Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy

Human Time Sense | Mindfulness in Seattle

Mindfulness in Seattle |
Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy

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on culture, change and The Human Send of Time 

Desperately Seeking Happiness

Happiness is one of the most sought after and yet still elusive aspects of life. Happiness is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow that everyone wants, but so few people can confidently claim to have discovered. The field of psychology has produced a science of happiness through a variety of studies that has led to a general definition of happiness as the “ability to sustain an overall sense of well being over time.” This ability generally requires a certain amount of emotional flexibility in the context of the many challenges that a person faces daily and throughout life. Modern Mindfulness Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy helps you achieve the happiness that you value most! Even one session with the right therapist will help you regain your emotional balance and sustain happiness.

Explore Alternatives | Evidence Based Psychotherapy in Seattle

A review of the psychological literature reveals that only a very small percentage of psychotherapy services in the United States are tightly linked to existing scientific knowledge. It is a really quite strange if you think of it. Would anyone want undergo medical surgery that was not based on a current scientific understanding of the body? Ask yourselr: just why should the mind and behavior be any different?

It is clear that this problem has multiple faces. Psychology and psychiatry have historically had a really hard time agreeing on what we even mean by mental disorders. Clearly, there is a proliferation of theories and approaches. Everyone seems to have some strange theoretical axe to grind. Managed care companies have strident practice guidelines; yet, it is infuriating that often such “guidelines” just come down to ways to reduce cost. The American Psychiatric Association has practice guidelines, but medications are so emphasized (no surprise) that as a broad public information service, they are not very useful.

This problem has multiple faces for psychology and psychiatry. Scientists have had a hard time agreeing on what we even mean by mental disorders. There clearly is a proliferation of theories and approaches. Everyone seems to have an axe to grind. Big pharma and managed care companies have practice guidelines but often they just come down to ways to reduce cost. The American Psychiatric Association has practice guidelines, but medications are so emphasized (surprise) that as a broad public information service, they are not very useful.

One certainly might hope that the government could get reasonable scientists together to say what is known. The fact that economic interests sometimes want a particular answer can make that difficult as well. But there are at least two government efforts worth noting in the area of psychotherapy, and fortunately both are exploring acceptance and mindfulness-based alternatives in the area of evidence-based care that give consumers a wider range of choices.

Mindfulness Meditation Benefits: 20 Reasons Why It’s Good for Your Mental and Physical Health

Mindfulness meditation has been around for thousands of years, but academic research has only recently started to give us a better understanding of why it provides so many benefits. In so many aspects of our lives, from pain and disease management, to sleep, to control of our emotions, and many others, mindfulness mediation improves our lives. Defined as, “the nonjudgmental awareness of experiences in the present moment,” mindfulness can lower stress and decrease the levels of cortisol, the stress hormone. It can help students get better grades and help our troops to perform better and more quickly recover from stress. This article defines and explains many of the benefits associated with mindfulness meditation.

Benefits of Mindfulness

When considering the benefits of mindfulness, it is also appropriate to consider how well, if you were really trying, you could actually sit down and quiet your mind into a state of meditation. How hard is it to let go of the past for just a few moments, let go of worries about the future, and just exist in the present? Mindfulness has been described by expert Jon Kabat-Zinn as paying intense attention to the present moment without judgment, as if your life depended on it. Whether or not that is the case, research on mindfulness meditation has shown to increase telomerase and boost our immune system.

How to Live a Meaningful Life

Izzy writes in to TheChangeBlog.com with a unique story. His is the story of someone who pursued the “American dream” to an extent that he felt he had checked the boxes in his career as a teacher: he had a nice car, a master’s degree, and a decent resume. But he lacked a sense of purpose of fulfillment. He felt his life as a teacher was more about an image of himself he felt he needed to create than about actually helping children. In a quest to find the meaning and purpose that he still felt his life lacked, he decided to pursue a dream: to become a ninja.

