Dear CB:

You wrote: “I have been looking mindfulness and will continue”, so I did the same this morning and came across this website this morning: positivepsychology. com/ mindfulness- exercises- techniques- activities (no spaces) that offers lots and lots of exercises, lots of information of the scientific/ psychotherapy kind, links to articles and other websites; looks like a very informative, responsible website to me.

For example, it has a “Mindfulness Techniques for Anger” section. It reads there that mindfulness helps create space between the stimulus (ex: your anger at your ex) and an immediate, impulsive response (in this example, to overthinking).

The exercise is to sit comfortably, eyes closed, draw in a few deep breaths, think about him leaving you as he did, experience the anger, notice where in your body you feel the anger, “bring compassion to the anger.. remind yourself that anger is a natural human emotion.. Try to hold your anger ‘like a mother cradling a newborn,’ with love and understanding”.

Next “Say goodbye to your anger, bring your attention back to your breath and rest for a while until your emotions subside, or settle down. Repeat this exercise as many times as necessary. It reads: “Practicing this technique can help you defuse chronic anger in a rather counterintuitive manner”, that is, instead of trying to not feel it, you are inviting it to your awareness, “accepting and mindfully feeling your anger”.

One of the links it provides is www. mindful. org (again, no spaces), looks like an excellent website with lots of attention to the pandemic, suggesting how to use mindfulness in these difficult times. One of the exercises there is called STOP:

S- Literally, just stop what you’re doing, rest, pause.

T- Take a conscious breath, a deeper breath, or two.

O- Observe what’s in you: thoughts, emotions, bodily sensations. Notice how you can be aware of them without being ruled/ overwhelmed by them, offer self compassion to yourself as you release tension and stressful thoughts..

P- “Proceed with intentionality, taking the next step in your day from this place of strength, wisdom and presence”.

If you click on “getting started” at the top  of this website, you can ..well, get started. Also at the top, there is “COVID resources” you can click on, and more.

There is so much information in these two websites that if you get yourself engaged with the topic of mindfulness, you will be busy for a long, long time, hopefully all the way to the other side of the pandemic!

anita