In our Week 3 live session, we talked about mindfulness and what might make it more challenging. We covered:

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• Week 2 self-guided check-in – We debriefed Week 2 content, with particular attention to the three-circle model. A common observation was that members found their drive (blue) and threat (red) circles were the most active and, for many, were active from the moment they wake up.

• Understanding attention – We introduced attention in mindfulness and explored how attention can act as a spotlight and an amplifier.

• Understanding mindfulness – We introduced mindfulness and how it is a way of paying attention in a non-judgemental way. We explored how mindfulness is not about trying to push thoughts/feelings away, but about quietening the thoughts.

• Wandering mind – We explored how our minds can begin to wander during mindfulness practice, and that this is normal for our tricky brains. When we notice our minds wandering, we might get frustrated and start criticising ourselves for not remaining focused on the mindfulness task. We want to instead just notice when our attention shifts, and gently bring our attention back to our breathing or whatever it is we are trying to focus on.

• Basic Mindfulness Practice – We moved through a basic mindfulness practice, where we focused on our breathing and noticed when our mind wandered. We encouraged praise for noticing the wandering mind, and gently brought our attention back to our breathing.

• Compassionate Labelling – We moved through a mindfulness practice on compassionate labelling, which helps us distance ourselves from distressing thoughts and experiences. During the practice, we thought back to a time we felt anxiety, noticed the emotional experience and labelled it. Group members reflected that it can be challenging to identify specific emotions.

• Fears of Mindfulness – Different fears, blocks or resistances to mindfulness were discussed. Common examples were procrastination, not seeing the point, feeling that it is too hard or that one is not good at mindfulness.

• Personal Practice – A discussion on different kinds of personal practice was held (e.g., re-listening to a mindfulness recording or one of your own you’ve found, listening to the rhythm breathing practice, noticing when the tricky brain shows up and acknowledging it, noticing how your three circles look at different points in the week)

• The session ended with a closing practice.