A new session is starting August 21st,,,

How to Train the Compassionate Brain

How to Train the Compassionate Brain: A new study finds that training in compassion makes us more altruistic—and explores the neuroscience behind why.

What is Emotional Intelligence?

The Heart of Compassion

What did you notice?   Resistance, kindness, compassion? What else?

A Free Introduction...

Mindful-Self-Compassion Training...... New Classes beginning in April

I and Kelsey Redd will be starting another 8-week course on Mindful Self-Compassion mid-April. If the last course didn't work for you, we have two choices this time. Tuesday evenings or Friday mornings.

Register: https://www.mbwellnessutah.com/   Classes begin April 17th 6:30pm OR April 20th 9:30am.

The course includes eight 2.5-hour sessions plus a 4-hour retreat on Saturday, May 19, 8am-Noon.

Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) is an empirically-supported 8-week, training program designed to cultivate the skill of self-compassion. Based on research by Kristin Neff and clinical expertise of Christopher Germer, MSC teaches core principles and practices that enable participants to respond to difficult moments in their lives with kindness, care, and understanding. 

Program activities include meditation, short talks, experiential exercises, group discussion, and home practices. 

The goal is for participants to directly experience self-compassion and learn practices that evoke self-compassion in daily life.

The Power of Self-Compassion

Dan Harris: "10% Happier" | Talks At Google

River of Change – Part 1: Bringing a Wise Heart to this Impermanent Life

Or go back to bed and offer yourself the needed sleep you didn't get during the night....all with kindness and acceptance...

Birthday generosity...Love's Great Ocean

Love's Great Ocean by Jane O'Shea

My heart melts and forms a wee puddle, where I am safe to splash, and sing, and play.

My heart thaws and fills a bath, where I am cocooned and I soak and rest and hum.

My heart melts again and forms a vast lake, crystal clear, a transparent mirror.

And then my heart dissolves, and I drown in the great ocean of love.

Yesterday, I celebrated my 53rd birthday. 

Happy Birthday, Sweetheart. I love you.

Yet something needed to happen on this day that was different. I asked myself, "How can I share my birthday with others this time around?"  

The answer came: "Buy 53 chocolate hearts at the BYU candy station and just give them to people on campus."  

I thought that would be a good idea. But just as quickly my voice of Protection started to remind me of how scary it is to step outside my comfort zone and maybe people would not like the idea.

Luckily, I just read earlier this week about Internal Family System and I thought I would try and name what voice was speaking (my Protector) and offer thanks to this voice for all it does to protect me. I acknowledged it will need to protect at times in the future but that just for today I was offering this voice the opportunity to rest and watch me take care of myself and see how it would go for me.

I guess that was enough for that protective voice. I bought 57 Hersey's Peanut Butter Hearts. I poured the candy into my BYU plastic shopping bag and began my adventure.

I started about 9 am and finished with my 53rd heart at 6:10pm as I was leaving campus for the night.

People were very gracious and I received 53 happy birthday wishes in return. One young lady from Asia wasn't sure about the candy and I thought maybe she was going to cry but I asked her to share in my happiness and she accepted. 

I was nervous at first to just go up to people and say I wanted to share my birthday with them and to offer chocolate.  Everyone loves chocolate.

The side effects are still with me.  I feel a type of love today for the world, and for myself. My compassion and desire to share the effects of offering self-compassion with myself and seeing how my heart is opening and melting are wonderful and hesitating. Yes, I will fall at some point. Probably when my inlaws are back at my home or some other event that triggers some deep pain and hurt within...but then again maybe I will grow some more in the capacity to accept myself and love not just me but the voices developed in childhood, used to protect myself from the pains of not receiving the love and noticing I so desperately needed and wanted but for one reason or another could not receive.

Mindful Self-Compassion Course starting in Utah County

Mindful Self-Compassion

8-Week Course

Fridays, February 23 - April 13, 2018

5:30-8pm

Aspen Valley Counseling

210 W 520 N

Orem, Utah 84097

$300 early registration/$350 after February 16, 2018

Register at www.mbwellnessutah.com

Taught by Kelsey Redd CMHC & Nickie Allen RN

Kelsey is a Clinical Mental Health Counselor, with 5 years of experience working with addiction, trauma, and grief. Kelsey is a MSC Trained Teacher with a passion for meditation, yoga, and the outdoors. Kelsey is also a Licensed Massage Therapist and Yoga Instructor.  She believes in the mind/body connection for true healing.

Nickie is a registered nurse in home health care. She's currently earning a degree in Exercise and Wellness. Nickie is an MSC Trained Teacher who values the healing properties of nature, self-compassion, and meditation.

Free Introductory Presentation

Friday, Feb. 16 at 5:30 or 7pm

The Institute for Healing Arts, Lindon, Utah.

