Session 5: Reacting Versus Responding

Abstract

In this session, a distinction is made between mindfulness (coming to the present moment) and awareness (what we find when we come to this moment). After a discussion of the prior week’s practices, you will then be introduced to a new practice, “Open Monitoring,” as a way to cultivate awareness and make space for our emotional reactivity. In this context, we will talk about the idea of “falling down a hole”—when we have a sustained negative emotional reaction, for example, in response to a cognitive slip-up. For homework, you will be assigned the practice “Emotional Weather” as a way to actively work with emotions. Walking meditation (“Aimless Wandering”) is provided as a third home practice.