The Mindful Way Workbook: An 8-Week Program to Free Yourself from Depression and Emotional Distress

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This research-based 8-week course is designed to give you the skills and understanding that will empower you to free yourself from getting entangled in painful emotions. What if it were possible to learn wholly new skills that allowed you to cultivate a radically different way of working with your mind? For any of us who find ourselves with low mood of any magnitude or duration—whether it's major depression; persistent, nagging unhappiness; or intermittent periods of the blues that feel disruptive or disabling—the despair and demoralization, the sheer joylessness typical of depression, are never very far away. For many people, the most helpful approach might be to read The Mindful Way through Depression (or have it available for reference) along with using this workbook. Many find it most effective to do this in the company of others, working through MBCT in a group with a trained teacher.

My previous books include Cry of Pain: understanding suicide and self harm (Penguin, 1997, 2002; Piatkus 2014) and with Z. Segal and J.D. Teasdale, Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy for Depression (Guilford, 2002, 2013) and The Mindful Way Workbook (Guilford, 2013), and Mindfulness -based Cognitive Therapy with People at Risk of Suicide (with Melanie Fennell, Thorsten Barnhofer, Sarah Silverton and Rebecca Crane; Guilford, 2015) If you have already read The Mindful Way through Depression, this workbook will give you all the additional tools and detailed practical guidance you need to take yourself through the MBCT program. Well, then look no further. This book is a kind guide that will help you on your way. It will not give you all the information about mindfulness, more ideas to think about. It is more focused to help you develop a stable and sustainable mindfulness practice and equip you with effective tools to battle recurring depression or other troublesome emotional states. And it will also give you information what is mindfulness, why you have to do the things it asks you to do and provide you with broader context and reference for more 'theoretical' books. What could be more fabulous than this? An evidence-based treatment for depression translated into a workbook that everyone can use. This is a treatment that has circled the globe for a reason--it works. Fortunately, the authors who translated the treatment into a workbook are the very people who developed the treatment in the first place; all three are expert clinicians and scientists. My advice: 'Try this.'"--Marsha M. Linehan, PhD, ABPP, Professor and Director Emeritus, Behavioral Research and Therapy Clinics, University of Washington; developer of DBT Stage 2: The unhappy mood brings up negative thinking patterns, feelings, and memories from the past—this makes us more unhappy.The authors are leading experts in developing the scientific theories and experiential skills of how mindfulness can help to disrupt the ruminative cycle that perpetuates depression….This book is written and arranged in such a way that the layman with no prior knowledge of cognitive theory of depression can easily understand why and how MBCT can be of benefit to them….This workbook is highly recommended to anyone who is interested in MBCT for self-improvement or self-help in coping with depression, as well as to mental health professionals who want to learn mindfulness skills for personal enhancement or for teaching their own patients. I have now incorporated this workbook as a companion resource into my own practice of cognitive-behavioral therapy. My daily practice of mindfulness skills has also strengthened my personal ability to develop moment-to-moment case conceptualizations for my patient's problems during each therapeutic encounter" International Journal of Social Psychology Of course, depression often arrives hand in hand with anxiety, irritability, or other unwanted emotions. The good news is that while MBCT was developed and has proven extremely effective for depression, research is now also showing powerful effects of MBCT on persistent anxiety and other destructive emotions. Fantastic....[It] functions as a trusted friend, counselor, and guide."--from the Foreword by Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD Mastery - give a sense of accomplishment, satisfaction or control, like writing a letter, mowing the lawn, doing something you've been putting off. Over and over, we have seen people learn to recognize these thought patterns for what they really are—just thought patterns—and then gracefully disengage from them by refocusing their attention.

