Week 3

(Video 1) What is Mindfulness - Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn

1.              How does Dr. Kabat-Zinn define mindfulness?

1. Paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, nonjudgmentally.

2.              Why, according to Dr. Kabat-Zinn, does our "life depend" upon mindfulness?

1. When we don’t practice mindfulness, we miss out on the present moment. The present moment is all we have. The past is gone, the future isn’t here yet, but we spend so much time thinking about those things. When we do this, we lose time in our lives.

3.              Does it matter what thing or things you pay attention to?

1. It doesn’t, as long as you are paying attention.

4.              Is Mindfulness a technique? 

1. No, it’s a state of being. It’s training ourselves to be more connected to our minds, bodies and hearts, in the present moment.

(Video 2) All it Takes is 10 Mindful Minutes - Andy Puddicombe

1.              What does Andy suggest we "do" for at least 10 minutes each day?

1. He wants us to stop doing, and just breathe. Take some time to not think about the past or future and just be. Observe our brains.

2.              According to the Harvard study cited by Andy, what % of time are our minds lost in thought?

1. 47% of the time

3.              Is Mindfulness about controlling our thoughts and feelings? If yes, explain. If not, explain.

1. I don’t think so. I think mindfulness is letting our brains take a break from whatever they are doing. Perhaps that gives one more control of their thoughts. For me, I have hard time sitting still because my favorite type of “meditation” is exercise. That’s what really clears my head. But practicing mindfulness is kind of like an exercise. It exercises my brain the opposite way I would exercise your body. By doing nothing, my brain can reassess where I am, but not in life, just where I am right now, in the present moment. It doesn’t really give me more control, it just lets me take a break to clear my head of any negative emotions.

4.              How does Andy's juggling with the three red balls relate to our activity of balancing sticks?

1. Trying to concentrate on one-thing helps to center our minds. It lets us be present in the moment, because we don’t want the stick or ball to fall, so we have to clear our heads of everything.

Week 2

1. How does Patsy Rodenburg define Presence?

Patsy believes that presence is being in completely focused on someone or something. This allows one to experience everything; physically, emotionally, intellectually; so one can survive.

2. What are some ways that Presence is lost? When do you feel a loss or weakness of presence?

Presence is lost when one is not in second circle i.e. they are not focused in their lives. For me, presence is lost when I am tired. I have the tendency to overwork myself the point if utter exhaustion. Then I become aggravated and sad because I am so stressed. That’s when I lose my focus and I go into “cool” of first circle. It’s bad energy. I try really hard to not overwork myself.

3. What is First Circle? When have you experienced yourself in First Circle?

First circle is being completely involved with self-refection. Everything you experience comes back to you. I think of it like a turtle inside of a shell.

When I walk to class, I think about my day and I tend go into first circle. When I get stressed out, I can go into first circle. I don’t really think I’m in first circle a lot because I tend to be around my friends all the time. So I enjoy “being” with them and I want to be in second circle.

4. What is Third Circle? When have you experienced yourself in Third Circle?

Third circle is being completely involved in the world around you as to distract other people from oneself. Its being so over the top that one intimidates everyone they are around.

Also, when I am walking to class, I find myself going into third circle. I think its just because I knock myself out of first, but I can’t go into second because there are too many people around me. I also think I used to live in third circle in high school. I went to a school where everyone was in third circle all the time. They didn’t want anyone to know who they really were. So I followed the crowd and found myself in third circle a lot when I was at my high school.

5. What is Second Circle? Relate a personal experience (in performance, athletics, etc) when you have been in Second Circle.

            Second circle is being focused on the world around you and responding to that world.

            One time, I was in a scene and my character was OCD. By nature, I am not OCD at all. My partners and I worked for weeks on this scene. There was a moment in the scene where I had to organize 8 magazines into 4 piles of 2. Well, the day we had to perform I forgot the magazines and we had to use paper. I was so worried about having paper instead od magazines, I forgot to count the sheets of paper to make sure I had 8. While we were performing, during the part where I was organizing the paper, I realized I only had 7 sheets of paper, and I freaked the hell out. Where was the last sheet of paper? How am I supposed to organize the sheets if they weren’t in even numbers? I played it off best I could and we finished the scene. My teacher, who had seen the scene before, laughed about my mistake and told me that my reaction was brilliant. It was brilliant because I freaked out about the paper like someone with OCD would. The best part was that after all the hours I spent researching OCD and following around my best who is OCD, so I could play this character with truth didn’t give the character truth. What gave my character truth was being in second circle. Being present with my magazines so that when I didn’t have even numbers, I recognized this and reacted.