Welcome to Day 7 - the last leg of our Mindfulness and Meditation Journey

Day 7 - Finding your true self: Continual Practise

Day 7 - (1) Integration: Bringing all the tools together

Congratulations! If you are reading this page then you should be proud of your progress to get here and you should acknowledge this as a great achievement. Whether you progressed through the course by completing each day one after the other in order, or you took a bit longer to make the journey, or maybe you took a more meandering path, jumping backward and forward as you felt you needed to, that’s ok. It’s not about finishing it in 7 Days, it’s about making the most of your experiences along the way. However you chose to travel along this path, it’s all good. Well Done! And now let’s make the most of our last day …

 In reviewing our journey so far:

On Day 1 we gained insight into our ability to RECOGNIZE when we move into, and out of, a MINDFUL state.

In Day 2 our AWARENESS of our inner landscape during mindful moments was explored, as we identified physical actions, sensations, feelings and mental activity.

On Day 3 we bought awareness to CONSCIOUS activation and CONSCIOUS relaxation of the physical body as we explored our accompanying sensations, feelings and reactions within the body in an attempt to gain greater understanding of our INNER LANDSCAPE.

Day 4 we concentrated on refocusing our attention by learning the rapid reset technique to CENTRE ourselves.  During the meditation we explored this technique to gain access to our preferred SENSES - looking, hearing, listening, smelling, tasting.

On Day 5 we experienced the regulation of the breath whilst anchored on 5 objects. The tidal flow focused on the spaces between the breath which allowed us to explore the elongation of time and space.  The rich layering of perception was invited through the senses during the beach walk visualization, representing the forward momentum in our lives.

On Day 6 we journeyed into the crystal focus of the sensation of taste.  We expanded on the sensory journey of internal awareness by exploring the CHAKRA energy centres in the body in the guided visualization.  We drew upon the tools we have previously explored and expanded on the notion of the representational energies as identified in wisdom traditions.

Today, Day 7, is Integration day where we will explore how all these tools fit together to provide an anchor to the self, so that we may recognize, become aware, investigate, consciously choose and ultimately be …

Mindfulness is a place we may leave and return to, constantly.  It’s dynamic.  It is considerably easier to be Mindful when we have ideal conditions, such as on a holiday where we have freedom to choose what we want, when we want it.  Whereas, Mindfulness in the everyday circumstances of life, often presents us with challenges.  Freedom and choice are suddenly constrained by factors such as our commitments at work, at home, our finances or other similar pressing demands on our time.

The analogy of being lost whilst driving to a destination is helpful to demonstrate how we may utilize the skills and tools we have been exploring.  If we are driving somewhere and realize we are lost, we don’t need to return to the start.  We don’t necessarily need to know where the first mistake occurred.  We simply check into where we are currently and re-route from there.  The other options are certainly possible strategies, but not necessary.  This is like our Reset or Centering concept.

If we get lost each time we are going to a familiar location, we may want to explore the signals that we are off track in a bit more detail, so that we might become more aware of our deviation prior to our getting distressed.  This is where our deeper viewing via the inner landscape and internal language comes into play.

The focus of this course has been to:

• Provide you with techniques that allow you to reset to a grounded place amidst the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

• Help you learn how to familiarize yourself with your inner language so that you may recognise when you are moving away from a mindful place.

Overall, the aim is to provide you with some internal resources that may help you to be more mindful in your dynamic everyday experiences.

Looking back at our journey, now that we are nearing the end, we should consider why it is we started on this path and what we hoped to achieve. Often individuals are drawn to Mindfulness and Meditation for the following reasons:

•  A desire to relieve a physical aliment – eg. alleviate pain

• Address an emotional response – eg. reduce anxiety

• Enhance a mental faculty – eg. increase attention

Maybe our initial reason was one of these, or possibly another. Regardless, it’s important to clarify our reasons in order to evaluate our progress towards achieving our aims. We might also want to consider to what extent we fully engaged with this program, its activities, its opportunities for reflection and its resources.

