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Placing the power in your hands to practice how to improve your wellbeing

Since this is a Practice, and in a practice, we must build upon our knowledge—here, I am going to expand upon my 1st post about the Beginner’s Mind, the first post of this new group - click to join and not miss the interconnected 9 attitudes of the wellbeing mindset of Mindfulness.

There is an emphasis on the importance of cultivating this mindset in all aspects of life.

Has anyone practiced this Beginner’s Mind or think that you will give it a try?
Any thoughts about this particular part of the whole?

Let’s break it down again:

Holding onto a particular belief limits the mind.
We accumulate a lot of conditioning along the way.
We tend to create a world where our opinions and beliefs are fixed.
As soon as we are attached to that one side, we shut off the other side-we don’t see it or hear it.

Only when we are willing to show up in each moment with a fresh, curious mind, willing to listen, knowing that possibly everything we believed and thought -that perhaps that’s not true. And, if we can maintain that freshness of mind, called a beginner’s mind—

then we can create a space where the mind can absorb, can respect the way other people think— take in new perspectives, and all of a sudden, we start to see not only a transformation in our mind, but a greater sense of calm, of clarity, and also a positive change in our relationships.

By letting go of preconceived ideas, expectations, and attachments, we can fully engage with each moment, experiencing life as it truly is, rather than through the filter of our thoughts and beliefs.

Key concepts:

Openness to possibilities:
The mind of the beginner is empty, free of the habits of the expert, ready to accept, to doubt, and open to all the possibilities.

No attachment to outcomes:
By approaching situations with a beginner's mind, one is less likely to be fixated on achieving a specific result, allowing for greater flexibility and adaptability.

And, the extremely critical skill of learning How to focus on the present moment:
This mindset encourages a deep awareness of the current experience, without getting caught up in past regrets or future anxieties; which we all know the negative consequences this has on our mental health.

We have to help ourselves to not be stuck dwelling on either the "what could have been" or the "what might happen", so that we can instead stay living in and fully enjoying the actual present moment. This is all a part of our role in managing our depression and anxiety and not letting these win and take from us and our potential and our lives that we can have.

It’s important to remember that all of this is not an achievement to be attained but rather a continuous process of self-discovery and self-transformation.

#MentalHealth #ChronicIllness #Mindfulness #MajorDepressiveDisorder #BipolarDisorder #BipolarDepression #MoodDisorders #Depression #Anxiety #GeneralizedAnxietyDisorder #Cancers #ChronicFatigue #AnorexiaNervosa #Selfcare #Addiction #Fibromyalgia #ChronicPain #Selfharm #Grief #SuicideAttemptSurvivors #SuicidalIdeation #SuicidalThoughts #Suicide #Trauma #Agoraphobia #ADHD #SocialAnxiety #SocialAnxietyDisorder #PTSDSupportAndRecovery #PTSD #ComplexPosttraumaticStressDisorder #Headache #Migraine #ChronicFatigueSyndrome #BorderlinePersonalityDisorder #Disability #IfYouFeelHopeless #EatingDisorders #ObsessiveCompulsiveDisorder #MightyTogether #Caregiving #CheckInWithMe #DistractMe

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Learning emotions

Started learning about my emotions on the advice of my therapist last week. Using an emotion wheel and app to start gain some emotional knowledge. Hating it. Today I bounced around like a bl**dy pinball through half the negative emotions known to man... I hate that there is something inside me so changeable and unpredictable. On top of all that I have no understanding of how to communicate my feelings so every attempt blows up in my face and hurts the people I'm talking to. F*ck this sh*t.

#PTSDSupportAndRecovery #Abuse #PTSD #Depression #Anxiety #emotionalimmaturity

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Learning to make emotional effort

Learned this week that my parents were both emotionally immature, meaning I never learned to recognise my own emotions and needs. Spending this week reflecting on my emotions using an emotion wheel. Realised this morning (with the help of a brilliant book) that I really struggle to give my wife emotional airtime where she feels listened to and validated. Really want to learn but there's a lot of past experiences with my parents getting in the way. Not quite sure where to begin. Managed to give her emotionally responsive attention once for a few minutes today, but then I had to shut her out again. It was all too much. Spent most of the rest of today feeling sad, angry and fearful all at once.

