Mindfulness and Complex Trauma: The Rewards and the Risks

[GiaK]

What media hype and those selling mindfulness don’t tell you is that mindfulness is a process that can radically transform you and it’s not always safe nor is it easy or straightforward. We make it safer by being aware of the risks and learning to listen to our own bodies about when it is or isn’t okay for us. No one else actually knows....

 

Mindfulness and Complex Trauma:  The Rewards and the Risks   https://www.madinamerica.com/2018/11/mindfulness-complex-trauma/

[Cleerity]

I commented on this post in your blog this morning and only now realized you also post on this site!   I can't thank Shep enough for recommending your website to me.  "Thank you" for being the voice in the wilderness that you are.  

[GiaK]

Nice to see you here. I loved your comment on the site. We are clearly like-minded Souls. Thanks for saying hello here too.

[bubbles]

I was interested recently to discover that mindfulness is also less evidence-based than we might like (though it turns out that is the case for much of healthcare). My therapist didn't do it with me, but I did an online program for a bit - tbh I wasn't all that impressed.

 

I'll go read the article.

[GiaK]

to be clear, I love mindfulness but it shouldn't be passed out like candy, so to speak. We are all different and we respond differently to the same things...and yeah, evidence based doesn't really mean much to me. Does it work for me? Do I find myself wanting to do it? Yes. That's enough evidence for me. 

[xyz]

Mindfulness is  part of the buddhist tradition before western teachers who trained in east asia brought the practice back to the west. it has been implemented into therapeutic applications, stripped of religious teaching.

it is a practice to calm the mind by bringing one attention to experience occurring in the present moment. a teacher refers to it like stopping to steer the surface of the water and let the mud settle so that you can see more clearly what is at the bottom.

it is just the beginning of a long journey of transformation and healing by looking at our mind.

in my opinion, it is essential to have some guidance weather in the form of therapy or buddhist teaching to bring wisdom to some of the insight that we can experience during this process of uncovering which can be really painful.

i  find the most difficult part to remember and exercise if a non judgemental attitude  towards what we are uncovering.

it is like peeling layers of an onion, a lot of it is conditioning . we need a lot of self compassion, kindness and a strong belief that at the heart, we are pure, that the trauma, the fear, the shame, the emotional baggage is not who we are at our core.

 

someone asked a buddhist teacher if he can summarize the teaching of the buddha and he said "everything changes"

in my opinion, the goal is not the final healing but to continue to grow from our journey, to learn not to fear our mud, to cultivate self compassion and acceptance in the process, and most importantly to accept changes as part of life.

and with mindfulness we can do just that at all time.

 

 

[bubble]

On 12/5/2018 at 1:10 PM, GiaK said:

Nice to see you here. I loved your comment on the site. We are clearly like-minded Souls. Thanks for saying hello here too.

Hello Gia, 

 

I love BeyondMeds too and the way you write. I loved the latest piece on delusion so much. 

 

Lots of love,

Bubble

[JackieDecides]

On 11/27/2018 at 1:06 PM, GiaK said:

What media hype and those selling mindfulness don’t tell you is that mindfulness is a process that can radically transform you and it’s not always safe nor is it easy or straightforward. We make it safer by being aware of the risks and learning to listen to our own bodies about when it is or isn’t okay for us. No one else actually knows....

 

Mindfulness and Complex Trauma:  The Rewards and the Risks   https://www.madinamerica.com/2018/11/mindfulness-complex-trauma/

 

this is news to me, and very interesting. so far I can only aspire to mindfulness but now I'll beware of assuming it's safe. 

  🙄 

 

I have been reading a bit on beyond meds. you, like many people here on SA, astonish me with your ability to write well. I hope I can get better, too. 

[Cleerity]

On 12/5/2018 at 6:10 AM, GiaK said:

Nice to see you here. I loved your comment on the site. We are clearly like-minded Souls. Thanks for saying hello here too.

 

You are very welcome...and, thank you!  I think that through the work on your website, you are expressing the voice of many, and helping more than you will ever truly know.

 

On 12/6/2018 at 3:14 PM, GiaK said:

Does it work for me? Do I find myself wanting to do it? Yes. That's enough evidence for me. 

 

It works for me, too!

 

On 12/7/2018 at 6:46 PM, xyz said:

it is like peeling layers of an onion, a lot of it is conditioning . we need a lot of self compassion, kindness and a strong belief that at the heart, we are pure, that the trauma, the fear, the shame, the emotional baggage is not who we are at our core.

 

Well said, xyz.  Though, it is a process that can take some time.  I think that folks are at different stages of awareness with their conditioning.  Some may not see it at all, initially.  And some others may be flooded with it.  Self-compassion is crucial when one has much arising.  The point of Gia's article (as I understand it) is that many are now pushing mindfulness without warning that one can potentially encounter a host of psychological and emotional issues that the process itself does not prepare one to deal with.  And developing the compassionate long-suffering is something that takes practice.  For one (like me) who experienced a lot of trauma in early life, I had zero emotional coping skills and no idea how to be kind and compassionate with myself when I started years ago.  So, I see her article as being "spot-on."