For more information, please contact us

kelsey@mbwellnessutah.com

Mindful Self-Compassion Introduction...Feb. 16th not 19th.

The Japanese Art of Recognizing Beauty in Broken Things

The Japanese Art of Recognizing Beauty in Broken Things

Peter Mayer Japanese Bowl

Talking Twin Babies - PART 2 - OFFICIAL VIDEO

The power of listening | William Ury | TEDxSanDiego

Robert Kennedy Announcing the Assasination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr...

Here's how mindfulness helps schools address depression and anxiety...in Utah

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900006177/heres-how-mindfulness-helps-schools-address-depression-and-anxiety.html

"Davis School District implemented a similar Mindful Schools program more than a year ago to address anxiety and depression among its students." 

"In Utah, 25 percent of students felt depressive symptoms, according to the survey data. And at the national level, 1 in 5 youth have anxiety or a mood disorder, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.  Hutchinson believes the Mindful Schools program will specifically address mental health concerns in the district.  “We do very well teaching our kids to escape problems and escape life. Mindfulness helps them cope with where they are,” she said"

"Two years ago, the Davis School District Davis Behavioral Health conducted a pilot program implementing mindfulness in South Weber Elementary School and found mindfulness helped students’ ability to concentrate and identify and regulate their emotions.   Their survey of students and teachers concluded that 82 percent of the students in the pilot program said they would continue using mindfulness. Sixty-two percent said mindfulness helped them focus in class better, and 54 percent of students said mindfulness helps them avoid fights."

Living longer may be related to our social lives...

I struggle to reach out and talk to people beyond offering a smile in passing. This has me thinking a little more about stepping out of my safe zone and feeling deep concern for those who are suffering loneliness and isolation.  What can I do????? thinking....thinking....thinking...

Research related to self-compassion...free pdf's.

Dr. Kristin Neff has detailed research articles at the link below.

http://self-compassion.org/the-resear

The Five Myths of Self-Compassion

Read it here. The Five Myths of Self-Compassion: Kristin Neff tackles the misconceptions that stop us from being kinder to ourselves.

A message from a student who attended while living in Provo over the 2017 summer...

Nickie, I just wanted to share this with you because you played a part on this story and since I do not practice thankful meditation anymore, i have to tell you via meet up ;) you remember the weird thing that used to happen to me when meditating? That I felt that my head has on the left side even if it was not? I went to the doctor and it was an optical problem! Apparently, I need glasses really bad, especially for my left eye who was making incredible efforts. What i really want to tell you is that I am sure that it is thanks to meditation (YOUR meditation classes) that I became really aware of that and so I was able to pay attention to what my body needed to tell me❣️ I am far from having a basic level of meditation but I remember how relaxed and how focused I was after your classes, so from a cold Belgium, THANK YOU! Wish you all the best with your mindful classes! Ònia

Stories That Imprison Our Heart - Part 1 with Tara Brach

Mindfulness Research database

www.goamra.org

Take The Test....13 questions about 5 minutes...curious

                                                               Behavioral Tendencies Questionnaire

Seven Attitudes of MBSR

vNon-Judging:  rejecting the impulse to get caught up in one’s ideas and opinions, likes and dislikes.

vPatience:  allowing things to unfold in their own time.

vTrust: developing a basic trust in yourself and your own basic wisdom and goodness.

vNon-striving: backing off from striving for results and instead seeing and accepting things as they are.

vAcceptance: seeing things as they actually are in the present. Being open and receptive to whatever we are feeling, thinking, or seeing.

vLetting go:  intentionally putting aside the tendency to elevate some aspects of our experience and reject others.  (Letting be)

vBeginner’s Mind: a mind that is willing to see everything as if for the first time.

Generosity/Gratitude/Compassion

Mindful Movement to Ease into Sleep

Information from Provo Library Presentation on Mindfulness June 28, 2017

toBegin to practice 5-15 minutes or more each day.

„Addo Recovery Center in Lindon: 801-406-8994. Classes begin Wednesday August 16, 2017 am and pm offerings.

„Meetup: Ut. County Mindfulness and Meditation. Sundays 6:30pm at my home. https://www.meetup.com/Utah-County-Meditation-Group/

„Youtube…listen to guided meditations

„Center for Mindful Self-Compassion: https://centerformsc.org/

„Utah: Dwelling within the possibility: http://mindfulutah.blogspot.com/

              Mindfulness Utah: http://www.mindfulnessutah.com/

              Davis Behavioral Health: http://www.dbhprevention.org/mindfulutah

„Hurry Up and Meditate by David Michie 2008

„Mindfulness for Beginners: Reclaiming the present moment and your life by Jon Kabat-Zinn

„Wherever You Go There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn

„Full Catastrophe Living: Using the wisdom of your body and mind to face stress, pain, and illness by Jon Kabat-Zin 1990 rev. 2013

„A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook by Bob Stahl and Elisha Goldstein 2010

“Ruminative response style”- some people have a tendency (probably due to genetic/biochemical contributors) to over focus for prolonged periods of time on negative mood and material, generally in an obsessive belief that such attention will enable them to solve the “problem.”