We might also want to think about whether this course has improved or helped other areas of our lives and our Wellbeing. In addition, which tools or practices we have found we have used the most over the course of our journey from Day 1 to today. In this way we can then better direct our use of mindfulness in a more constructive way to help improve our overall day to day Wellbeing.

One way you can do this is by keeping a journal that records and identifies your most useful Mindfulness resources. This gives you a tool by which you can nurture your own specific needs. At times of discomfort, you often don’t have the clarity to search for ideas or solutions from various sources or locations.  Your best resource is one you have designed yourself, based on your own tried and tested experiences and studies.  From this place of refuge, you may gradually broaden your observations and inquiry, whilst having a grounded place to return to.  A place that will speak to you with your voice. 

Yesterday in the Reflection activity, we explored our inner language, our landscape and sensory perception in detail.  You may like to return to these questions as prompts to reinforce your understanding.  Whether you keep a journal, choose to reflect on the questions, revisit the audios or practice the offerings, these are all ways to practice mindfulness and meditation.  These are ways that we can enhance the neuroplasticity of our brain by creating new pathways, or new default patterns that better represent our desired way of being.

Recognize any reactions,

Acknowledge your awareness,

Investigate your inner landscape,

Choose your next step.

Mindfulness living as we have previously discussed many times throughout this 7 Day series, means bringing focus into our everyday lived experience with gratitude, kindness, compassion and equanimity.

Remember to always honour yourself with:

• Gratitude for creating the space to carry out the activity.

• Kindness and consideration for those moments that you lose track of how and what you are "meant" to be doing.

• Kindness for the times when you find obstacles, or experience a sense of conflict whilst proceeding.

• Compassion for other’s perspectives. Each person’s experience is uniquely their own.

• Equanimity or establishing a sense of flow and non-judgement.

• And again as we have repeated many times over during these past 7 Days:

Day 7 - (2) Mindfulness Activity: Body-Mind-Spirit

“When you express gentleness and precision in your environment, then real brilliance and power can descend onto that situation.  If you try to manufacture that presence out of your own ego, it will never happen.  You cannot own the power and the magic of this world.  It is always available, but it does not belong to anyone.” - Chogyam Trungpa

Allow yourself to be in a comfortable position that enables you to actively observe and connect more deeply with the mindfulness activity. If you need to move during the session, do so, slowly and with as little distraction as possible.

Remember, if you feel unsafe or compromised at any time please seek support from myself &/or your Health Care provider.

Day 7 - (3) Intention: Connective Consciousness - Integrated Body-Mind-Spirit

“Throughout our lives, we cycle through times of expansion, times of contraction, and times of being suspended in a pause or plateau where we are assimilating and integrating our experience.  Those rhythmic changes are as natural to us as is our breath.  As the internal metronome of rhythm, our breath mirrors this life process of taking in and absorbing, letting go and relinquishing, and resting in the moments in between” - Donna Farhi

Today is about integration.  We have explored many varied concepts and ideas as we have travelled towards the end of this course. Now we will attempt to consolidate these concepts of harmony between the body-mind-spirit into applicable ways of ‘being’ in our everyday life.

The activities in this course explored the experiences and sensations of your world.  They were designed to help sharpen the clarity of your focus or perception of situations so you could become more informed about your self. Through this foundation of knowing ourselves and being the best version of us in any situation or circumstance, we may find we are better able to navigate our world.

Often, people say “The problem is my mother … father … sibling … partner … friend, etc.; It’s not me.”  We can’t control how others behave towards us, but we can consider and choose the most effective manner in which we behave and interact with them. 

When we observe our internal landscape, often we are already physically responding to others, purely based on our assumptions or relating to our past experiences.  This is acting in our default mode and then the other person reacts with their default mode.  Imagine if we presented an alternate persona in these situations.

