How We Grow Through What We Go Through by Christopher Willard

Author:Christopher Willard [Willard, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: OCC010000 BODY, MIND & SPIRIT / Mindfulness & Meditation, SEL000000 SELF-HELP / General
Publisher: Sounds True

Using Your Words Is Mindfulness

Mindfulness practices soothe us at the physiological level, but it’s not just about relaxing. In mindfulness meditation we name our emotions to activate the outer, more evolved, parts of the brain. There is a reason we tell kids to “use your words” when they are upset. Naming our physical and emotional experience as it arises activates the prefrontal cortex and quiets the limbic system back down, something that neuroscientists have watched happen in real time in brain imaging experiments. Psychiatrist Dan Siegel calls this phenomenon “Name It to Tame It.”

When a therapist says something stereotypical like, “Sounds like you’re feeling sad,” they are helping you name and validate your emotions until you can do it for yourself. But naming and validating is something we can learn to do for ourselves. One of the best introductions and explanations of mindfulness comes from my colleague Brian Callahan, a fellow mindfulness teacher from Vancouver. Here’s my adaptation of his approach to attending to our thoughts and emotions.

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