MindfulCon2019 – Take Aways
- Miroslav Czadek
- 2 days ago
- 12 min read
After a longer time, I decided on October 12, 2019 to visit a conference – the lecture part concerning Mindfulness. The day was full of lectures, and so I was not bored, because some topics were interesting; on the other hand, I would not include some lectures at all, but let’s move on to the individual topics. #projecoach #mindfulness #meditation
1. Opening and introductory practice, Marek Vich
What was the lecture about:
Introduction of the 4th year of the mindfulness conference, which is gradually growing. It is a conference where participants can taste the individual techniques. Within the conference, participants can stop for a moment, tune themselves for the whole weekend, and notice what they are bringing into the weekend with them.
What caught my attention?
The introduction of a ritual which, always at the end of the lecture, after the gong, let the participants experience the given lecture. The gong was a golden bowl, which gave out a calming sound and resonated pleasantly (tried on the spot).
What did I take away?
The ritual at the end of the presented topic, together with experiencing the content, is interesting. However, I would not follow a similar procedure, because it evoked in me a feeling of a staged procedure, without any particular benefit.
How would I solve it? At the end of the lecture, I would try to make a metaphor out of the given topic and I would let that be experienced.
2. Why Not Meditate?, Andrej Jeleník
What the lecture was about:
Most people who become interested in mindfulness and want to incorporate its practice into everyday life encounter difficulties and challenges. The lecture focused on the various challenges in mindfulness practice and their deeper psychological causes.
What caught my attention?
As a psychologist, he had a problem, and at work it was a negative matter: 25% demanding experiences, attacks, experiences that I did not want.
He described a clash with the culture, a performance-oriented culture; he had a problem existing within such a culture.
Pressure from the surroundings – he as an ambitious individual – was slowly becoming a victim of the system.
An experiment with a child: first the mother communicates with the child, then she disconnects and the child starts to communicate, but after 2 minutes it starts to get angry and the child has negative and destructive emotions….
Does the clash between ego and eco mean that life is one disaster after another?
What do I need in order to feel safe?
So what is the goal in life? I do not have to be the best, but I can be a compassionate person in an environment where I can allow myself to be that.
Mindfulness does not have to be developed only in meditation.
The less he meditates, the more he encounters mindfulness.
It enriched him in that he recognizes feelings of failure and finds a common theme.
What did I take away?
The more we try to meditate, the more counterproductive it can be in a case where it is conscious pressure from my ego and the unconscious component triggers resistance.
To practice mindfulness in ways other than meditation.
3. Mindfulness, altered states of consciousness, and life challenges, Kasha Ko
What the lecture was about:
What do mindfulness and altered states of consciousness have in common? How can it help us during a difficult period in life? Automatic reactions of everyday days and the possibilities of how to enjoy life more. All of this came from experiences from psychotherapeutic meetings with people who are going through life challenges.
What caught my attention?
The lecturer did not interest me much; stories about how many children she has, how she took various substances and experimented, etc., I do not consider interesting or worthy of following – though not my surroundings, that looked like they would immediately shoot something up…
1. Storytelling about a little girl…. who is who
2. Presentation of a cauliflower - a state of consciousness as on psychedelics
3. Default network in the brain, when one is in depression it is active,
Mindfulness of a beginner’s mind
Exercise with the hand, examining, shaking out, closing the eyes and examining what I am examining
She laid people down on the ground
Then she had them observe the heart and the breath
4. Story with a child vs. mindfulness (the child was jumping by a puddle)
5. Practice in pairs:
Turn to each other
Hand on the heart
Look into the eye and observe like an image
6. Grounding techniques (meaning to focus on oneself)? (for example sauna or sex)
What did I take away?
By involving the kinesthetic component and suggestive commands, she works with subconscious information; the heart gives an impulse that can be used in calming down, etc.
The default network in the brain (note: this is indeed a known thing), but I understand that it may surprise those who do not know it.
4. Mindfulness is more than just downloading an app, Miroslav Světlák
What the lecture was about:
An interesting lecture that reflected the development of possibilities brought by mobile technologies. With the increasing number of mobile applications intended for the development and support of mental and physical health based on Mindfulness, we as professionals in the field of mental health care must ask ourselves to what extent eHealth programs are suitable for developing mindful practice, what they bring, and what risks they have. The aim of the lecture was to provide a short practical overview of where the current possibilities of eHealth programs in the field of Mindfulness are and in which direction one can go in the future.
What caught my attention?
1. We should protect the Mindfulness method from dilution (we should represent a serious view, otherwise it will not be okay), similarly as in the field of psychotherapy.
2. There is a great deal of information, which is becoming a problem – how to choose the right one?
3. What truly heals is a physical relationship.
4. A disadvantage of mindfulness applications is that they can damage mindfulness.
5. The presentation was so dense that it was not possible to take notes, only to photograph it.
6. Over the last ten years, the number of articles about mindfulness has been increasing.
7. The advantage of applications
They are easily accessible.
