 Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the mindfulness session of the MHPN All Together conference. My name is Kim Siew. For those of you who perhaps did not attend yesterday's mindfulness session. So just a quick heads up that sometimes my internet could be a little bit intermittent. So if there's any disruption, do bear with us. But I don't expect that to happen and I don't think that it should be tracked from your mindfulness experience here. So first I would like to acknowledge country. I'm delivering this session from Adelaide, the land of the Ghana people. And that I recognize the importance of their connection to land, water, culture and community. And that I respect their elders' past, present and emerging. Okay, in terms of the structure of today this session, I would like to first take the first 10 minutes to just get us all on the same page as to what is mindfulness. I think mindfulness is so mainstream that I suspect most of you here would be aware of what mindfulness might even have a regular mindfulness practice, but it's great for us to get on the same page. I would like to bust some myths about mindfulness for those of you who are skeptical or think you are not good at it. And also I want to share some research on the benefits as well. If you've heard all of this before, then just sit back and pretend you're listening to your favorite bedtime story all over again. Okay, now after that I will take you through a mindfulness meditation session. And most importantly, I would like us to agree that we all need to stay safe. So at any point during the meditation, if you feel any strong emotions coming up for you, just do resource yourself. So what that means is open your eyes, take in your surrounding, listen to sounds. You need to get up, have a walk, drink a glass of water. Just mainly look after yourself. I don't believe that would happen because I plan to have you feeling hopefully more grounded, centered and perhaps even uplifted after this session. Alright, let's move on to what is mindfulness. I am using Joanne Gabbard-Zinn's definition which is that it is awareness. And you cultivate that by paying attention in a sustained and particular way on the present moment and non-judgmentally. So in other words, what it is is really just being aware of what's going on right here right now for you. And not judging whether it's good or bad, right? And this all may sound so simple but for those of us who practice regularly, we know that it's actually not very easy because our mind tends to wonder. It tends to either go back to the past replaying stories and conversations about what's happened, who said what, why didn't I do this, etc. Or it goes into the future planning, worrying, etc. So we need an anchor, right? We need an anchor for attention to stay put. So the anchor that is more accessible for us is the breath. We breathe without even realizing it. It's there. Another anchor we can use quite readily available to us is one of our five senses. It could be sounds. I've trained myself to when I feel very busy in my mind is to actually try and listen for the silence around me. And that really starts to settle my mind. So you can try doing that. But we can also, you know, when we're drinking our coffee, smelling the coffee, tasting the coffee, sensing the coffee going into our stomach, sensing the warmth of it. Mindful eating, mindful drinking. When we're walking, we're really noticing the sensations and movements of our legs, for example. So there are many ways we can anchor our attention to the present moment, to what's right here. So a lot of people think they can't practice mindfulness because their mind is so busy, they're always having thoughts. I want to just clarify that this is normal. I train as a meditation teacher with some of the most renowned meditation teachers in the world, Tara Brock, Jack Comfield. And they assured us that even now their mind do wonder. And the trick is also to not expect that we're really getting rid of thoughts or emotions. And it's not necessarily relaxing because once we start to quiet our mind, our unfinished business of the heart might serve us. So using John Kabatzi's terms, he says we need to cultivate in our mindfulness practice seven attitudes. And the first one is not judging and letting be allowing and accepting what's going on, what's come up for us to just be, to let it be here. And then what we do is we become very intimate with that, with the present moment, with our anchor. And we use the beginner's mind, so we observe what's going on with fresh sets of eyes with curiosity. So every breath is a new breath, every taste, a sip of your coffee is a new sip of coffee, not like the one before. So how can we be curious about it, right? And then we need to not feel that we're striving for something, so trying to achieve something, trying to be blissful, trying to be enlightened. The more we strive, the further it is that goal that we're trying to achieve. So it's about patience and it's about trusting ourselves that we have it in us to be able to be present and be mindful. So why is it so useful? Well, I was really surprised when I found out recently that there are now 17,000 publications that shows the benefit of mindfulness