Mindfulness Practice Recordings
Margaret McGann
Language I use in guidance is something I have pondered, reflected on, and studied. I continue to ask for and receive feedback from those I lead and guide in mindfulness practices over the many years I have been teaching. Words, language mean a lot to me, as a teacher and facilitator, as well as an everyday person in our world.
Reading the book Non-Violent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg, PhD, in the 90’s afforded me the opportunity to explore my language in my professional work and personal life, set the stage for perpetual self-study of language.
My teachers are the participants that I have had the opportunity to teach:
- Folks that took MBSR Courses & the graduates who attend MBSR Group that I have taught in person and virtually
- Currently, in person, to Veterans from across our nation who attend an Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) at the RUSH Road Home Program.
- Currently teaching virtually for Wounded Warrior Project (Mindfulness Series to Veterans in HI and a Midday Mindfulness offering on Wednesdays to Veterans nationwide)
My language has also been informed by trainings with David Treleaven, author of Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness: Practices for Safe and Transformative Healing. Trainings I have taken with David include:
- Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness Omega Institute June 24-28, 2019
- Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness: The Practitioner’s Guide to Recognizing Trauma, Responding Skillfully, and Preventing Re-traumatization, Presented Online October 2019
- Advanced Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness: Widening the Window of Tolerance and Supporting Trauma Recovery Presented Online March 2020
Mindfulness Recordings with Choice, recorded at home, rather rough, are currently available:
Anchor of Choice Meditation
Body Scan incorporating choice, touch, and movement
Chair Yoga has been added to support those that may have challenges accessing the MBSR lying down or standing yoga, offering an alternative practice in the chair, a seated yoga practice.
My intention is to continue to add to the Mindfulness Recordings, to be of support, offer practices as we navigate the joys and challenges of our lives.
MBSR Course Formal Practice Recordings: Participants are assigned and encouraged to engage in daily formal mindfulness practices throughout the 8 weeks of the course. These formal practices are introduced during class sessions. The recordings are a means to support your daily practice. Listening to the recordings allows you to explore and engage in practice, noticing which practice(s) you feel a connection to during and after the completion of the course.
Body Scan
The body scan guides your attention to areas of the body, noticing sensations, in a gradual, systematic sequence from the feet to the top of the head. The intention of the body scan is to practice noticing your body, being with your body as it is, moment to moment, without the need to change anything. In this practice we will be focusing attention on the sensations arising in the body, moment to moment, bringing a quality of kind welcome to whatever is present.
Read a full description of the Body Scan practice by Jon Kabat-Zinn from his book Coming To Your Senses:
Meditation
Meditation Awareness of the Breath: Guided to the breath as your focus (anchor or object) of your attention, becoming aware of the experience of breathing, the sensations of the flow of the breath and the expression of the breath in the body. Allowing the breath to be as it is, as you rest your awareness there, and coming back to the breath as you notice the mind wandering off into thought.
Expanded Awareness Meditation: In this practice you have the opportunity to expand your awareness to explore the breath, body sensations, sounds, thoughts, and emotions happening as they arise and change, moving into the foreground of your awareness, and then fading into the background of your awareness as you allow your awareness to expand. Then as you are ready, to open to all of them, to the full range of experience, happening moment to moment as they arise and change, appear and dissolve in your awareness.
Mindful Movement – Lying Down Yoga
This is the first guided gentle yoga sequence practiced lying down. As with the body scan, listening and following along with the recording, referencing the yoga illustrations in the course manual as needed, affords you an opportunity to connect deeply with yourself and enhance your health and well-being. Approach this yoga practice with gentleness, learning to dwell at the boundary of how your body feels each time you practice, investigating what feels right, moment to moment.
Mindful Movement – Standing Yoga
This is the second guided gentle yoga sequence practiced standing. As with the body scan, listening and following along with the recording, referencing the yoga illustrations in the course manual as needed, affords you an opportunity to connect deeply with yourself and enhance your health and well-being. Approach this yoga practice with gentleness, learning to dwell at the boundary of how your body feels each time you practice, investigating what feels right, moment to moment.