DAILY PRACTICES
1. Do the compassion meditation (5 or 6 min).*
You may notice you have four meditations to choose from. That is because this week you have different length meditations (5 or 6 min) and meditations that include the phrases of compassion, and ones where you can offer the phrases of compassion from memory. Let’s explain these in more detail.
Now that most of you are meditating 5 to 7 days a week, you are ready to start slowly increasing the length of your meditation sessions. This week, you have the option to increase your meditation by one minute. For those of you still struggling to meditate five days a week, you may continue to use the five-minute long meditation.
In addition, when we do love-based meditations, it is ideal to repeat the phrases from memory. So two of the meditations include the phrases which you can use for a few days to familiarize yourself with them. Then you can use the compassion meditation of the desired length without the phrases. In this you will repeat the phrases from memory. The phrases are also listed on a handout which you may keep this handy during the meditation in case you forget them. This also gives you the freedom to use your personalized self-compassion mantra (that you will create as part of this Mindfulness Mission) during the section where you offer yourself compassion.
Finally, some people may find the compassion meditation emotionally challenging to do everyday. If this is you, feel free to alternate it with any of the previous course meditations you have used (breath, gratitude, or sympathetic joy)
2. Do the MF3.04 intention-setting practice (5 min).*
3. Whenever a falsehood alarm rings (meaning you notice a falsehood in the mind, you feel an afflictive emotion, or you want to or are behaving unskillfully), offer yourself self-compassion. Start by saying your self-comassion mantra, and then free-form it. At the same time, offer yourself kind, soothing touch and movement. Details on how to do all this are in the Treating Yourself with Compassion article below.
4. As often as you remember to, take a mindful pause, or do your best to anchor 10-75% of your attention on the sensations of breathing throughout the day. The more what you are doing requires your attention, the less your attention will be on the breath. If thoughts arise that are unrelated with what you are doing, put more attention on the breath.
5. Send your celebrations to your gratitude group and practice sympathetic joy when receiving their gratitude messages. (2 min)
6. Aim to offer appreciation, whether that is giving thanks or sympathetically celebrating others, 15 or more times each day.*
* Log these on your Tracking Log.
NOTE: If you miss meditating or intention setting on any days, answer the questions on your Creating a Daily Meditation Practice handout (From Week 1) under the “Problem Solving” heading in your journal. This no longer counts as an investigation.
WEEKY PRACTICES
1. Use the Mindfulness Mission Planning handout to plan when you will do your mindfulness missions. (5 min)
2. Do 2 or more primary investigations. Use the Self-Judgment Investigation worksheet and your journal to investigate self-judgments and/or use the Imagine the Innocent Infant Within handout to investigate judgments of others. We have added this worksheet for those who find they have too few self-judgments to work with. Log each one you do in your Tracking Log. (10 min each time)
3. Do 2 or more evaluative investigations. Use the Testing the Effectiveness of Our Investigation handout to evaluate how disidentified you are from the self-judgmental and judgmental thoughts you previously investigated. Do these one or more days after doing the initial investigation. Log each one you do in your Tracking Log. (5 min)
4. Please submit your Weekly Report on Monday.
DAY 1 (THE FIRST DAY AFTER CLASS)
1. Download the following:
2. Print the MF3.03 handouts and slogan cards.
3. Skim the MF3.03 Intention Setting handout to check the relevant check-boxes and personalize it appropriately. (5 min).
3. Cut out, and hang the slogan cards in high visibility areas where you live and serve.
4. Complete the Mindfulness Mission Planning Handout. (5 min)
5. Read Troubleshooting Self-Compassion. (9 min)
DAY 2
6. Spend 15 minutes reading and doing the journal exercise to Treat Yourself with Compassion: Developing Your Own Self-Compassion Mantra. (15 min)
DAY 3
7. Complete reading and doing the journal exercise to Treat Yourself with Compassion: Developing Your Own Self-Compassion Mantra. (15 min)
8. Once you complete your personalized self-compassion mantra, email it to Freeman with the subject “Self-Compassion Mantra.” Thank you!
DAY 4
9. Investigate a self-judgment or judgment towards others using the Imagine the Innocent Infant Within handout and log it. (10 min)
DAY 5
10. Watch Dr. Krisin Neff’s poweful TEDx Talk “The Space Between Self-Esteem and Self-Compassion.” (19 min)
DAY 6
11. Investigate a self-judgment or judgment towards others using the Imagine the Innocent Infant Within handout and log it. (10 min)
12. Test the effectiveness of your investigation from two days ago and log it. (5 Min)
DAY 7
13. Test the effectiveness of your investigation from yesterday and log it. (5 Min)
14. Read The Four Elements handout. (2 min)
Additional Resources
1. If you are not already, consider taking the Mindfulness Fundamentals 3.0 course which this Mindfulness Mission is a part of.
2. Consider joining our mailing list.
Banner photo credit: Ilia Bronskiy @idbronskiy