and how it can improve our general wellbeing to reducing depression, anxiety, pain, and of course stress. And really, I think it all boils down to the fact that it improves our regulation, our self-regulation, because from a physiological perspective, when we're able to calm and ground ourselves, our parasympathetic nervous system kicks in. And it slows down our heart rate, it slows down blood pressure, improves our digestive system with the fight, flight, and freeze response of our body, of our mind, sorry, the amygdala actually comes down. So then this gives a chance for prefrontal cortex, that part of our brain that is the executive functioning, emotional regulations, relationship making decisions. That part of our brain has a chance to work, it becomes activated. And also the research has shown that by practicing mindfulness, for those of you who are, you know, we're all here as mental health professionals, it improves our therapeutic presence. So in other words, you're much more there with your client, and that helps you to be so attuned to your client, attuned to what's going on within you while you're listening to your client's troubles and challenges. And then it also broadens your perspective to the suffering, to the suffering of your clients. And what that really helps is that it of course improves your empathy and compassion, and then helps you build a much stronger reliance, therapeutic alliance with your clients. And actually research that also shows that mental health professionals who meditate, they are seeing higher improvements in their client from a symptom reduction and rate of change perspective. I also want to quickly touch on what's the difference between meditation and mindfulness. So the key difference is that meditation is just a much more, I guess, formal practice, and it is that deliberate training of our mind to stay, to pay attention. But at the same time, while it's improving our concentration, we're also increasing the awareness part of our consciousness. And there are many, many types of meditation. Mindfulness meditation is what I'm trained in and I will be guiding you through that today. But of course, there is loving kindness meditation visualization, which I also do and teach, but also mantra. You hear people do that. I don't do that so much. But ultimately, the key point of whether it's meditation or mindfulness is to really help us become much more aware of our conditioning, our conditioned mind, the way we think, our patterns of thinking, so that we can, you know, awareness is the beginning of transformation, of change. And over time, we start to see that all these things that we cling on, there's a real impermanent nature to it and nothing is permanent. So what then that also helps us to do through that process is that we're much more open and accepting to the changes in life to what's going on and increase our window of tolerance for change, for uncertainty, for pain. And I really like what one meditation teacher says. He said that, you know, it's like when we put a tablespoon of salt into a cup of water, that cup of water becomes really undrinkable because it's really salty. But if we put a tablespoon of salt into a big pond of water, into a big pond, then that water is still drinkable because it's really not that salty. And this is what mindfulness and meditation really helps us do. It actually expands our mind and expands our tolerance for stuff, for challenges in our lives. And I also want to give a quote to what my teacher Jack Confill says. He says, you have within you an unlimited capacity for extraordinary joy, love and communion with life and for unshakable freedom. And for me, really, this is what meditation and mindfulness has have really done for me in that it really makes me feel that I have choice. I have freedom because I have a choice in how I feel and how I respond to situations. So on that note, I'm going to take you through an equanimity meditation today. I'll ground you first, get you settled, and then I'm going to take you through an equanimity meditation. And the reason I've decided on that meditation is because of the topics that you will be attending today, which is on family violence and loneliness and social isolation. And I think as mental health professionals, you help a lot of people in that situation, and it's important to stay equanimous. So equanimity is really a quality where we're able to stay calm and balanced in the midst of chaos and challenges. So whilst we try to alleviate other people's suffering, at the same time, we must accept that there will be situations in people's life where they have to deal with themselves and that we may not necessarily be able to change. So it's a bit like that serenity prayer. May I have the serenity to accept the things I cannot change and the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference. So I invite you now to sit in a way that you are comfortable sitting. And if you're comfortable, close your eyes. If you're not, just gaze down on the floor. And what I get you to do now is to take some deep, long breaths. So breathing in deeply and deliberately slowing down your outbreath. And as you slow down your outbreath, imagine or sense that you're allowing the tension