Breathe

Life has been running away from me and my family this year. In order for us not to get totally swept away and end up broken on the shore, I have had to have a drastic rethink about my life. A big change has been to start pursuing ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) properly and to adopt more Buddhism into my everyday life. The above book contains everyday exercises to promote self-awareness and mindfulness. Breathe is split into Being (Breath and Body Scan exercises), Feeling and Thinking (acceptance, defusion and expansion techniques, also Tonglen and the Observing Self). The last section is called Doing and contains mindfulness exercises to help you get the most from everyday life. Below is an eight weeks Mindfulness Programme I have been working on to help me and my family. Of course we might still get swept away and end up broken on the shore, but maybe a mixture of Buddhism, Stoicism, ACT, mindfulness, (very liberal) Christianity and maybe even a few friends (!) and a bit of art, music and writing might help us to cope better with whatever might come our way.