Snow LMFT - Mindfulness Workbook for Stress Relief: Reduce Stress through Meditation, Non-Judgment, Mind-Body Awareness, and Self-Inquiry

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ISBN: Print 978-1-64739-804-0
eBook 978-1-64739-923-8
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To Grandmom, my first mindfulness teacher, who always reminds me to be in the moment.

CONTENTS

If you picked up this book, you are most likely experiencing stress in your life right now. Chronic stress can wreak havoc on your physical and emotional well-being, often leading to anxiety, depression, irritability, difficulty concentrating, insomnia, digestive issues, headaches, or chronic pain. Left unchecked, stress can impact every area of your life, such as your ability to perform at work, communicate clearly, or take care of your basic needs.

If stress is so destructive, why does society tell you to push ahead during difficult times? Sitting with the discomfort of stress is challenging, but as youll learn in this book, being more aware is actually the key to decreasing stress, chronic pain, and uncomfortable emotions.

Mindfulness allows you to release judgments about what you should be doing, let go of comparison, and be present in your life moment to moment. Instead of running away from whats causing you stress, you can begin to understand why youre feeling stressed and what you can do to feel relaxed again. By slowing down to practice the meditations and exercises in this book, you will begin to know yourself on a deeper level and understand what your body needs to feel balanced and calm. You may be surprised just how accessible, simple, and effective mindfulness can be. Its not all twisty yoga poses and sitting perfectly still with a clear mind; you can incorporate mindfulness into everyday experiences such as sitting, walking, or eating.

For the past 20 years, mindfulness has been my most dependable and consistent source of support. There were many years where I existed in survival mode, cycling in and out of depression and anxiety and feeling disconnected from myself. During my early years in college, I discovered yoga and mindfulness, which began my journey of slowly reconnecting to myself. I weaved in and out of my mindfulness practice throughout my 20s until I had a wake-up call that showed me exactly how powerful mindfulness can be in times of distress.

Grieving a relationship loss and feeling extremely burned out at work, I entered into a deep depression and found myself in therapy for the first time. Therapy helped get me back on my feet, but there was something missing. In my search for a deeper understanding of myself, I took a sabbatical from work to travel to India and fully immerse myself in meditation and yoga. Doing so allowed me to step out of my need to work so much and be a people-pleaser. While away, I was able to meditate and practice yoga every day for a month. Afterward, I was shocked by how resilient I felt and how well I was able to effortlessly manage some big stressors that came up while traveling back home.

When I returned home I continued my mindfulness practice, and about two years later, I moved to California to pursue my masters degree in psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies. During my training, I was introduced to mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), and I eventually started teaching mindfulness workshops and incorporating mindfulness into my work with my therapy clients. Since then, I have led self-care retreats, clinical trainings, and therapy groups, all using mindfulness tools. I am still amazed at the power of mindfulness to calm a stressed-out nervous system or to help someone access insights that were out of reach through talk alone.

Thankfully, you dont need to take a sabbatical, go on a retreat, or commit to any type of spiritual ideology to start your own mindfulness practice. Although mindfulness was born out of Buddhist meditation, it has become a widely used secular practice. A significant contributor to the popularity and accessibility of mindfulness has been the MBSR program originally developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center over 40 years ago. This book will help you discover the foundational practices of MBSR, which have been proven to reduce the effects of stress. Youll come away from this book with a road map for designing your own mindfulness practice, a better understanding of yourself, and specific tools to help you reduce stress throughout many areas of your life.

If youre reading this workbook on a touch-screen device, you can add notes and highlight text just like you would in a physical workbook.

Some sections will prompt you to write in answers or personal responses. Its easygive it a try right here: ___________.

With your finger, tap and hold for a few moments on the line above. Depending on the device youre using, an icon such as a magnifying glass will appear. Lift your finger and youll see an options menu. Select Note (or Notes) to add and save your own text. When youre done, an icon or highlighted area will remain, which you can always return to and tap if you want to reopen and read or edit your note.