Guided Practices
N.B. While mindfulness and compassion based practices are evidenced to be helpful for many mental health conditions, they are not necessarily effective for all people. For some people such practices are “contraindicated”: they are not advised.
Furthermore, the links to the practices below should not be used to replace any existing mental or physical health treatment.
If you have any questions about the suitability of mindfulness and compassion based practices, please consult with your health professional.
Guided Practices of the Mindful Self-Compassion course
You can freely access some of my guided Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) practices below. These are practices I use in the MSC courses I teach. These can be utilized to support your practice during and after a course.
They are recorded also in a way that supports a person coming to the website for the first time, with no experience of MSC. Therefore each stands alone with an introduction, and some necessary repetition in the guidance. Repetition can also be useful for experienced practitioners.
The 3 core MSC guided practices are:
There are 4 other formal MSC guided practices:
There are currently 20 Informal Practices and Exercises in the Mindful Self-Compassion program. These include:
You can also freely access other Mindful Self-Compassion and Mindfulness guided practices via the links below:
For Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) Guided Practices and Exercises:
Other Guided Practices: The Body Scan
The “Body Scan” guided practice. The “Body Scan” is one of the core guided practices of a program called Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR); as well as being core to other Mindfulness programs such as Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT): the Breathworks courses, Mindfulness for Stress (MFS) and Mindfulness for Health (MfH); and Radical Self-Care (Radsec)
For a range of Mindfulness guided practices primarily related to Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR):
Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice, Bangor University
Other Guided Practices: Savoring the Special
Savoring, as understood through scientific research, has significant health benefits. Savouring is our capacity to give more space dwell in the joys, pleasures, and other positive feelings that we experience in our lives.
Savoring can lead to higher life satisfaction, regardless of a person’s level of physical health, improved self-esteem, strengthening of relationships, improved creativity when problem-solving.
This is practice, particularly draws on the research of neuropsychologist Rick Hanson who has developed a model and practice called “Take in the Good”. I have adapted this in a way that works for me, using words that resonate for me.