[ Contents | Search | Post | Reply | Next | Previous | Up ]
From: Ellen-Marie Silverman
Date: 15 Oct 2011
Time: 07:58:24 -0500
Remote Name: 205.188.116.198
[[I found your paper very interesting and insightful! In your opinion, which of the beneficial outcomes of mindfulness that you described (decreased negative self-talk, increased self-mastery, or becoming more open) do you think is the most difficult to achieve as a person who stutters that is new to the practice of meditation and mindfulness?]] >>> Well, Alessandra, this is a good question especially since many of us determine whether we will do something or not based on whether it will be easy for us to involve ourselves with or difficult. I sometimes think that whether something is easy or difficult for us is the deciding factor for almost all that we do --- until we wake up and discover that it is a shallow and distracting criterion. >>> I have learned that to experience happiness in life, whether we consider that to be contentment or satisfaction or something similar, we benefit from abandoning the "easy/difficult" criterion in favor of another that we may label "beneficial/harmful." We discover that by engaging in activities, that, while they may have little apparent benefit to us in the short run have considerable benefit to us in the long run, such as being honest or refraining from gossiping, serves us well. >>> So you may wonder why I wrote "What to Expect from Mindfulness" to establish the idea that practicing mindfulness is hard. I did so to hopefully deter those who might want to take up this practice because it is so effective and, recently, so popular from doing so without being aware of the committment involved. So many adults have participated in programs to help them resolve their stuttering problems only to be disappointed because they did not have a clear impression at the outset of what would be required of them. And that disappointment and inevitable self-abasement only served to deepen and widen their problems as they became convinced or increasingly convinced that they could not change. >>> So, Alessandra, as I wrote practicing mindfulness is not easy for adults (I think it may be easier for children than adults, though, because children don't approach the practice with ingrained baggage), people with or without stuttering problems, to be clear about the committment involved and, hopefully, prevent negative experiences. The outcomes will be slow, sometimes imperceptible at times but, eventually, with consistency, take the basic forms of which I wrote. >>> Thanks for asking this question, Alessandra. I think others may have wondered as you did. Ellen-Marie Silverman