Summary

A short, powerful mindfulness course about managing difficult thoughts and feelings in every day, as well as challenging situations.

Here are a few notes to assure a more meaningful experience:

This short, introductory mindfulness course is based on well-researched programs such as the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Course (Jon Kabat-Zin), Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (Williams, Segal & Teasedale) as well as Emotion-Focused Therapy (Susan Johnson). As kindness, non-judgment and compassion are all-important when it comes to mindfulness, the scientific research of Prof Kirsten Neff on self-compassion is also acknowledged in this course.

You may find it very meaningful to keep a notebook or journal and pen close by. Although people have written diaries and journals for centuries, the therapeutic potential of reflective writing didn’t come into public awareness until the 1960s, when Dr. Ira Progoff, a psychologist in New York City, began offering workshops and classes in the use of what he called the Intensive Journal method. Probably one of the most common reports from people who write journals is that the act of putting thoughts and feelings on paper helps give useful emotional and mental clarity.

In this course you will find writing exercises, poems to reflect on, mindfulness exercise audios to listen to and practice, and questions to answer in your notebook. The Breathing Howzit Mindfulness Exercise is only a few minutes long and ideal to do daily.

Even 5 minutes of practicing mindfulness everyday will change your brain for the good! You will start to respond to stressful situations, rather than react. The fight-flight-freeze area of your brain (the amygdala) will start to shrink, and the gray matter of your prefrontal cortex, that helps you making sense of difficult challenges and plan the next few steps, will thicken.