Published on 12, July, 2020
I'm being sent on 'Hope Therapy' at the hospice in a few weeks. It's designed to motivate terminally ill people to look at the bright side of their situation and motivate them off of the sofa.
I'm not sure if I should go. I have a huge extrovert personality, the engineer in me has already sorted my priorities and bucket list and it putting it all in action. I've dealt with all the trash of my life and I've sorted all the paperwork of my existence.
The program is very mindfulness / hope diary based - I'm not sure that's at all compatible with me - I can't imagine Mr Data taking part.. It seems aimed at people who are crushed by their diagnosis and situation. The research all seems from over 30 years ago - mainly in 3rd world countries - not sure how well that transfers to the UK.
Unfortunately, I'm the most positive, motivated, up-beat, energised, go-getting - depressed - person on the planet.
I'm actually concerned that I will damage or break the other people in the group when they are most vulnerable.
Has anyone else heard of this program and has it helped anyone you knew?
Morning, Plastic.If it truly is a mindfulness session, then you won't be speaking or advising anyone of anything, you'll simply be learning to be present around others without trying to dictate how they should live, or impose your thoughts on anyone else. You'll simply be offering them your spirit, your presence. And, they will be doing the same for you. So, unless you're planning to go into the sessions with an agenda to lecture people, you simply can't do any harm to anyone. If you are already in a good place spiritually, then you would make an enormous contribution to the other attendees who may be in spiritual turmoil and may be living in a nightmare of traumatic mental movies and terrifying images of past and future .That said, there is no obligation to go. There is no right or wrong decision. If you go, it's the right thing to do for you and everyone else. If you don't go, then it's the right thing to do for yourself and everyone else. The only harm you can do is to go with resentment in your heart, or not go with resentment in your heart. Living mindfully is about living authentically, in the moment, free from the prison of repetitive thought and mental resentment/resistance. The grip of the ego is at its tightest when we're doing one thing, but thinking and believing differently. Such as, physically attending mindfulness sessions but mentally resenting being there/believing that they are a waste of time. Or conversely, staying away from mindfulness sessions, but mentally resenting not having gone/believing we are missing out. Mindfulness is developing the awareness of how often (all the time) all of us are living in this duality of action and thought. Lots of love,Michael x
Thanks - it's actually a mixture of things per session - sort of group therapy and telling the group your week's achievement, breathing, mindfulness, setting goals etc.
I'm not really sure I have an ego - I really am closer to Mr Data than a human - i'm always the one that will put themselves out 'for the greater good' so there's a whole load of terms that I can see in NTs but I'm missing them either completely (secrets etc.) or I'm incomplete in others. I work incredibly logically and practically.