Mindfulness Reflection Paper

Meditation/ mindfulness exercises are something I have wanted to incorporate into my life weekly. The first time I have even done a mindfulness exercise was in counseling with my therapist. I would do it once a week before every session. I found it really helpful to start out each session with a quick five-minute exercise. Without even knowing I went through four of the five stages in the transtheoretical model: precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, and action. During the precontemplation stage, I went through a process called consciousness rising. According to the book Changing for Good consciousness raising means that you are increasing information about yourself and the problem that you have through observation, confrontations, …show more content…
This is where I realized how helpful these mindfulness exercises were and how it calmed me down. It made me feel at ease. In this stage I went through a process called social liberation. In the book it states that social liberation is the “increasing social alternative for behaviors that are not problematic.” This means surrounding yourself in environments where you have to do your change. So I went a couple of hot yoga classes, and my counseling still made me do mindfulness exercise with her once a week. Another process I went through, which was a huge turning point for me was that I had an emotional arousal. An emotional arousal is the point where one is experiencing and shows feelings toward one’s problems and …show more content…
I brought a yoga mat to my apartment and some of my mom’s yoga tapes from home. That way I have access to these if I can’t make it to a hot yoga class. Then I went through another process called helping relationships, which means finding support to help make that change. My mother is a huge supporter. She got super excited when I showed her the calm application; she now does it at work. Now, when I am home we do yoga together and then we do a ten-minutes mediation session. It is nice to have her hold me accountable to my goal and do the exercises with me. The last process I went through was called reward. Reward is where praise yourself for working on your change. I told myself if I went to hot yoga three times in one week I could buy a hot yoga towel and a new work outfit. Which I did! The last phase is maintenance; I haven’t entered into the maintenance phase yet. I am still working through the action phase. I need to remind myself that if I lapse it is okay and to get right back on track. I will have those times where I wont always meet my goal but hopefully the processes like helping relationship and environmental control will hold me