Life could be like a box of chocolates
Mindfulness therapy fights stress and depression by teaching you how to ‘own’ the present, says Genevieve Fox of the Daily Telegraph.
Genevieve recently spent a day with Mark Williams to discover some of the meditations at the heart of Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World. She especially loved our ‘Chocolate Meditation’ (see below).
By Genevieve Fox 7:00AM BST 02 May 2011-05-02
Mindfulness is hip. It’s as trendy as yoga or zone-eating. No surprises, then, that when I enter the Oxford Mindfulness Centre (OMC), I see dawn-red soft furnishings, green plants, rubber mats and kneeling stools. Wellbeing gurus would feel right at home.
So would chocolate lovers. Mark Williams, clinical psychologist and the Centre’s director, suggests the best way to understand mindfulness is to try it and invites me to join him in a “chocolate meditation”.
Mindfulness, he says, is about being present in the moment, being aware of our thoughts and feelings – so that instead of being overwhelmed by them we are better able to manage them. Using meditation and other techniques such as breathing and yoga-based exercises, it helps us think about ourselves, and in turn others, with kindness and an overriding sense of acceptance. It’s about finding our innate joie de vivre and feeling able to cope just when we think we’re going under. It’s as irresistible as chocolate.
Prof Williams has created a series of mindfulness meditations, designed to steer us to an inner place of calm, no matter how frantic and demanding our lives. They form the basis of his new book on the topic, co-authored with journalist Danny Penman. The book offers an eight-week programme of exercises, supported by a CD and is aimed at anyone who feels depressed, unhappy or overwrought.
We start the chocolate meditation.… Read the rest of the article HERE:
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