#emotionalimmaturity #PTSDSupportAndRecovery #SocialAnxiety #Anxiety

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Confused, pt. 3 - eureka!

Listening to some music this morning, I had that feeling of losing myself again and I realised what it is: since childhood I've been using music to dissociate and escape from the threatening environment I grew up in as well as the disturbing emotions that I felt in that environment. It was an understandable adaptive response, but over the years I trained the habit so much that it's become automatic. Some PTSD abuse survivors turn to alcohol, some to drugs, some zone out, I've been using music.

...And I don't want to do it anymore. Its a good sign: I feel safe enough in my current environment to want to be more present. Also the dissociative process itself has become frightening for me - another good sign: I value my self enough not to want to keep receding from it.

Question is: where do I want to go from here?...

Shall I leave behind classical music for another genre? Possibly for now. I find jazz interesting and enjoyable, and it doesn't produce the dissociative state on the whole for me. Curating a jazz playlist might help me to practice choosing music I like that doesn't induce dissociation. But ultimately I think I now need to learn to divert the dissociative impulse. I think I have a new goal for my therapist!...

#PTSD #PTSDSupportAndRecovery #DissociationDisorders

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Art class

Had fun at art class last night. Had fun drawing trees. For the first time, after a fruitless attempt to draw a tree from my phone, I stopped trying and started playing about, drawing trees from my mind instead. Particularly proud of this one. It reminds me of EH Shephard's 100 acre wood illustrations (though not as complex - he was a brilliant artist ☺️)

#ArtTherapy #perfectionism #Depression #Anxiety #PTSD #PTSDSupportAndRecovery #MightyArtRoom #ThePencilCase

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Confused, pt.2: less confused

I've been reflecting on why I felt less connection to heard music lately and I think it might be a healthy sign. I've been studying Sartre's introduction in 'Being and Nothingness' lately and I've been finding his idea of the transcendence of the object really helpful. I think it's helped me to get some distance between me and music/me and traumatic memories. Sartre says when I perceive an object, I am only seeing/hearing/tasting/feeling a tiny proportion of what that object is putting out into the world (a bit like seeing one side of a dice - the rest is there but it's not available to my perception). I can seek another perspective and gain a deeper experience of the object, but when I do my current one becomes unavailable to direct perception and there are still an infinite number of perspectives to explore. Therefore, heard music completely transcends my perception of it. I used to mesh with heard music - losing myself in it and feeling like what I heard was all there is. Now I realise I'm hearing a part, but there will always be more to hear/different perspectives to explore. I feel more cut off from heard music because I'm realising I know the sound less than I thought I did; and I'm not becoming dissolved in its overwhelming number of phenomena when I listen. In a small way this feels like a loss, but now I think I have more separation to relate to heard music as a subject to an object. This means I can hear music and still be a person. It feels a bit more truthful and healthy. I think it's a good thing! 🙂 #Depression #narcissisticabusesyndrome #PTSD #PTSDSupportAndRecovery

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Well that was fun... 😬

Just helped my daughter make her greek mythology project - a clay model depiction of narcissus...I am a narcissistic abuse survivor. I'll be taking 24 hours in total isolation now... 😂

#NarcissisticPersonalityDisorder #PTSD #PTSDSupportAndRecovery #Anxiety #Selfharm #SuicidalIdeation #Depression

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Confused, pt. 1

I don't understand what is happening to my mind at the moment. I used to listen to classical music and get so much out of it. I trained as a professional pianist. Now I don't want to touch it at all. When I do listen to it, I sense that I can still get as deeply immersed in it as before, but I find the experience unsettlingly empty and unfulfilling. It's as if music still has some power to move me, and I still have a capacity to engage deeply with it, but it's lost any deeper meaning. I can only describe my current experience of listening to music as having a sort of superficial depth/deep superficiality?!... I guess given recent circumstances mindful change can only be good, but I really don't get it! 🫤 #Depression #narcissisticabusesyndrome #PTSD #PTSDSupportAndRecovery

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And here I go again...

Was starting to feel really well yesterday. Playing and showboating with my kids💝. A lovely evening. Then last night the hint of an intrusion and this morning a moderate one, but enough to put me over the edge. And now a whole day wasted and I want to die again. W..T..F. 😠😡🤬 #PTSD #PTSDSupportAndRecovery #Depression #Suicide

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