They are anonymous.
They are available 24/7.
They do not necessarily require the participation of a therapist trained in Mindfulness.
They are less costly.
They save time!
8. eHealth applications (Mindfulness Research and Practice Network of Masaryk University) made it possible to connect clients with Slack and continuously send notifications.
9. The path to Mindfulness
Seeking a spiritual path.
Seeking treatment (in such a case only from the hands of an expert).
Support of mental and physical health (for healthy neurotics).
Mindfulness as a method for increasing performance.
What did I take away?
An interesting lecture on the topic of Mindfulness and eHealth – recommendation of applications (Heart space and Happyfire – I did not find them).
It is necessary to distinguish the application of mindfulness – it is not suitable for everyone.
Advantages of eHealth applications / it seems like an interesting direction and a future segment.
5. Mindfulness and addictions, Michal Dvořák
What the lecture was about:
Our mind creates addictive patterns around various things: work, mobile phones, social media, a certain type of food, relationships, sport, praise, etc. Suddenly we get the impression that we cannot do otherwise, that we must fulfill our (addictive) needs, desires, cravings… How do such addictions arise? Why are some things more addictive than others? And how can we resist and, above all, change our established addictive patterns?
1. Types of addictions:
Twitter
Alcohol
Food 5%
Cigarettes
Games
Mobile phone and social media
2. The mind is constantly craving somethingí
3. How do addictions arise?
The principle of survival
Dopamine, when I repeat
It becomes strongerí
4. What is the trigger of a given addiction?
Besides the behavior, it is good to recognize the reward.
It is good to name the negative impact as well and experience it. The better I know it, the more easily I can change it.
5. Society wants us to create addictions (caffeine, cocaine, etc.)
Novelty and praise
There is no problem between a big and a small email, the brain does not distinguish
6. Benefits of Mindfulness
Better management of stress, emotions, thoughts, and discomfort
Development of attitudes: kindness, curiosity, acceptance
What caught my attention?
I make 2,617 touches on my mobile phone every day; who among us receives that much attention…..?
To analyze both states, both the reward and the problem.
I can increase dopamine even with a small email…
What did I take away?
To recognize the polarity in addiction (both the reward and the problem).
The number of mobile phone touches per day?
6. How mindfulness changes self-concept, Jan Burian
What the lecture was about:
In the traditional Buddhist understanding, the key to liberation from suffering is the insight that there is no fixed “self” with which we could identify. Contemporary psychology offers various approaches that make it possible to grasp this topic. We will focus on finding practical secular meditation instructions that enable insight into the nature of the experienced “self” and the subsequent beneficial changes in self-concept.
What caught my attention?
One can become attached to anything, if one is not a Buddha or a saint.
For me, it was a weaker lecture with a great deal of improvisation. Personally, it did not interest me.
What did I take away?
I think that improvisation is a nice thing, but it did not fit here very well.
Not to do experiments with expectations, it looks strange.
Mindfulness can be trained.
To notice that I am blocking myself with some opinion.
When I notice a need, I can free myself from it.
7. Causality of consciousness, Pavel Špatenka
What the lecture was about:
Each of our experiences directly influences the sense of self. However we experience our self, we are always influenced by it in our judgments and also in our actions. The dependent arising of experiences in relation to inner and outer reality and their direct effect on action is the main cause of human conditionedness and lack of freedom. Consciousness is the causal space of the mind and the place where each of us creates and fulfills our choices.
What caught my attention?
1. Someone’s encounter with an unconscious process
It lifts him to the mountain
It lays him down
2. Most of the time we live in the feeling that we are more than others, or we are in a feeling of guilt and find ourselves in a process of regression.
3. The way we work when we function mindlessly:
It ends with a pleasant feeling = good
Unpleasant feelings = aversion and the opposite
We store all of this in the unconscious from early childhood
4. If we do not get into a situation where it is no longer possible to function through an involuntary mechanism, then that is the moment that brings us to searching and begins to work with mindful consciousness.
5. The problem for most of us is to be able to: feel / awaken
It is necessary to distinguish how specific action influences our perception:
Thinking / rational (values) vs
Feeling / emotional values
6. Attributes of emotional values
Thought-images that we have accepted as a basic attribute of how we are supposed to act outwardly have become a control unit according to which we behave toward the outer world
7. I decide on the basis of pleasant and unpleasant feelings
I will not arrive at it by thinking if I do not feel
At the level of the simple ego, we find ourselves in learning to distinguish 2 ways of functioning
Involuntary – instinctive. Most comes from the basic instinctive nature; the mature reaction is a cover-up
Or we work with discernment. At that moment we ask with reason and distinguish
The bond of attraction and the bond of repulsion is actually conflict
Without developed feeling, we cannot get anywhere rationally
An interesting conflict between the conscious and unconscious component….
What did I take away?