Instead, they increase and maintain the emotional state, while arriving at no “solution”.

Are You Addicted to Being Judgy?

When we practice investigating judgments and diffusing them we can learn to choose how we look at things and react to them.

By Bob Stahl and Steve Flowers | April 25, 2017

Of all the wondrous array of thoughts that are possible, negative
 judgments about ourselves and others are one of the mind’s compulsive
 obsessions. It’s as if the human brain has a hyperactive gland that secretes
 judgments, just like the adrenal gland secretes adrenaline. Negative and
 reactive judgments can arise instantaneously and in regard to almost anything. 
Sometimes they focus almost exclusively on you, and sometimes almost 
exclusively on others.

Read more here: https://www.mindful.org/are-you-addicted-to-being-judgy/

How Not to be a Slave to Your Brain: Mindfulness for Mental Health

Jack Kornfield on "Inner Strength and Kindness: Practices for a Wise Life"

How stress affects your brain - Madhumita Murgia

Room To Breathe...Mindful Schools

You can view the documentary video at this link: http://www.mindfulschools.org/resources/room-to-breathe/

Brené Brown on Empathy

Where Does Compassion Really Come From?

Meditation 101: A Beginner's Guide Animation

How Mindfulness Empowers Us: An Animation Narrated by Sharon Salzberg

Why Mindfulness Is a Superpower: An Animation

Jon Kabat-Zinn and Oprah Winfrey - Mindfulness in everyday life

Anderson Cooper of 60 Minutes reports on MBSR

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/mindfulness-anderson-cooper-60-minutes/

Sadly, the video link is no longer available but you can read the transcript.

The newly mindful Anderson Cooper

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (UMass Medical School, Center for Min...

MBSR is now offered in Utah county....

Yes, MBSR is finally in Utah county!

 Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction courses are being offered at Addo Recovery LLC in Lindon, Utah and Las Vegas, Nevada. 

Each course is eight weeks. Participants meet once a week for about two and a half hours with the instructors. Currently, Dallin is the instructor and he comes with a depth of experience including his love for living a more meaningful life.  I will be finishing the teaching program this summer and will begin to offer MBSR this fall. In the meantime, I'm interning with Dallin as the mindful yoga instructor.

If you're interested, call (855) 229-2336

Taking time to care for yourself will improve your mental and physical health. It will also offer the possibility of greater kindness towards yourself and towards others. Breathing has a powerful effect for good upon the mind and body....come check it out. Addo offers a money back guarantee.

the power of this mind...

                             

        

Time Magazine February 6, 2017

The four skills mentioned in the below article are offered Sunday evenings at my home. You can connect through Meetup. Or you can now take the 8 week course in Utah County through Addo Mental Health Services (855-229-2336) in Lindon, Utah. 

Tell them Nickie sent you.

60 Minutes Special on Mindfulness - Anderson Cooper

Meetup site

 https://www.meetup.com/Utah-County-Meditation-Group

It was August 2014 and I was visiting Seattle with my daughters. We had spent the day sightseeing at my old stomping grounds of my childhood and we decided to go to the beach just west of Ballard.
It was at this beach that I learned I was accepted into the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction course in SLC lead by Vicky Kennedy Overfelt.

That acceptance started the beginning of several new paths opening for me to enter.  Below is the link for the 60 Minutes production on mindfulness with Jon Kabat-Zinn.

I am now working the steps to become certified as an instructor. Maybe I will help others but mostly I want to help myself which will indeed help others on their journey as well.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/mindfulness-anderson-cooper-60-minutes/

Rats, the site says you need a membership...  Above is the youtube video:    https://youtu.be/KDxIBQT7F54  and this one:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbLVTZuTdmQ

https://www.livingwell.org.au/mindfulness-exercises-3/14-mindfulness-of-difficult-thoughts/

Working with difficult thoughts.

The Journey

One day you finally knew

what you had to do, and began,

though the voices around you

kept shouting

their bad advice--

though the whole house

began to tremble

and you felt the old tug

at your ankles.

"Mend my life!"

each voice cried.

But you didn't stop.

You knew what you had to do,

though the wind pried

with its stiff fingers

at the very foundations,

though their melancholy

was terrible.

It was already late

enough, and a wild night,

and the road full of fallen

branches and stones.

But little by little,

as you left their voices behind,

the stars began to burn

through the sheets of clouds,

and there was a new voice

which you slowly

recognized as your own,

that kept you company

as you strode deeper and deeper

into the world,

determined to do

the only thing you could do--

determined to save

the only life you could save.

pg 414 Coming To Our Senses