Resilience Archives ~ Twin Willows

January 21, 2016

Mindful Knitting Essentials

Healing

For those of us who knit, it will come as no surprise that knitting can be used as a therapeutic practice. A therapeutic process is one that heals our minds, bodies, spirits, or some combination thereof. Knitters will recognize that healing – in the joy we derive from most of our knitting experiences. Whether you are planning a project, fondling yarn, selecting just the right materials from your stash, or actually knitting, many steps of the knitting process bring about a sense of contentment and well-being. After all, that’s part of why we do it, right?

Benefits

Knitting can produce a host of benefits: creative inspiration, senses of accomplishment and self-confidence, community building, and the rhythm of a relaxing activity, to name a few. However, more depth is possible; adding the concept of mindfulness can enrich the experience of knitting and promote peace, contentment, and healing. Mindfulness is about paying attention to what is right with you, some of which you might normally take for granted or ignore. By paying attention in a new, more loving, and systematic way to what is right with you, you can discover a new capacity for understanding and growth.

Mindfulness for Deeper Healing

Mindfulness is well-researched and well-known to promote physical and emotional health. Techniques such as mindfulness meditation are widely used in treating cancer patients, anxiety, depression, and many other physical and emotional illnesses. The most basic explanation for how mindfulness practice fosters good health is that it lowers stress and helps with pain management, which helps the body and mind to heal.

Why This Course?

I’m offering a course on 3 essential aspects of mindful knitting for a few reasons. The first reason is because I think that combining mindfulness with a hobby that you love will encourage you to practice mindfulness more often – whenever you pick up your knitting needles. And it is the frequency of practicing mindfulness that ultimately provides the greatest benefit. The second reason is because the standard way that mindfulness is taught is in an eight week program – and that is a huge time commitment that many people do not wish to make.

So this course is intended to distill some of the essentials of mindfulness into a 3 part course taking place over a one month period.

I’m offering 2 different timeframes- Choose the one that best fits your schedule:

Course 1:
January 23rd – Enhancing Your Awareness 10 am—12:30 pm
February 13th – Dealing with Difficult Emotions 10 am—12:30 pm
February 27th – Self – Compassion 10 am—12:30 pm

Course 2:
February 20th – Enhancing Your Awareness 10 am—12:30 pm
March 5th – Dealing with Difficult Emotions 10 am—12:30 pm
March 19th – Self – Compassion 10 am—12:30 pm

3 Essentials

Enhancing your Awareness – deals with focusing on your skills of observation and awareness. Here you learn how to practice that focus again and again.

Dealing with Difficult Emotions – our natural tendencies are to ignore or repress unpleasant and difficult emotions. Here you learn how to approach and accept difficult emotions and thoughts – being curious about them. This can often lessen your fear of them.

Self – Compassion – our tendency to be critical of ourselves is harmful yet persistent. Here we learn about enfolding ourselves in loving kindness.

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January 15, 2016January 15, 2016

Beginning a New Year

Resolutions

For me, every new year brings me the hope that I can build on the wisdom that I have gained in the last year. The hope that I will remember that each tiny moment can be beautiful. The hope that I will be aware of the choices that I do have – the choice to select a right, measured response to pleasant and unpleasant events.

The understanding that each and everyone of us suffers, and that we are also connected and thus stronger for it.

I will remember this.

Finding a New Normal

We are all human beings and thus subject to the ups and downs of living – because not even the richest or the smartest or the most positive can avoid suffering.

Once we turn around and acknowledge the negative event, and really look at it with curiosity, it can lose its hold on us and its ability to make us suffer.

Controllable versus Uncontrollable

Negative events can often be divided up into those that are largely controllable and those that are beyond our control.
Where we can exert some measure of control – then a problem-focused coping style is most effective. Thus if you tend to be late for work then doing something to solve the problem, such as getting up earlier, arranging your clothing and lunch the night before; is the most effective coping strategy.
Where the negative event is beyond our control, then an emotion-focused coping approach will be more effective. This approach will help us deal with the emotions the stressor brings up; since we can’t change the situation itself. Thus if we are waiting for hours in a doctor’s office, the best approach would be to notice our emotions, and choose how we wish to respond and deal with our uncomfortable feelings

Therapeutic Knitting

In our Therapeutic Knitting Group, we have recognized the wonderful ability of quiet knitting to fill up the hours of waiting time with productive and creative knitting.

Soothing — Soothe yourself with knitting

It is one of the tools that you can use to soothe and distract yourself in such situations. Another tool, that complements knitting, is the skill of Mindfulness.
Mindfulness allows you to become aware of your emotions, to reduce your stress and become better able to regulate your stress and emotions, if that is your intention. It allows you to adapt to rapid change; to know yourself better, and to transform yourself in the face of uncontrollable life events. Over time, it can adapt to your changing intentions, and allow self-exploration and ultimately transcendence. beyond the self to occur. It can strengthen your resilience.