You Do not Have to Participate in the Drama People Create

This article centers around a saying: “Just because someone invites you to a drama doesn’t mean you have to attend.” This is not a common saying, but maybe it should be. At the very least, it is a sound piece of advice that most of us could benefit by remembering, especially those of us who have felt emotionally manipulated and drained before by participating in someone else’s drama that doesn’t involve us. Before stepping into the drama someone else is creating for themselves in the future, it would be good to remember that we don’t need to attend. However the invitation is delivered, we can stop and ask ourselves if it will do any good.

Losing Hope for Sleep Can Hike Suicide Risk

A new study from Dr. W. Vaughn McCall, the chair of the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University, shows that when people lose hope of having a good night’s sleep, their risk of suicide spikes. McCall notes that this study reaffirms what he had previously established, that hopelessness about sleep is separate from other kinds of hopelessness. The new study also links to other studies which indicate that nightmares and insomnia increase suicide risk. The effect is so great that insomnia can apparently double the likelihood of suicide in people already at risk.

How to be Assertive While Keeping a Kind Heart

Many people struggle between the extremes of being too assertive and being a doormat for other people. They may find themselves wanting to assert themselves in situations such as having messages ignored by a friend, being given a task at work they fear might be too much for them to handle, or being asked a favor that seems extreme, but fearful of negative consequences of assertion. There is a middle road between being completely passive and overaggressive, however, that can be called “compassionate assertiveness” that may ease situations like the ones described. The first step to this approach requires calm.

Using Mindfulness to Treat Anxiety Disorders

A person with anxiety disorder will perceive threats to an exaggerated degree, have repetitious negative thoughts, and an increased sense of arousal and fear. This causes high blood pressure, a rapidly beating heart, and even digestive problems in those who are affected. Whether they are suffering from General Anxiety Disorder (GAD) or Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD), the effects can be so sever that they are unable to perform daily tasks. A common treatment for anxiety disorders is cognitive-behavioral therapy, which seeks to replace the affected thought processes with more reasonable responses. Recent studies have shown that mindfulness-based therapies show substantial results, however, by changing the relationship between the patient and their thoughts.

Drama Belongs in the Theatre

Greg Malouf believes that people identify with the drama that plays out in their lives, when the reality is that the drama is not real. Maleouf describes drama as bound up by illusion, based on perceptions, becoming personally defeating because of our lack of sophistication about our emotional lives. He writes that drama is not an illusion in that things aren’t actually happening to us, but a closer examination of all the things happening may show that a lot of them are not very important. Giving voice to everything creates a life of noise, creating the illusion of happenings, when we might actually have more time and fewer important events going on than we’d like to think.

Massage: One of My Favorite Stress Management Techniques for Good Reason

Elizabeth Scott has always enjoyed getting massages and also enjoys the idea of them being a part of a stress management plan. In her experience, massage has been an excellent short-term stress management tool, but she has since wondered what the actual benefits of massage are compared to other stress managements practices and whether or not a massage carried long-term stress benefits. Research into some studies published in various journals brought good news. One study showed that a massage lowered a subject’s perceived level of stress, which also resulted in lowered heart rate and even lowered blood pressure. Another study showed that a Thai massage can increase heart rate variability, pain threshold, and body flexibility.

Ways to Manage Every Day Trauma

Every day we are faced with micro traumas. Not large scale traumas such as in war or assault, but little disappointments and painful moments. Such things can include crime, diseases or debt. These little stressors can even trigger old wounds that can invade your present self. But it is possible to face these micro traumas and be able to move through them for a stress-free life. Your past influences how you manage stress, and even if you feel removed from your past traumas you should seek therapy to deal with how they may be affecting you today.

