Association for Contextual Behavioral Science

circa winter of 2004...

overheard in the salt lake city airport:

a man talking on his cell phone saying, "yeah, I'm in Idaho again. They always seem to send me through Idaho."

As I continue to do this work, especially in the primary care setting, I find myself paring down these concepts further and further.

Attached is a nice, simple, intro-to-mindfulness handout I developed. Hope you can find use for it in your work (and life)!

And remember, you must be logged in to see the attachments! (((gong)))

Follow your breath right outta your nose
follow it out as far as it goes
follow your breath but don't hang on
to the thought of yr death in old Saigon
Follow your breath when thought forms rise
whatever you think it's a big surprise.

(chorus: Do the meditation, do the meditation, learn a little patience and generosity, generosity, generosity & generosity)

- Allen Ginsberg, Christmas, 1981

from the Tao te Ching...

"Welcome disgrace as a pleasant surprise.
Prize calamities as your own body."

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- "Bald, bald, bald" defusion exercise

- Tug of war with the rug

- Mindfulness of hairlessness

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Master Seong Am Eon used to call to himself every day, "Master!" and would answer, "Yes?"
"You must keep clear!"
"Yes!"
"Never be deceived by others, any day, any time!"
"Yes! Yes!"

- third of Seung Sahn's (1927-2004) twelve gates

Listening to Erykah Badu's "Bag Lady" for the first time in a while the other day, really hearing her...

Bag lady, you gon' hurt your back
Dragging all them bags like that
I guess nobody ever told you
All you must hold on to
Is you, is you, is you.

not so much concerned with people getting ahead of pilot studies and RCTs with their work - this stuff takes lots of time to get out to the public. it is more disconcerting that some folks appear to be extrapolating a bit beyond their own experience with certain interventions, clinical settings, and/or client presentations.

Yup, you is the problem.

"Wherever progress is measured in terms of technology and not in terms of right understanding, the perfecting of the machine rather than of man will be the guiding ideal." - W.Y. Evans-Wentz

This is a handout I developed to introduce clients to self-as-context vis-a-vis the bus metaphor. It works nicely so far, and functions partly to increase willingness of folks to participate in "the bus" as an experiential exercise in group therapy or "taking your mind for a walk" type of stuff in individual sessions.

Feel free to use this in your own work. While no idea is truly original, and the content of the handout is of course borrowed, I will take credit for doing this drawing in microsoft paint, for what it's worth! :)

"If you have a stick, I shall give one to you. If you do not have a stick, I shall take it away from you." - Basho

mindfulness is really no-mindfulness; therefore it is called mindfulness.

acceptance is really no-acceptance; therefore it is called acceptance.

commitment is really no-commitment; therefore it is called commitment.

action is really no-action; therefore it is called action.