“We don’t offer you mindfulness as a cure for your disease. Rather it holds the possibility of vastly enriching your life, helping you cope with symptoms and side effects, and improving the quality of your days. Mindfulness may also enhance your immune system’s performance and help reduce harmful levels of stress hormones in your body, changes that can only be beneficial.” (Ref: Mindfulness-Based Cancer Recovery, by Linda E. Carlson and Michael Speca)

May 18, 2015May 21, 2015

Warmth for Yourself

Prairie Smoke — The Pasque Flower an early spring flower

Waiting for Warmth

Spring in Eastern Ontario has taken its time in coming – the frost sank deep into the soil this past winter. We waited a long time for the days and nights to be consistently warm – so that the soil temperature could support new growth. It is much the same with our inner environments, many of us spend decades chilling our hearts with critical self-talk. In order for fundamental change to take root within ourselves, we need to warm up our hearts with a gentle acceptance of ourselves. No, we are not perfect, but that is what inspires creativity and variety in life.

One of the first steps in being kind to ourselves, is remembering how we speak to our own best friends. We are thoughtful, we want the best for them, we consider carefully before speaking potentially hurtful things. Consider forming an intention to treat your Inner Self as your best friend. She’s known you all her life, she moves when you do, she doesn’t walk away when the going gets tough. Who better than that for a best friend?

So forming this intention to be your own best friend, say to yourself:

May I be happy
May I be healthy
May I live in peace
May I live in safety
May I live with ease

April 23, 2015May 3, 2015

Mindfulness Skills for Well-Being

Benefits

This 8 Week Mindfulness Program is intended to teach you the practice of mindfulness through meditation, so that you can ultimately develop a mindful awareness.

Mindfulness can:

reduce overall levels of anxiety and depression
reduce harmful levels of stress
enhance your immune system’s performance
enhance clarity of mind and creativity
boost your quality of life

Program Details

This Mindfulness Program is an 8 week introduction to mindfulness through practical instruction, meditation, mindful movement, direct observation and home practice. It is designed to help you increase your sense of well-being.

The program includes 8 sessions of 2 hours each, a full day of meditation at the mid-point of the program, guided meditation recordings, and supplementary materials to reinforce the weekly sessions.

Dates: Thursdays 10:30 am – 12:30 pm starting May 7 2015 through to June 25 2015 including a day-long Meditation Retreat on June 6 2015

Location: City of Ottawa Archives; James K. Bartleman Centre; 100 Tallwood Drive; Room 115, Ottawa, Ontario

Fee: $150 for 8-week course, 1 day retreat and all required materials [ec_addtocart productid=”248″]

Nicki Benton will facilitate this program with Francine Portenier’s assistance.

Francine
My first career in Systems Design Engineering focused on “making things better”. Now I focus upon communicating and being with people to help make their lives richer and fuller.

Francine founded Twin Willows Farm to initially offer Equine-assisted Therapy. She now facilitates the first Therapeutic Knitting Group in Canada and Meditation Practices, assisting in Mindfulness Programs. Francine shows you how to cultivate well-being as an individual and to boost resiliency – your ability to bounce back from setbacks.

Nicki Benton

Nicki

Nicki Co-founded the Ottawa Peer Recovery Centre, and also facilitates recovery programs, empowering individuals to find their voice and walk their unique recovery path with confidence. She has been practising mindfulness in her own life for five years.

[ec_addtocart productid=”248″]

February 16, 2015January 15, 2016

Resilience – Bouncing Back

After a Setback – Finding a New Normal

We are all human beings and thus subject to the ups and downs of living – because not even the richest or the smartest or the most positive can avoid suffering.

Suffering is our reaction to what we perceive are negative events. Our reaction is often to run away from and ignore these negative events or thoughts in the misguided hope that perhaps they won’t follow us or will get bored and move on to someone more deserving. Unfortunately, these things seem to have the tenacity of toilet paper on the bottom of a shoe.
Once we turn around and acknowledge the negative event, and really look at it with curiosity, it can lose its hold on us and its ability to make us suffer.

Controllable versus Uncontrollable

In our Therapeutic Knitting Group, we have recognized the wonderful ability of quiet knitting to fill up the hours of waiting time with productive and creative knitting. It is one of the tools that you can use to soothe and distract yourself in such situations. Another tool, that complements knitting, is the skill of Mindfulness.
Mindfulness allows you to become aware of your emotions, to reduce your stress and become better able to regulate your stress and emotions, if that is your intention. It allows you to adapt to rapid change; to know yourself better, and to transform yourself in the face of uncontrollable life events. Over time, it can adapt to your changing intentions, and allow self-exploration and ultimately transcendence. beyond the self to occur. It can strengthen your resilience.

July 14, 2014July 16, 2014

Mindfully Leading

We associate mindfulness with increasing our well-being, but it is not often that we consider that it could be beneficial for our responsibilities as managers and leaders. The very qualities of clear thinking, balance and insight that we hope our leaders epitomize are benefits that can be gained from practicing mindfulness.

Just as an athletic skill can be trained and refined with practice so to can skillful decision-making be improved. The attached article at http://preview.tinyurl.com/mwghvmu is a good jumping off point for aspiring leaders. If you want to make your boss look good you could even share it with them!

You can join me at my Drop in Meditation Practices in Ottawa on Monday evenings if you want to improve your edge. Send me your contact info to let me know you will be joining us.

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