# Mindfulness, Finding Peace in a Frantic World - by Professor Mark Williams By [[Mark Williams]] It is evidence-based, based on the programs of [[MBSR]] and [[MBCT]]. An 8 week programme. My notes use page numbers from the paperback edition. ## The Guided Meditations 1. [[Guided FW1 MoBaB|Mindfulness of Body and Breath]] - 8 minutes #Books/Mindfulness %% ## Reading Notes from the Frantic Book ## General Notes The guided meditations are read by [[Mark Williams]]. - You can listen to the official recordings on SoundCloud for free - You have to stop the current recording at the bell, otherwise it continues onto the next recording It's weird that you read the book but then you have to reconstruct the actual 8 week plan yourself. Perhaps that's why there's also a workbook book you can buy separately. The title include the word _frantic_, which makes me think of stress and anxiety. Is this the focus of this book's practice? Contrast with Mark Williams' earlier book, The Mindful Way Through Depression. These are the two ways that we get either too low or too high. Perhaps they make a great pairing. And it's a lifetime's work to keep that energy in balance or grounded in the centre range. We want to be grounded, but awake, as we say in each guided meditation. ### What is the application of THIS book? Frantic - in the title. Foreword - (xi) this increasingly fast-paced and frantic world. Chasing Your Tail - (1) - too much thinking - worry - (2) - finding peace and contentment in troubled and worrying times - trapped, distraught - anxiety, stress, exhaustion - unhappiness - (5) - irritability - (6) - hypertension - (18) - tense ### List of the Meditations 1. A one-minute meditation - p4 - #Course Could read out - at the beginning of sessions - what they refer to as 'grounding' before they start talking 2. The Chocolate Meditation - p55 3. The Raisin Meditation - p73 4. Do a mundane activity mindfully - p77 - change the activity each week ## Composing The Programme - Foreword - none - Chasing Your Tail - None - but it says to start the programme right away, go to chapter 4 - they say that you do not have to read chapters 2 and 3 before you get started - Recommended to read through the meditation text in the book, then follow the guided - The audio is NOT on: www.audible.co.uk/mindfulness ## Foreword by JKZ ## CH1: Chasing Your Tail - Key point about non-judging - there's a Note/Post in this surely - lots of bits of text on this - being compassionate - and other words such as: not criticising - Metta in other words... - friendly - compassionate - relates to non-judging - it's my own point that applying kindness is the solution when we judge our practice - patient - Meditation is not religion - p6 - ==there's a nice quote I have for that== - maybe The Dalai Lama - I can combine this with the text here to make a new Quote - A nice set of statements of what not to worry about - a good section for session zero or one ## CH2: Why Do We Attack Ourselves? - p18 - he describes depression and chronic anxiety as _cousins_ - which matches my idea of their relationship - "bundles of thoughts, raw feelings, bodily sensations and impulses" ... "that is what emotions are" ## CH3: Waking Up To The Life We Have - Doing Mode versus Being Mode - seven dimensions - the meditations take up only 20-30 minutes of clock time each day - ==I can add up the total time for each week of the course== - and also put times on the reading I create, which Substack will time for me (might be lots of single minute reads, 2 would be good, so I know it's more than the minimum, stretching my writing muscles - maybe they are all 2-minute reads, in the dailies, as a hallmark) - research has shown that committing yourself to daily practice for a period of eight weeks is sufficient for you to see the benefits for yourself - p46 ## CH4: Introducing The Eight-week Mindfulness Programme ==He said that over seven weeks they present each of the seven dimensions of the Being/Doing mode, so we can learn them one at a time. Is that explicit in the guidance?== - Apply the meditations 6 out of 7 days of the week p81 - read through the meditations in the book, then do them with the guidance - if you only manage x4 days in the week, then recommended to repeat the week ### Week 1 - Body & Breath - 6-7 days - twice a day, at least - sitting or lying, experiment - suporting the intention to stay awake - choose the times to do it - Mindful eating ### Week 2 - Body Scan ### Week 3 - Mindful movement ### Week 4 - Sounds and thoughts ### Week 5 - Exploring difficulty ### Week 6 - Befriending meditation ### Week 7 ### Week 8 ### Habit Releasers - they'll assign one each week ## CH5: Mindfulness Week One: Waking Up To The Autopilot - about the autopilot - habits - raisin meditation - do a mundane, regular activity mindfully - instructions - why we use the breath as a focus - might connect with that piece I wrote on Meditation Reader %%