Learn to respond to unpleasant and difficult experiences by intentionally taking a breathing space rather than reacting automatically with aversion. Mark Williams, DPhil, is Emeritus Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Oxford, having been Wellcome Principal Research Fellow at Oxford from 2003 to 2012 and at Bangor University from 1991 to 2002. He collaborated with John Teasdale and Zindel Segal in developing mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) to prevent relapse and recurrence in major depression; together, they coauthored Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression, Second Edition (for mental health professionals), as well as the self-help guides The Mindful Way Workbook and (with Jon Kabat-Zinn) The Mindful Way through Depression. Dr. Williams is also coauthor of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy with People at Risk of Suicide (for mental health professionals). He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society, the Academy of Medical Sciences and the British Academy. Now retired, he continues to live near Oxford, to teach mindfulness to teachers-in-training across the world, and to explore, with colleagues, how mindfulness might be used in evidence-based public policy. It's not only thinking patterns that can get reawakened. Spells of depression will have often been triggered by experiences of major loss, rejection, or failure. The authors are leading experts in developing the scientific theories and experiential skills of how mindfulness can help to disrupt the ruminative cycle that perpetuates depression….This book is written and arranged in such a way that the layman with no prior knowledge of cognitive theory of depression can easily understand why and how MBCT can be of benefit to them….This workbook is highly recommended to anyone who is interested in MBCT for self-improvement or self-help in coping with depression, as well as to mental health professionals who want to learn mindfulness skills for personal enhancement or for teaching their own patients. I have now incorporated this workbook as a companion resource into my own practice of cognitive-behavioral therapy. My daily practice of mindfulness skills has also strengthened my personal ability to develop moment-to-moment case conceptualizations for my patient's problems during each therapeutic encounter" International Journal of Social Psychiatry Throughout the day, take a few moments to bring your attention to your breath. Observe 5 mindful breaths.Three of the world's leading authorities on psychotherapy and mindfulness have developed a workbook of great clarity and value. It outlines an easy-to-follow, step-by-step program for how to train our minds out of repetitive loops and find states of peace."—Paul Gilbert, PhD, Centre for Compassion Research and Training, University of Derby, United Kingdom When you feel sad or depressed again, memories of these losses and rejections—and all the weight of their tragedy—can break over you like a tidal wave. In that way, these thoughts and memories will make you even sadder, adding their own twist to a spiral of worsening mood. Every time we are truly mindful, we nourish the precious intention to care for ourselves and for other people.

The material is laid out very well with good examples and explanations in laymen's terms.. The tools introduces, particularly Breathing Space are very helpful and I use them almost daily months after I completed the course. For someone with PTSD, the homework may be difficult, so completing the course with a counsellor, or in a group, may be the best approach. Focus attention on your daily activities like brushing your teeth, washing, brushing your hair, putting on your shoes. Bring mindfulness to each activity. But, somehow, most of us don't feel able to let things take their natural course—when we feel sad or unhappy, we feel we have to do something, even if it's only trying to understand what's going on.By deliberately moving your attention toward and right into the region of intensity, you reverse aversion's automatic tendency to move away from and avoid unpleasant experiences. You also give yourself a chance to see pains in the body for what they are -- not things we have to get rid of or away from at all costs, but constantly chancing patterns of physical sensation that can be held in awareness and known. We dredge up memories of failures and difficulties from the past to try to understand how we get things wrong. But focusing on our weaknesses and deficiencies in this way only drags us down further.

Write your thoughts down on paper. This helps you see them in a way that is less emotional and overwhelming. The pause between having the thought and writing it down provides an opportunity to take a wider perspective. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.Psychologist Susan Nolen-Hoeksema spent many years investigating rumination and its effects. Her conclusions are stark: Do you want to explore and learn how to implement mindfulness into your daily life? Moreover, do you happen to suffer from recurring depression, anxiety or low mood states? Would you like to learn to cope most skillfully with life's stress, turmoils and situations? Would you like to alter in a positive and more compassionate way your relationship to yourself, your experience and people around? I’ve found that The Mindful Way Workbook adds great value to the aforementioned guide – it provides additional tools and practical guidance, and is particularly useful if independently undertaking MBCT. The eight-week programme requires sustained and significant effort by the reader, but is undoubtedly rewarding through its ability to help cope with emotional distress and enhance wellbeing, teaching us new ways to respond to our thoughts and feelings. Scene: walking down the street. See someone you know on the other side of the street. Smile & wave. The person doesn't respond, just walks past w/o any sign of recognizing you. MBCT has been tested in research and proven effective for depression, as well as for anxiety and a wide range of other problems.