 Welcome to the mindfulness session. My name is Kim Siao for those of you who had not attended the previous mindfulness session in this conference. I also want to just say that due to my other commitments this session is delivered to you prerecorded and also lately I've been getting some internet issues so if there is any slight disruption due to the internet I ask that you be patient and bear with me nonetheless I believe that this should not detract from your mindfulness experience of being here and now. I would like to first acknowledge that I'm delivering this from Adelaide the land of the Ghana people and that I recognize the importance of their connection to land, water and culture and community and I respect also their elders past, present and emerging. In terms of the format of this session I would like to first give you my definition of what is meant by mindfulness. I think mindfulness is now becoming a very mainstream topic but it'll be good for us to get on the same page. I would also like to bust some common myths about mindfulness for those of you who are skeptical and also I would like to share some research on the benefits. So in saying that I would also like to make sure that everyone stays safe so during meditation if for any reason you experience any strong emotions I ask that you resource yourself so what that means is that you would open your eyes you would start to take in your surrounding listen to sounds and if need be get up go and get yourself a drink most of all please do look after yourself okay so what is mindfulness? Well using John Kabat-Zinn's definition mindfulness is awareness cultivated by paying attention in a sustained and particular way on purpose in the present moment and non-judgmentally. So in other words what he's saying is that mindfulness is basically paying attention being aware that you are aware of what's going on right here right now and also being open and accepting to it so in other words but not judging whether it's right or it's wrong. Now this sounds very simple but it's actually not very easy to practice because our mind has the tendency to wonder off and sometimes going back to the past worrying about what's happened and then sometimes being anxious about the future or it's that constant planning so what we really need is to anchor our attention to something and of course what that is readily available for us to anchor on is our breath our five senses for example eating when we're eating we can smell what we're eating we're tasting what we're eating when we're walking we can be listening to our surrounding and also we can feel what it feels like to be walking in our body so in other words we can really practice mindfulness in almost anything we do daily it's about paying attention and also another form of mindfulness where we can anchor our body of course is body scan or mindful other mindful movements like yoga tai chi chi kong so one of the myths about mindfulness is people think that they have to not think and that they have to be so still but really mindfulness is not about getting rid of thoughts or emotions and yeah it's not necessarily relaxing either because quite often it's about being just really about being open to what is happening if it's pain can we be open to the fact that we're feeling pain in our body if it's anxiety can we feel and be open to the fact that we you know our heart is pounding we're feeling anxious so using junk about zin's work mindfulness in terms of mindfulness we need to embrace and cultivate these attitudes of not judging whether the whatever what is going on right here right now is good or bad and we need to be patient with yourself we need to be accepting and letting things be and also not trying to achieve anything in particular and then trusting trusting that we have that capacity to be with what's right here right now so in terms of the benefits believe it or not there are now 17 000 publications research showing the positive effects of mindfulness it's shown to improve our general well-being better self-regulation lower our depression anxiety physical pain and stress and the reason for this is that when we're able to ground and centre ourselves using an anger for example the breath or our body sensations as I talked about what it really is allowing us to do physiologically is to activate our parasympathetic nervous system in other words it slows down our heart rate it slows down our breathing our blood pressure and it also comes down that part of our brain that is responsible for our fight flight and freeze response and then in turn activates our prefrontal cortex which is that part of our brain that is responsible for executive functioning emotional regulation and what all of you might be interested because I imagine there are many of you who are in a therapeutic settings and of course you know being a mental health professionals research have also shown that if it can improve therapeutic presence so what that means is that you are really able to be there for your client and in that process you of practicing mindfulness you cultivate compassion self attunement and in your perspective of suffering broaden so in other words you can then form that stronger therapeutic alliance with your client and then the research also shows that when that happens therapies or counselors or you know people who actually meditate they actually help to heal the client better so in other words the evidence is showing that patients have better improvements in terms of symptom reductions and their rate of change when they're treated by meditators rather than non-meditators so how is meditation different from mindfulness well meditation really is just a more formal practice of mindfulness it's really about training our mind to focus to have better attention