5 Ways to Feel Less Isolated When Facing Change

There are many ways in which people deal with their stress and emotional pain. One response is to keep it to yourself and put on a happy face for those around you. Whether you are trying to bury the pain or just prefer to face the problems on your own, it can put you in an awkward position if you find the feelings of stress and pain lingering and are unable to resolve them. You may suddenly feel isolated, since you find yourself with a problem that you can’t solve and no one around you even knows that you’re struggling. This article provides a few tips on how to deal with this isolation.

Identifying and Treating Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

When a lot of people think about obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) they often think of movie characters, or other people they may have seen, without understanding exactly what the disorder is or how it functions. People afflicted by OCD are receiving faulty messages from their brains. While a regular person receives messages that tell them to lock their car door, for example, a person with OCD receives similar messages that tell them to lock the car several times. Obsessive compulsive disorder can manifest in several ways but the basic idea is that the obsessive actions are caused by anxious thoughts that revolve usually around safety, sanitation, profanity, or violence.

Is Cynicism Ruining Your Life?

Most people have at least one person in their life that can make them cynical. Whoever it is that inspires cynicism in our lives, it is generally someone who routinely disappoints or upsets us in some way. The cynical attitude that develops is part of a defensive mechanism that can be hard to lose once adopted. Unfortunately, a 2009 study of more than 97,000 women showed that cynical women have an increased rate of coronary heart disease, cancer-related deaths, and general mortality, while optimistic women were on the opposite side of the spectrum with decreased levels of death and disease than average.

Achieving Success Requires Patience and Persistence

American journalist Hal Borland once wrote: “Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing Grass, I can appreciate persistence.” In order to achieve big goals, people need to display the same patience as a tree. Just as trees take many years to grow into the large, impressive plants that they are, an important goal takes time to accomplish and requires sustained nourishment over that time in the form of studying, self-improvement, and consistent work toward the goal. People also need the persistence of grass, which can break through concrete to live or can grow on rocks. Like grass, a person needs to persist in their goals no matter what obstacles block the path.

Culture Stigmatizing Mental Illness Must Change

After a second student from Northwestern University passed away during the fall semester, one by suicide while studying abroad, professors Christina Traina and Laurie Zoloth have written in about the stigma surrounding mental illness that impedes the prevention of such tragedies. The Centers for Disease Control report that suicide is the third most common cause of death for people between the ages of 15 and 24 and the second most common for people between 25 and 34. Nearly every person who attempts suicide is suffering from an underlying issue such as depression. If the stigma around mental health issues can be raised, action can be taken to address mental illnesses before tragedy strikes.

Why Generosity is Good for You

A 2003 research study at the University of Michigan shows that the positive effects of practicing generosity include improving one’s mental and physical health and longevity. This means being generous can fit in with exercising regularly and keeping a healthy diet as something that can prolong a person’s lifespan. Another study from the same university that tracked 2700 people over a ten-year period showed that people who regularly performed volunteer work had death rates 2.5 times lower than those who didn’t. Being generous is also a confidence builder and a repellant of self-hatred as it allows the generous person to distract themselves from their critical inner voice while also providing an argument against it.

How to Make Peace with Your Dark Past

Almost everyone has something dark in their past and it is human nature to dwell on that darkness, trying to figure out how we allowed those things to happen. It can become a dark circle of trying to understand what happened and agonizing over the fact that it did. The way to move forward, however, is through acceptance. It is possible for people to accept their dark history and perhaps even become grateful for it, recognizing that while they are not proud of what happened, they could not be the person they are today without it. Once the past is embraced, they can turn their eyes to the present and future.

How Gratitude Combats Depression

According to Dr. Deborah Serani, studies show that consistent positive interaction, particularly positive interactions that involve gratitude, both increase happiness and decrease depression levels. So while the holiday season may also be a season of gratitude, it can be emotionally important to try and practice gratitude throughout the entire year. Dr. Serani shares seven of the best techniques researchers have found to combat depression, including gratitude visits. A gratitude visit is simply delivering gratitude in the form of a letter or email to someone whom you are grateful to but feel you have not appropriately thanked. Another technique is to write down three good things that have happened throughout the week.