Through mindfulness I can learn to feel and to experience feelings
Subsequently I can find out how I make decisions in relation to feelings
Encounter with an unconscious process (it lifts me up, or lays me down)
8. Deranged running sushi, or How I found out that I do not exist, Jiří Charvát
What the lecture was about:
The mind pretends that it is you. But it is not. Because it happens by itself. The mind is like deranged running sushi in your head, where whenever you are awake, little plates with things you did not order are constantly passing by. If you eat everything, you will feel sick. If you watch and only take a bite of what suits you at the moment, you begin to live consciously. A talk about my personal journey through psychedelics, literature, and meditation from being to non-being.
What caught my attention?
Personally, the lecture did not interest me and after 15 minutes I stopped listening to the content and focused on the process.
The mind is like deranged running sushi where things are passing by that you did not order.
As a stand-up speaker, he is probably good.
Thoughts come and go like a smell that disappears…
I am only a spectator of my life…..
What did I take away?
As a speaker who invites the audience to discussion, one can apply the philosophy of “The Matrix” and fatality.
In fact, at times it slipped into demagoguery.
9. Is the ‘I’ responsible for everything? – Mindfulness and self-transcendence, Jan Benda
What the lecture was about:
Feelings of inadequacy are hidden behind many outwardly more visible symptoms that motivate clients to enter psychotherapy. “The fear that I am not enough,” however, presupposes belief in some more or less stable Self with quite concrete and lasting characteristics. Intensive mindfulness meditation practice leads to a radical change in the understanding of oneself. The presentation discussed the role of self-transcendence in the process of psychotherapeutic change and the influence of self-referential information processing on personal well-being and mental health.
What caught my attention?
One medicine has a different result in different people.
One person visits different psychiatrists and receives different diagnoses.
A whole range of symptoms is caused by “me” – I am to blame for it.
Depression (passivity, loss of interests, social withdrawal, loss of libido, loss of appetite, dissociation…)
Personality disorders (emotional instability, impulsivity, unreliability, self-centeredness, lack of empathy, manipulating others…)
Eating disorders (they constantly deal with their own appearance, long for a perfect figure, are afraid of being overweight. As if their value and acceptance by others depended only on that)
Addictions (an addictive substance or activity quickly and directly induces a pleasant feeling of satisfaction, but it does not bring fulfillment of real needs)
In order for psychotherapists to understand 1) the etiology of mental disorders and 2) the mechanisms of change through which symptoms of mental disorders can be removed and clients’ mental health and personal well-being can be developed, they themselves should develop their own Mindfulness.
Pride + I = arrogance (I am great, I am better than others, I am more valuable…)
Shame and pride are a hidden cause of many feelings and problems.
Is my self the same as it was 20 years ago?
A lot of the time, a person evaluates themselves by how other people evaluate them – they create different stories about their self.
What did I take away?
A unifying thing, in critical patients, is the feeling of shame, a feeling of inferiority, worthlessness, rejection.
A whole range of symptoms is caused by “me,” I am to blame for it…
When there is a mistake, there is a feeling of guilt, and if I add “I” to it, then the problem starts. Shame – a problem of psychopathology, the feeling does not lead to anything useful, I have to create defense mechanisms.
The self is not there, it is an idea that we imagine.
10. Manifestation of self-love, Zuzzi Husarová
What the lecture was about:
Are loving relationships, abundance, peace, and patience a natural part of life? Maybe not… just as for many other people. Maybe worries, duties, guilt, illnesses, or struggles with the relationships around you are more a part of your life. Maybe you believe that you cannot change your life and feel yourself to be a victim of unwanted events.
What caught my attention?
A man in a relationship said, “I am here too …” and there was a problem.
She had a problem that she shared. Suddenly she had to clean, bake, and she was surprised by it.
In order to solve the problem, she had to involve a relationship coach, who gave her another perspective.
I was not very interested by the presentation or the exercise.
An exercise in which you praise something about the other person.
What did I take away?
It is really true that the darkest place is under the candlestick.
Men have to start behaving like men, so that there are fewer such surprises on the other side. And so that it does not shake the coach as well.
11. Mindfulness: art, or the art of mindfulness?, Radvan Bahbouh
What the lecture was about:
The lecture was seemingly about something else. For example, how art can help the development of mindfulness and how mindfulness can help art. In the lecture there was a Unicorn, the Green Man, and also two dimples on the back.
What caught my attention?
What animals are in the coat of arms of England? (The Lion and the Unicorn)
The Unicorn as a symbol of woman and of Scotland
The Green Man – people map him all over the world
What did I take away?
Serendipity is readiness for discoveries
Conclusion
One day at the MindfulCon2019 conference without workshops brought a lot of interesting stimuli and information. A surprise was the large number of young people and the setup of the conference, which was mixed with different levels of lectures at the expense of “well-known” people. Overall, in terms of price/performance ratio, I rate the conference on a scale from one to ten, where ten is excellent, at the level of 7.5, and that is quite good news.
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