Using mindfulness and meditation

for worry and rumination

I’d like to introduce to a mindfulness and meditation exercise that I am quite excited about.

This is one of my most loved mindfulness based stress reduction: for dealing with troublesome worrying and depressive thinking patterns.

(Please note: Some people may be irritated by a calm sounding voice. If this your experience, I suggest that you skip the mp3 and just follow the instructions below. Don't let this stop you from benefitting from the technique.)

The free mindfulness and meditation mp3

This Mindfulness Meditation track was written by Adewale Ademuyiwa.

Free meditation music Composition Arraingement, Mixing and Production by Adewale Ademuyiwa

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I really like this mindfulness based stress reduction exercise because of the speed at which it helps people to move from being chaotic, confused, anxious or distressed to a place of calmness, peace, control and effective functioning.

Honestly, practice this mindfulness based stress reduction exercise for a week or two and you will be surprised of the difference it makes.

A personal testimony

This is a before and after presentation of one client, I taught how to use this technique.

(For confidential reasons, I have to keep the client’s name anonymous)

 

Before using this mindful meditation technique

“All my worries were consuming my mind. I was feeling anxious and stressed with worry all the time. I became so confused, and I did not know how to begin to deal with all my problems.

My worries became like a screaming in my head, so strong that it overwhelmed everything else in my life at the time.

It was like there were so many things to deal with, all at the same time. I felt so vulnerable, but I couldn’t do anything about it.”

 

After one week of practicing the mindfulness based stress reduction technique

“The Mindfulness worry technique, sort of forced me to begin to deal with one worrying thought at a time. I felt calmer and relieved.

I felt like I was more in control of my thoughts. Over the week, the exercise made me realise that I have a lot of things to feel happy about- positive things in my life.

It felt almost like I was using the exercise to compartmentalize all my issues into smaller manageable chunks.

All of a sudden, I realised that I was beginning to deal with things more effectively and in an organised fashion.

I was actually getting things done. Although it kind of feels pathetic to be so ecstatic that I was actually getting my washing, posts and other things done, many people won’t value that.

But I know that a few weeks ago, I couldn’t just be bothered to even look at my post for fear of what I might find."

 

After two weeks of practicing the technique

"Now I am actually contemplating returning to work.

And you know what the strangest thing is, nothing has actually changed in my life that can account for how I feel; I just know that I don’t feel the same way I have felt for ages.”

The benefits of using this
mindfulness and meditation exercise

This mindfulness based stress reduction exercise has a powerful way of helping people gain a third-person perspective on worries. This helps them to detach from their worries, allowing them to deal with their worries just like they would deal with a friend’s worries.

We all have a tendency to become entangled in confusion whenever we try to deal with our own difficulties. Ironically our minds become so clear and focus when we focus on helping other people solve their problems.

Mindfulness exercises like this work by helping us to learn that ability which allows us to begin to deal with our problems in a functional manner.

It must be stated that some people may experience initial emotional distress and agony in the early stages of practicing the exercise. If you do experience this, this is normal just continue practicing the exercise, after some time of practicing, this will no longer be a problem.

The mindfulness and meditation script

This is the script for the guided meditation mp3:

The aim of this mindfulness exercise is to help you find it easier to detach from depressive and anxious thoughts.

Sometimes, these thoughts can become so potent that they colour our whole living experience causing life to become one long continuous experience of pain.
This can eventually lead to concentration problems that impact heavily on our performance in different important areas of our life.

To begin the exercise, make sure you are sitting comfortably, with you back touching the chair and both feet on the ground.

Now I want you to imagine a scene. You are in a beautiful valley, and in the middle of this valley; you can see a very big three. The three has big almost golden colour leaves.
Just at the side of the three, you can see a clear coloured stream of water flowing down right through the middle of the valley.

Now as you are watching you notice the leaves falling slowly off the tree, one at a time. Each leaf falls into the stream and flows down the stream till you can’t see it again. Then another leaf falls slowly into the stream and then flows down the stream.
This keeps happening over and over.

Now I want you to catch the next leaf as it is falling slowly down into the stream.
Write whatever is on your mind down on the leaf, drop it down into the stream and watch it flow down the stream.

Catch another leaf, write down whatever thought is on your mind, drop the leaf down into the stream and watch it flow down the stream.
Just continue to do this over and over again.

If all you find on your mind is “this exercise is strange,” write those exact words down, because that is a thought. If all you are thinking is “my mind is completely blank,” write that down because it is a thought.

If you find that your mind wanders off. That’s okay; just bring it back to the exercise. Catch the falling leaf and write your thoughts on it drop it into the stream and watch it flow down.

Try not to engage with the thought. Notice how some thoughts can be so strong that you almost feel stuck with it, but don’t engage with the thought just write it down on a leaf, drop it into the stream and watch it flow down the river.


Carry on with this  exercises for about 15 minutes and stop whenever you are ready.

› › Using mindfulness and meditation for worry and rumination

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Return to fighting anxiety disorder together

Articles and video tutorials by Adewale Ademuyiwa.

I hope you are finding our articles useful.


Would you like me to write on any issue surrounding emotional difficulties? Please feel free to submit a request using the CONTACT link at the top right hand menue on this page.

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