that you may be feeling in your body to wash away with your outbreath. So I invite you to just breathe naturally, allow the breath to come and go. And you begin to notice where are you sensing your breath. It might be at the tip of your nostril, the back of your throat, maybe the rise and fall of your chest or your belly. And if you have trouble sensing, then place both hands on your chest or your belly and just feel the rise and fall of your chest or your belly. And as we spoke before about the attitude of mindfulness, could you bring a beginner's mind to what are you noticing about your breath this morning? What qualities do you notice? The temperature, the fluidity. You may sense that your breath is breathing itself. You may also sense that there is the beginning of ease and calm permeate through your being. And if the mind continues to wander, that's also okay. We're not judging. As soon as you become aware that your mind had wandered, that moment itself is a moment of mindfulness. And so you gently guide your attention with loving awareness, with kind awareness back to your anchor. It could be your breath or maybe it's the sounds around you. Bring yourself this precious moment to be right here, setting aside your responsibilities, your roles, your worries and concerns for the next 10 minutes, just to be right here. You also choose to check in with the body and make sure you're not still holding tension. So perhaps check that your jaw is relaxed and cleanse your teeth, place your tongue at the top of your mouth. Check that your shoulders are relaxed, roll them down back down the spine. Your arms are loose by your side, legs are relaxed and you can feel the ground supporting you under your feet. Now I invite you to begin to reflect the benefit of a mind that has balance and equanimity. In the sense what a gift it can be to bring a peaceful heart to the world around you. Let yourself feel an inner sense of balance and ease. What I invite you to do is I'm going to say some phrases and I invite you to see if you could sense them in your heart, in your being. And this is really like a little sort of well wishes for yourself. May I be balanced and at peace. May I learn to see the rising and passing of all nature with equanimity and balance. May I be open and balanced and peaceful. May I be balanced and at peace. May I learn to see the rising and passing of all nature with equanimity and balance. May I be open and balanced and peaceful. We acknowledge that all created things arise and pass away. Joys, sorrows, pleasant events, people, buildings. We let ourselves rest in the midst of them. We also acknowledge that all beings are as to their own actions and that their lives arise and pass away according to conditions and deeds created by them. And while we can love and care for others, we cannot fix them, no love for them. And so you might want to bring a group of people, some specific people you know and wish them equanimity. So bring to mind someone or a group of people. And as I say this phrase, see if you could feel it for them. Your happiness and suffering depend on your thoughts and actions. May you learn to see the rising and passing of all things with equanimity and balance. May you have true equanimity. May you be balanced and peaceful. May you live with a peaceful heart. I invite you to expand your field of equanimity to this mHPN community. And we say to each other, may you learn to see the arising and passing of all things with equanimity and balance. May you be balanced and peaceful with a peaceful heart. And finally, let's expand our field of equanimity to the whole world. May I bring compassion and equanimity to the events of the world. Others happiness and suffering depends on their thoughts and actions. May I find balance, equanimity and peace amidst it all. May I learn to see the rising and passing of all things with equanimity and balance. May I be open and balanced and peaceful. May I live with a peaceful heart. Welcome back everyone. I hope that was a helpful practice for you. It is my hope and vision that at some point in my lifetime that people will embrace mindfulness and meditation the same way they would brush their teeth every morning. And not because whether they think about whether they need to brush their teeth or whether they have time to brush their teeth or your teeth, we all do it regardless. I hope that you'll find that mindfulness is so good for us in every aspect that you will find a minute or two in your life to come back to your breath or do a longer practice. And I thought this is really a nice little poem that I found about and how just a little bit a day will help. Little by little I'll learn to know the treasured wisdom of long ago. And one of these days perhaps we'll see that the world will be the better for me. And do you think that this simple plan may team or her a wise and useful man or woman. And finally I just want to mention that I also offer a free online meditation every week on Wednesdays at 7 o'clock to 7.30. And you can contact me if you wish to get the zoom link and I'd love to see you guys there. You can also check out my website cheetahlift.com. But other than that I wish you all a lovely day and thank you very much. Stay equanimous.