To illustrate how we may utilize the tools we have been exploring in a practical everyday experience, consider the following scenario:

You decide to have lunch with a friend you’ve known since you were young children. As soon as you settle in, they begin to point out all your mistakes and failings in the time you’ve known each other.

• How does that make you feel?

• How would you approach your conversation based on your inner landscape?

• Would you want to spend the next day with them?

It is very easy to just view this as a problematic relationship. So what might be some of your options in this situation?

1.  Walk away from the friendship.  Your friendship is based on history and it hasn’t got anything to offer you in your present life.

“Who needs friends that only see the negative and want to criticize you, making you feel inferior!”

2.  Only see your friend when you are feeling vital enough to not react to their perspective. 

eg. Engaging our centring practices, reinforcing and relying on our ability to move from our centre throughout the experience. ie. breathe work, grounding techniques such as the tree visualization, as well as reinforcing internal harmony such as the unity of body-mind-spirit mindfulness practice. 

3.  Utilise strategies so you can bring out the best in the relationship rather than letting them sabotage the interaction.

ie.  One example might be to catch up walking together.  Remember the concepts in the walking meditation. The use of forward momentum towards a common goal to lightly touch things in your view, whilst experiencing the layers of the senses. This was presented as a meditation, however, actually engaging in the task will reinforce the same brain patterning.

4.  Accept their behaviour up to a point, but follow a plan to disengage if they start to display unacceptable behaviour. 

ie. Use resources such as the rapid reset and muscular contraction-relaxation if you need to create an energetic shift in your state.

5.  Agree to see your friend, however, negotiate boundaries within the relationship. 

“You’ve been friends for a long time and you want to preserve your history.  True friendship is give and take and better with honesty.”  This could involve:

- Compassionately confronting them and letting them know how you feel.

- ie. Passively relating.  You may increase your accessibility to the inner language of how it relates to you rather than blaming and reliving repetitious past stories

- ie. Actively relating.  Demonstrating by appropriate expression of frustration behaviour.  eg. similar to the concept of the muscular contraction - relaxation mindfulness concept, ie. if they argue you argue with more force.  This tends to work if it isn’t your usual pattern.

- Establish clear rules or guidelines as to cause and effect in relation to acceptable behaviour. This tends to be effective if they have been previously established.  ie. “if A occurs, then I will do B.”  This is similar to a reward system.  It is also like the mindfulness muscle stimulation activity.  They present muscle contraction, so we offer another way to be … muscular relaxation.

We have many options of how we may perceive a situation as well as how we choose to act.  Many people’s lives are based on reacting without consideration for themselves or those they are interacting with.  Frequently this leads to distress and dis – ease.  Once liberated with practiced tools and resources, our world of resilience and options opens up allowing for personal flexibility, adaptability and Wellbeing.  Enjoy the Journey!

Day 7 - (4) Reflective Journal: Integrated Body-Mind Spirit ; Collective Consciousness

Whether you choose to record your observations in a Reflection Journal or not, it is highly recommended that you at least take the time to reflect, as this helps us to better consolidate what we have learned from today as well as over the whole 7 days. In order to focus on the reflective process better you may like to consider the following Questions:

Q1.

Reflect for a moment on your initial aims and consider how participating in this course has supported you with tools and resources to address them :

• Have you noticed any impact on any other areas of your Wellbeing?

• Which tools or practices have you found yourself utilizing the most in your day to day activities this week?

• What areas of your Wellbeing would benefit from other targeted Mindfulness resources?

• What types of Mindfulness resources arise in your mind that may be of benefit to you?

Q2.

Relating to the scenario of lunch with a childhood friend:

• How does that scenario make you feel? Would you want to spend the next day with them?

• How would you approach your conversation based on your inner landscape?

• What was your immediate reaction or inclination towards addressing the dysfunction within the relationship

• What factors allow you to be drawn towards this possible solution?

Q3.

Are there any other observations, thoughts, considerations or information that you might want to record or reflect upon that you experienced over the last 7 days and that feel appropriate for you? If so, now is the time.



