Mindfulness is a way of paying attention to our subjective experience which can be of value in and of itself and also as an integral part of many different models of psychological therapy. Some of these are used in the treatment of eating disorders and psychological problems which often go hand in hand with eating disorders such as depression. Mindfulness is also foundational to compassionate mind training – a system of mind training which helps us cultivate our natural ability to feel safe, contented and socially connected to other people.
The audio files available for download here contain guided practices used in mindfulness based cognitive therapy (MBCT) and compassion focused Therapy (CFT). They are intended to supplement rather than substitute for expert guidance from qualified instructors. However, they may also be used effectively in conjunction with self-help materials such as the book ‘Mindful Compassion’ by Paul Gilbert and Kunzang Choden (Published by Little, Brown Book Group). They may be freely copied and distributed, but not for commercial purposes.
Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy Practices (MBCT)
The first track in this section contains guidance for the main formal practice undertaken over the first two weeks of mindfulness based cognitive therapy courses. It is usually practised lying down.
Body Scan
The following 6 tracks can be played back to back to make up the core sitting meditation practice used in MBCT. Alternatively you may to use track one to establish your posture and intentions for practising followed by any selection of the following 5 tracks in numerical order (e.g. tracks 1, 2 and 6 only, tracks 1 and 4 only).
Track 1: MBCT Foundational Sequence – Recollection, Posture, Grounding
Track 2 Mindfulness of Breathing
Track 3 Mindfulness of Breath and Body
Track 4 Mindfulness of Sound
Track 5: Mindfulness of Thoughts
Track 6: Choiceless Awareness
Once you have practised with sequence A you may wish to use sequence B in a similar way. It is essentially the same sequence, but with slightly less spoken guidance. There are two almost identical versions of Track 2, each of different length. Select one or the other depending on the time you have to practise. In time you will become familiar with the guidance and you may then wish to move into silent practice, perhaps punctuated with chimes from a meditation timer. You will find free meditation timers for download from your phone’s app store or available for streaming from various web sites.
Track 1: MBCT Foundational Sequence – Recollection, Posture, Grounding
Track 2.1: Mindfulness of Breathing
Track 2.2: Mindfulness of Breathing
Track 3: Mindfulness of Breath and Body
Track 4: Mindfulness of Sound
Track 5: Mindfulness of Thought
Track 6: Choiceless Awareness
It is best to practise with the following track after having spent some time with at least the first track of the core sitting sequence (A or B) or silently establishing mindfulness of the breath or other bodily sensations on your own. ‘Working with difficulty’ is a way of becoming more familiar with the ways in which troubling thoughts, mental images and emotions play out in the body. Learning how to non-judgmentally attend to the bodily manifestation of these phenomena can help us be with them in a way which neither suppresses them, nor gets caught up in them. This ‘turning towards’ difficulty can be an important precursor or part of a compassionate response.
Title: Working With Difficulty
Compassionate Mind Training Practices (CMT)
The following practice is foundational to compassionate mind training developed by Paul Gilbert, Kunzang Choden and others. It shares similarities with the practice of establishing one’s posture and intention in the MBCT series, however, it adds a short period of deliberately cultivated soothing breathing rhythm which is known to activate a branch of our parasympathetic nervous system associated with feeling contented, safe and socially connected – your soothing and contentment system.
Track 1: Posture, Intention, Soothing, Grounding, Resting (Detail)
After having practised with the detailed guidance of track 1 you can switch to using track 2 which is essentially the same, but with less spoken commentary. Once you are completely familiar with the sequence you may wish to practise in silence, perhaps using a meditation timer. As mentioned above, you will find free meditation timers for download from your phone’s app store or available for streaming from various web sites.
Track 2: Posture, Intention, Soothing, Grounding, Resting (Outline)
The following track is an easy way to begin to work with visualisation in ways which will stimulate and strengthen the soothing and contentment system.
Track 3: Safe Place (8 min)
The following practice moves beyond simply cultivating an ability to feel safe and contented to opening to receiving compassion from another. For some this is an easy natural progression, but for others it can trigger painful feelings of loss or fear or other difficult emotions. If this happens for you it is better to return to a practice like the safe place meditation or the foundational sequence. It is likely you will need to speak to a qualified health professional or meditation teacher to work through these blocks and resistances in a personalised way. Simply persevering with the practice on your own may not be so helpful.
Track 4: Compassionate Other
We can think of compassion as flow. For psychological health we need to be able to receive the flow of compassion from others to ourselves (track 3), but we also need to learn how to be compassionate ourselves – for compassion to flow from us to others. The following track helps us develop a sense of the inherent capacity we all have to be compassionate ourselves.
Track 5: Compassionate Self
The next three tracks are ways of further developing the flow of compassion from ourselves to others, but critically it begins (in track 7) with the cultivation of the flow of good will and compassion from ourselves to ourselves. This self-compassion is just as central to the compassionate mind as receiving from others and giving to others.