Nine Secrets of Courage from Extreme Fear

Everyone has to deal with fear, and the way fear is responded to can determine how we live the rest of our life. If we spend all of our time avoiding fear, we probably won’t get any better at handling fear when it is unavoidable. Jeff Wise’s new book explores the neurological underpinning of our fear response to better understand how fear can be mastered. In this article, he shares nine things that he found helps to increase courage. Studies show that physical fitness can curb the effects of fear, as exercise can ease depression. Thus skydivers with a lower body fat percentage take less time to recover from elevated stress levels.



• Anxiety is a normal reaction to stressful situations.
• But in some cases, it becomes excessive and can cause sufferers to dread everyday situations.
• This type of steady, all-over anxiety is called Generalized Anxiety Disorder.
• Fear is a vital response to physical and emotional danger—if we didn’t feel it, we couldn’t protect ourselves from legitimate threats. But often we bristle with anxiety about situations that are far from life-or-death, and thus hang back and avoid the vital life with mindless oblivion.
• When we get clear about the nature of fear, we recognize this as a vital response to physical and emotional danger—if we didn’t feel it — register this in some way . . . we couldn’t protect ourselves from legitimate or ominous threats. Yet it is clear that we often fear situations that are far from life-or-death, and thus hang back for no good reason.

Depression Disproportionately Affects Those in Poverty, Report Finds

A new report from Gallup and Healthways shows that people who are poor not only have a greater risk of health problems, but are disproportionately more likely to be diagnosed with depression. Thirty-one percent of people living in poverty report having depression, according to the report, while only 15.8% of people outside of the poverty line report the same. In the report, the researchers mentioned that whether depression led to poverty or poverty led to depression, the fact remains that those in poverty are twice as likely to suffer the condition and it is possible that the condition could impede their escaping poverty.

Mindfulness as Nutrient

As the concept of mindfulness has grown recently in its relation to health and healing, many misconceptions of what mindfulness is have risen with it. As the buzz around it increases, the idea of mindfulness can begin to seem like a product that can be purchased and will lead to healing. The reality is that mindfulness takes courage. It is hard to push away reflexive judgments that lead people to the things they know and push things away that are not wanted, but mindfulness calls for people to fully experience what is occurring in the moment and observe everything with openness and curiosity.

Changing My Mindset Changed My Life

Henri Juntilla learned how to change his entire life by practicing Aikido. Aikido is a Japanese martial art, but the change it brought was a change of self-awareness. Juntilla realized he had a mindset of seeking approval from the instructor without actually enjoying the activity. The change of mindset occurred when Juntilla got tired of seeking permission and approval for his actions and instead took responsibility for them by fully committing, right or wrong. It can be exhausting constantly trying to figure out what someone else wants. Letting go of that effort first helped to improve his martial art and then helped to improve his life.

Depression: Why is Midlife Such a Downer?

Researchers from the University of Warwick and Dartmouth College have discovered that the probability of depression peaks for both men and women around the age of 44. In the U.S., women reach a peak of unhappiness around the age of 40, while men peak closer to 50. The trend of midlife depression isn’t something exclusive to the United States or even to the west, where people are thought of as being rich in material goods but poor in happiness. The data the researchers used is from two million people across 80 different countries and the pattern of midlife depression shows up in countries from all over the globe.

Self-Care: An Antidote to Stress

If a person neglects themselves to meet the needs of others too frequently, it can have a negative effect on their physical, emotional, and mental health, with symptoms such as stress, irritability, and exhaustion. This can also lead to feelings of anger or resentment towards those whose needs are being given higher priority. All of these things are signs of a life out of balance, and a good way to get things back on track is to simply put more emphasis on self-care. A person who attends to their own needs is more likely to have the energy to help others.