Day 7 - (5) Meditation: Integration of Body-Mind-Spirit

In today's experiential Meditation you will have an opportunity to be guided through your internal landscape, to explore the sensations, to observe your inner language and to ride the tide of your breath.  As you glide through the experience allow the mind to follow the instructions, many of which will be familiar as they have already been presented during the week.  Notice the fluctuations, the drifting states and allow them to lightly touch your consciousness, to remind you to return to the breath, the voice or a specific sensation that grounds you.

Day 7 - (6) CONCLUDING NOTES

The material provided throughout this 7 day Mindfulness and Meditation course is gathered from Jo Hafey’s personal and professional experience gained over her 30years of clinical practice. She has provided these tools and resources so that they may assist us in navigating the delicate balance of interacting with ourselves in our environment.  Whilst we are all unique, hopefully some of these resonated with you and you’ve gained some insight into and wisdom about yourself

To live Mindfully we need to create an internal foundation.  Throughout the course we identified some of our default patterns, such as being distracted, perhaps by multi-tasking or being over or under stimulated.  This formed the ‘RECOGNITION’ aspect.  In everyday life RECOGNITION is often difficult, as we may fail to realize we are moving towards an undesirable state.  Usually we notice the effects hours later by feeling stressed, not being able to have a restful sleep, getting angry with someone for a minor challenge or falling asleep the minute we sit in a chair.

To aid us in detecting these shifts, we expanded our AWARENESS of physical reactions when we are moving towards and away from our desired grounded space.  Examples of these were observation of our breathing rate and areas of the body where we move the breath into and out of, as well as experiencing the difference of contracted and relaxed muscles.

At times, it may be difficult to easily move towards our centred place.  At these times our ability to RESET is important.  The concept of interrupting the default patterns or extreme reactions is sometimes required.  To reset it may be necessary to engage the skills of recognizing and being aware by being informed about our inner landscape.  For situations where we feel the need to RESET, we explored techniques such as interrupting the body-mind process by distracting and diverting our attention to something concrete and present.  We activated our predominate sense - vision, hearing, touching, smelling or tasting, to investigate our current experience – to lead, identify and label.

The Unity of the Body-Mind-Spirit technique may also be utilized as a RESET, where we activate a previously rehearsed physical action that has been linked to a particular state.  This is a type of auto-suggestion or self hypnosis which is established through repetitive mindful practice.

Experiencing these skills and activities in a playful setting, simulated a dynamic lived experience.  Opportunities for exploration, moving into and out of an internal state, provided us with the space to make CONSCIOUS CHOICES rather than operating on default.  Our training has provided an opportunity for the establishment of a new default mechanism within the brain based on neuroplasticity.

When we live life having the freedom and space to make CONSCIOUS CHOICES, we feel more vital, able to relax as desired and regenerate more effectively.  These choices do not come because we disregard our challenges, instead we greet them with a body-mind capable of clear perception gained from being Mindful.

During this 7 day Mindfulness and Meditation series, these tools, skills and resources have provided the opportunity for you to explore your self.  You now have a choice as to how to integrate Mindfulness into your life.  We may touch this internal place as if we are on a holiday or a mini retreat from our lives.  A special place to occasionally visit.  Or, we may integrate our everyday lived experiences with a dynamic adaptability through reinforcing new default patterns and embracing our internal compass.

CONGRATULATIONS! You have now completed Day 7 of the Ezense Mindfulness & Meditation Course!

Well done on your amazing efforts and commitment to completing this journey of self discovery through Mindfulness and Meditation. We’ve enjoyed bringing this series to you and would like to extend our gratitude to you for choosing to undertake this course with us. BUT -

Before You Go

We would very much appreciate your feedback on the course and your experience in undertaking and completing it. We are keen to hear what you have to say, regardless of whether it’s praise or constructive criticism. So please take the time to complete this short anonymous survey (unless of course you choose to give us your details), so that we may continue to improve our course and make it better, and also in order for us to design more courses that you may find interesting and useful to you.