but it's also training our awareness so basically concentration and awareness work hand in hand in a meditation practice and there are many many types of meditation there is mindfulness meditation which is what I'll be guiding you through in a minute mantra loving kindness meditation and visualization ultimately whether it's mindfulness or meditation it is really about awakening us to what we've been conditioned in our mind and in our behavior and over time with regular practice you start to see that things are never permanent and therefore we it cultivates an openness in us and acceptance in us and what that means is that we're slowly slowly increasing our window of tolerance our tolerance to whatever happens good or bad but also the same time when it's good we don't hang on to it and wish that it because it is the same forever what I love is this quote from my teacher Jack Confield who says that you have within you an unlimited capacity for extraordinary love for joy and for unshakable freedom so here I think what he means by unshakable freedom is the fact that we then have that spacious awareness to to be aware of what's going on inside so we can regulate what's going on inside which therefore gives us a choice so you know I equate freedom with choice when we can have that choice of how we feel how we want to respond to a particular situation so on that note I would like to take you through a mindfulness practice and I thought today because and or at least on Thursday and what you'll be doing after this session is on the mental health for LGBTQ I thought the relevant qualities for this issue is really about radical acceptance acceptance of who we truly are and acceptance of others so what I'd like to guide you through is an open awareness mindfulness meditation so right now what I'd like you to do is sit in a way that you're comfortable sitting and closing your eyes if you're comfortable closing your eyes and otherwise you place your gaze down on the floor to one point in front of you and then just tuning into your breath take some deep breath for now maybe three to five deep breaths where you're taking in your inhale making that long and then your exhale is slow and with every exhale see if you could sense that the stresses in your body any tension you might be holding in your body is it's being released together with that exhale and if you could for now just see if you could release the tension on your face by dropping your jaw lowering your shoulders back down to your spine now just breathe naturally and I'll like you to tune in to the sounds around you maybe it's the sound of my voice there are other sounds near or far just notice how all the sounds rise and vanish see if you could listen to this in an open relaxed way now as you listen let yourself sense that your mind is not limited to your head sense that your mind is expanding to be like an open sky clear and vast like space sense that there is no inside or outside and that your awareness of your mind is in every direction is expensive like the sky we may still notice the sounds around you and you might notice that they rise and pass away in the open space of your own mind so relax in this openness and just listen as you rest in this open awareness notice how thoughts and images also rise and vanish like sounds so let the thoughts and images come and go without any struggle or resistance they may be pleasant or unpleasant thoughts pictures words feelings let them move unrestricted in the space of mind sense that you have that capacity to be in this space problems possibilities joys and sorrows they come and go like clouds in the clear sky of the mind with this spacious awareness invite you now to become aware of the sensations of your breath and the sensations you might feel in your body notice that the breath breathes itself it moves like a breeze and in this open awareness you may notice that your body is not solid you can sense that there are areas of hardness and softness you might sense tingling pressure warm and cool sensations all floating in the space of the mind's awareness you are this vessel of acceptance resting this open awareness and finally pay attention to the awareness itself notice how the open space of awareness is naturally timeless transparent without conflict allowing all things not limited by them trust this awareness may the blessings of this practice wake awaken your own inner wisdom and inspire your compassion and through the blessing of your heart may the world find peace i hope you found some centering and spaciousness in that practice i just want to leave you with this little poem 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 do you not think that this is a simple plan made him a wise and useful man so i wanted to leave you with this because i hope that from what you've heard today that the practice of mindfulness is really important for us and we don't think twice when we wake up in the morning after breakfast and brush our teeth and and yet and we do that because we know it's important for the health of our teeth and so i hope that you will take this away as mindfulness is important for your mind and that you would do a little a little every day and maybe it's just a couple of minutes of just coming back to the present moment and finding an anchor to to center yourself and i would also just want to say that i offer a free online meditation every wednesday i call it a midweek reset you are welcome to join me it's free if you're interested my email is on the slide and there are also other guided talks and meditations and articles on my website if you'd like to check it out and and otherwise i wish you all the best and thank you for being a mental health professional and we all need it and and all the best thank you very much