Mental Health, Awareness & Mindfulness Practices

The Cultivate Wins Team invited an expert on Mental Health, Awareness & Mindfulness Practices and had a very fruitful and amazing one hour session with Nicole Hudson.

Here is a replay to the conversation we had: https://youtu.be/WcSv6A8XT7c 

First thoughts: How do we look at where we are now and where we want to go, we get bogged down by what happened to us that we fail to see where we are at right now... it makes it harder to see where we want to go. WHERE WE ARE NOW.

• Keyword is awareness - how do we cultivate awareness of where we are.

• "Cultivating" is empowering

• We sit in a cultivating mind always

• Mindfulness practice is one of the core modules

• What are your values right now, it changes in time

• It's okay to not know at first, we've never been at that exact moment before.

• Once we get to step in to that then that becomes a snowball.

• When we start to open that pandora's box, it's continuous

• We start to see the behaviors and patterns

What tools, style, prompts, etc.., are effective?

• DBT: Dialectical Behavior Training - Skills Training

• Zen Mindfulness, middle path and awareness

• Evidence based therapy

• Skills based is simple but not easy - its not rocket science

• Yoga philosophy

• We have this internal wisdoms that we start to forget, let's cultivate awareness around these skills to be aware that we are already doing it or know it -- then you can strengthen that.

• It's choice rather than habitual action

 Awareness of the win --> what was the process of the win --> is that a duplicatable win?

• See everything as a learnable skill

• Learning the language and the concept

• Unlearn and re-learn: when we start to reset we can re-wire

 Cultivating the awareness

• Being curious as to what that awareness is bringing you

• What is this awareness doing for me - there lies the transformation

 The language and vocabulary affects how people get it

• Accessibility - what is the doorway in which we want to enter into this

• It depends on who we talk to, knowing who your audience are

• Same concept but packaged very differently, changing the language a bit makes it accessible

• I don't care what doorway they use as long as they enter the doorway

 What can people do: more practical approach

• If they are experience interpersonal defectiveness/relationship, anxiety, etc.

• We don't have to know it all, we just have to know what works for us.

• Do not start from a point of guilt that we don't practice self-care, don't pile and add the guilt.

This is a practice, there is no perfection: We practice we learn and then life happens

• There is always more to come, we don't know what's next or what's to come but there is always more

• We can begin again every single day

 

• When we cultivate awareness we look at tough things and realize we need to be willing to change

• Awareness helps us look at different perspective

• Awareness is also about accountability

• We can only change and shift how we interact.

We are all in a different space  --
So much of psychology is about yoga philosophy Inspire others to empower themselves

• So people can grow and move and shift in their own ways

• We gotta start somewhere

• Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction

• Emotion Focused Therapy

• Dialectical Behavior Therapy

What spectrum are you in your mental health?

• What's normal?

• There is a normal range which human beings can exist

• If so much distress inhibits or causes them to function in their day to day lives.

• It is no longer in their 'normal range'

• Its not about harder or easier

• It comes back to awareness: I am no longer functioning within my range and what I should do about it to come back to my longer range.

 Do you want advice? or do you just want me to listen?

• ASK: What do you need right now?

• Be realistic on your boundaries and what are you comfortable of offering - being honest and aware.

• "I do not feel equipped to help you with this"

• Do you have the capacity to hold space for someone else right now?

• Through practice: We can better respond with each other.

Nicole shared a whole host of links for resources: 

WanderFreely Retreat Info:
March 19-25, 2023
Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica
https://www.wanderfreely.com/wanderfreely-retreatsandworkshops/costa-rica-2023 

WanderFreely Coaching Info:
https://www.wanderfreely.com/life-coaching-empowerment 

Books, Recommendations and Resources:

• Coby Kozlowski - LINK
• Katie Brauer - LINK
• Kristen Neff - LINK
• Christopher Germer - LINK
• Jon Kabat-Zinn - LINK
• Marsha Linehan (DBT founder) - LINK
• Lorin Roche - LINK and Camille Maurine - LINK
• Stephen Cope - LINK
• Avani Gilbert - LINK  
• Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) - LINK
• Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) - LINK
• Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) - LINK
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) - LINK
• Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) - LINK
• Gestalt Therapy The Esalen Institute - LINK
• Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health - LINK
• Omega Institute - LINK
• Spirit Rock (An Insight Meditation Center) - LINK
• Ananda Ashram - LINK Building a Life Worth Living by Marsha M. Linehan
• Choice Theory by William Glasser, M.D.
• One Degree Revolution: How the Wisdom of Yoga Inspires Small Shifts That Lead to Big Changes by Coby Kozlowski
• Anatomy of the Spirit by Caroline Myss, Ph.D. (or anything else by her).
• Charge and the Energy Body: The Vital Key to Healing Your Life, Your Chakras, and Your
• Relationships by Anodea Judith, Ph.D. (or anything else by her).
• The Wisdom of Yoga: A Seeker's Guide to Extraordinary Living by Stephen Cope
• Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion by Jeffrey J. Kripal
• Mindfulness and the Therapeutic Relationship edited by Steven F. Hick & Thomas Bien
• The Six Qualities of Consciousness: Practical Insights from the Tantric Tradition of Yoga by Danny Arguetty
• Yoga & Psyche: Integrating the Paths of Yoga and Psychology for Healing, Transformation, and Joy by Mariana Caplan, Ph.D., MFT
• Hardwiring Happiness by Rick Hanson