Week 1 - Simple Awareness
Introduction to the Body Scan

Now that you've experienced the Introduction and completed the Getting Started Worksheet (see Getting Started), you are ready to begin. Welcome!

Although there are five videos to watch this week, once you start one, the others will automatically follow. Some of the videos have ads at the beginning. Revenue from these ads go to the original creators of the videos, not to Palouse Mindfulness. The links to all the materials described below are given in the colored section at the bottom of the page (Video List, Reading List, Practice Sheets).

Videos

The videos for this week begin with The Power of Mindfulness, in which Shauna Shapiro emphasizes the importance, not of just paying attention to our inner experience, but paying attention with kindness. In Don't Try to be Mindful, Daron Larson addresses a common misunderstanding about mindfulness practice, that if our meditation is not peaceful and free of thoughts, then we must be doing something wrong. In Mindfulness and the Body, Michelle Maldonado talks about how intertwined the body, mind, and emotion are. Jon Kabat-Zinn continues with this theme in Befriending Our Bodies. Finally, All Bodies are Beautiful is an amazing 4-minute video which chronicles what Amy Pence-Brown, a self-described “body-image activist”, did in a busy public market.

Readings

Each week, there are readings which are an important part of the program. This week, the main reading is about the Body Scan Meditation which will be your primary practice this week. 7 Myths of Meditation, and Why We Find It So Hard to Meditate address common misunderstandings, including the idea that one must have a quiet mind to meditate successfully. Mouthfuls of Mindfulness describes a way of eating that is "not directed by charts, tables, pyramids, or scales".

Daily Practices

This week begins your daily Formal Practice. On the first day, you'll do a Raisin Meditation, for which you'll need two raisins and a glass of water. On the following days you'll do the Body Scan Meditation. The guidance for these is available through the menu above under "Practices" (on a smartphone, click on the menu icon just below the top banner). Below, you can see the link to the Formal Practice sheet, where you will be making brief notes about your practice. NOTE: If you will be completing this by hand, print the PDF file, but if you'd like to complete it on your computer, download the WORD file.

For the Informal Practice this week, it is suggested that you bring mindful awareness to some otherwise routine activity such as washing the dishes and/or eating a meal. At the end of each day, using the Informal Practice sheet you will be printing or downloading for this week (see below), take just five minutes or so to see if you can recall a daily activity which you brought awareness to that day.

Supplementary reading

In addition, each week will indicate some supplementary reading or viewing materials. Listed there are suggestions for background reading or viewing, but only if you'd like to know more about a given week's topic - these are not required. For this "week", if weight-loss and healthy eating are of interest, see Introduction to Mindful Eating by Michelle DuVal, and The Mindfulness-Based Eating Solution by Lynn Rossy. Managing Anxiety with Mindfulness by Rachel Green specifically addresses test anxiety.

OK, let's get started! Below are your materials for this week. To keep track of your progress and/or to add this week's material to your manual, see "PRINTING INSTRUCTIONS" at the bottom of this page.

Week 1 Materials

Video List

• The Power of Mindfulness - Shauna Shapiro [13 min]
• Don't Try to be Mindful - Daron Larson [12 min]
• Mindfulness and the Body - Michelle Maldonado [10 min]
• Befriending Our Bodies - Jon Kabat-Zinn [4 min]
• All Bodies are Beautiful - Amy Pence-Brown [4 min]

Reading List

• The Body Scan Meditation - Jon Kabat-Zinn
• 7 Myths of Meditation - Deepak Choprah
• Why We Find It So Hard to Meditate - Mindful Staff
• Mouthfuls of Mindfulness - Jan Chozen Bays

Practice Sheets

• Formal Practice PDF or WORD format - Raisin Meditation & Body Scan
• Informal Practice PDF or WORD format - Simple Awareness and/or Mindful Eating
  
  All of the guided practices can be found through the top menu

Supplementary materials related to this week's topic

• Introduction to Mindful Eating - video by Michelle DuVal [10 min]
• Well-Nourished: Mindful Practices to Heal Your Relationship with Food - book by Andrea Lieberstein
• The Mindfulness-Based Eating Solution - book by Lynn Rossy
• What Would It Take for You to Be Still? - article by Catherine Price
• An Apple as Past, Present and Future - video by Susan Kaiser Greenland [2 min]
• Managing Anxiety with Mindfulness - video by Rachel Green [15 min]

Once you have done at least six days of practice (they don't need to be consecutive) and feel that you've gotten the essence of this "Week" through the videos and reading, you are ready to go to Week 2. It's not necessary to read/view any of the Supplementary materials - these are totally optional.

PRINTING INSTRUCTIONS: week1manual.pdf is a printable version of the contents of this page as well as the practice sheets. If you want hard copies of the articles in the "Reading List" you can print directly from the links given there.

© 2015 Palouse Mindfulness Inc.