Anxiety and Depression: Our Internal GPS System

Most people look at anxiety and depression as a warning of poor mental health or even as a disorder. From another perspective, however, anxiety and depression can serve as a sign that we are ready to change the world that we have created for ourselves mentally. Rather than suppress the feelings, we can investigate them to find and understand the reason for them. These feelings can act as a sort of internal GPS system, in that we experience feelings like anxiety and depression as our body’s way of keeping us on the right track and working for our greater good.

The Art of Compromise

Many people consider the word “compromise” to describe a situation in which they lost more than they gained, but by definition, it should describe a deal in which at least something is gained. While a compromise might not always involve getting the most out of a deal, a few guidelines can keep the agreements reached positive. The most important thing to take into consideration when agreeing on a compromise is to not sacrifice on an ethical stance. If a compromise feels wrong, it can be because it crosses an ethical line or bends fundamental values.

Want to Find Your Life Passion? Start by Simplifying Your Life

Barrie Davenport is a life passion coach, meaning she partners with people to uncover their life passions. She writes that when a person has a passion in life fueled by vision and purpose, they can wake up every day with the same excitement as a child waking up on their birthday. Part of finding a life passion involves finding a way to live with that passion and make it work practically in a person’s daily life. In order for the passion to fit, space needs to be made in the cluttered schedule in which most adults live.

Why the American Happiness Formula is Making Our Kids Depressed

The American Happiness Formula is a simple equation. Look Good + Perform Well + Get Approval = Happiness. Author Jonathan Hewitt, high school state wrestling champion, former model, and Wall Street intern knew the happiness formula well and followed it for a large portion of his life without ever realizing that ultimate goal of actual happiness. He wasn’t the only one. Studies show that children today are more depressed than children were during either the Great Depression or World War II. Psychology professor Jean Twenge, from San Diego University, has performed research that shows a child’s anxiety level is more greatly affected by the time period they were born in than family environment.

How to Overcome Stress and Anxiety Naturally

Stress and anxiety are acknowledged parts of everyday life for most people due to lifestyle changes and the daily challenges that everyone faces. Excessive stress and anxiety can lead to health issues, however, so there are many medications available to help people manage their stress and anxiety. There are also many natural methods that can be employed to control and relieve the effects of stress and anxiety as well. Meditating, or taking a few minutes to clear your mind and achieve a sense of calm, can help relieve stress. Developing a positive mindset, or changing your perception of a negative situation by developing positive thoughts can also be a useful tool.

Recalculating: You Can Re-Mind Yourself

Laura Berman Fortgang is a bestselling author, speaker, TV personality, corporate spokesperson, and Interfaith minister. She has also struggled with depression for most of her adult life. She writes that most people seem surprised when they learn of her depression, citing how positive and energetic she presents herself. Fortgang writes that depression doesn’t rule her life, though it waits just beneath the surface. Her dynamic with depression over the past twenty years has brought meaning to her life because it has taught her to be conscious of her thoughts and to choose them if she has to. She writes that even if she thinks something, she doesn’t have to believe that thought.

Do You Play the Blame Game in Life?

According to Mike Bundrant, the director of the iNLP Center, the blame game is where a person blames other people and his or her environment for the the things wrong with life. Playing the blame game means being inactive in life and allowing the quality of life to depend on what everyone and everything else does to it. Being inactive means not taking control of life and not taking necessary steps to improve it by coming up with solutions to redress the bad things that happen. Instead of playing the blame game, Bundrant advises that people take charge and take proactive steps toward a better life.

Why People Worry All the Time

People who seem to worry all the time suffer a condition, though not a disorder, called generalized anxiety disorder. Some worry about everything conceivable and others have one worry that preoccupies them throughout the day. Dr. Fredric Neuman explains that some patients worry because they are trying to anticipate danger. He has a parable of two cavemen that shows the benefits of worrying as well as explains why so many people worry today. The short version is that worrying is good for our survival as a race, but it is important to focus that worry on things that ought to be worried about.

Dr. Hart