Trauma & Anxiety Practice Series

Mindfulness and Anxiety Series

Session 1: Home Practice – Identifying Anxiety Habit Loops

Mindfulness and Anxiety: Identifying Anxiety Habits

Session 2: Bringing Curiosity to Anxiety: Seeing Our Habit Results Clearly

Body Awareness’ Meditation: Three Centers

Session 3: Mindfulness & Sustainable Anxiety Habit Change

Session 4: Mindfulness and Intense Anxiety: Distract or Allow

Self Loving Kindness Meditation

Trauma and Dharma Series

Trauma and the Dharma: Toward Healing and Transformation

How can the Dharma and meditation help us deal with trauma? This is the topic we will explore in this series of talks. I will offer guided meditations and talks directed at four aspects of the practice: 1. attentional control 2. reduced rumination 3. willingness to open – reduced avoidance 4. reduced self-blame and shame These talks are for everyone. The majority of us all have experienced some level of trauma in our lives, and this can affect how we practice the Dharma and live our lives.

Somatic Meditation: Body Awareness, Trauma and Anxiety

Notes from Talk

In this talk I practice and discuss body awareness techniques such as somatic experiencing and how this can help us relate to and process trauma. SE helps us access and address trauma that lingers in the body, allowing us to work through emotional symptoms, including feelings of anger, guilt, or shame. It focuses on restoring self-regulation by releasing pent-up survival energy, and relieves emotional and bodily stress which has become trapped within the autonomic nervous system. We will practice a few body awareness methods such as grounding on mother earth, shaking, and wave breathing pioneered by Peter Levine. The guided meditation will be based on the meditations developed by Reggie Ray. I have found both helpful is dealing with trauma.

Allowing Difficult Emotions: Trauma and Healing

Notes from Talk

This talk is the third in series on Trauma and the Dharma. We are continuing to understand how the Dharma and meditation can help us deal with past trauma? This talk explores options for relating to difficult emotions and triggers. The talk and dialogue centers on how to effectively understand our emotions, and how awareness itself can hold and open to emotions. The buddha taught that seeing emotions allows us to understand them.

Self-compassion and Healing from Trauma

Notes from Talk

Compassion is one of the wings of the Dharma – the other being wisdom. Self-compassion is a necessary prerequisite for compassion in the world. We will explore self-compassion in relation to dealing with past trauma and COVID anxiety. he talk and dialogue examines how to cultivate compassion and self-compassion, and why emptiness and not-self is the necessary basis for compassion. This talk is for everyone. The majority of us all have experienced some level of trauma in our lives, and this can affect how we practice the Dharma and live our lives.