The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook for Anxiety

Advanced Mindfulness Skills 111

Under the headings of “Mindful Breathing” and “Wise-Mind Meditation,” record the length
of time you spend doing each exercise. This will help you keep track of your improvement doing
these exercises. Under the headings of “Doing Tasks Mindfully,” record what it was that you did
mindfully and where you were when you did it.
Then, under the headings labeled “Other Mindful Exercise,” record any further mindfulness
exercises that you do during the week.
Remember, these mindfulness skills are “core” skills in dialectical behavior therapy (Linehan,
1993a). So continue to use them even as you move on to using the other skills in this workbook.

RESISTANCES AND HINDRANCES TO

MINDFuLNESS PRACTICE

It is common to encounter inner resistance and difficulties as you practice mindfulness and develop
skills. What many people do not know is that there are some hindrances to mindfulness that are
so common that they have been recognized by meditation teachers and practitioners for thousands
of years!
This final section of the chapter will help you identify five common hindrances to mindful-
ness meditation and suggest ways you can work skillfully with each one.

The five Hindrances

Desire, aversion, sleepiness, restlessness, and doubt are the five hindrances long recognized as
common obstacles to meditation (and mindfulness) practice.
These energies appear as obstacles when they take you out of the present moment or cause
you to become lost in thoughts and feelings that interfere with your mindfulness practice of observ-
ing accurately and without judgment. However, they do not have to be obstacles. In truth, they can
become your wisest teachers if you are willing to recognize, observe, and learn from them.

 Desire refers to the wish for things to be different—right now! This can be a wish

for a different sense experience (to “feel better” or “feel happy or peaceful,” for

example) or to become someone or something different than what you experience

yourself as now (become the “perfect person” or “perfect meditator,” for example).

 Aversion means having anger for or ill will toward what is here. Aversion includes

other forms of resistance to present-moment experience, such as feeling bored or

afraid. Often, the very activity of judgment or judgmental thinking is an expression

of aversion.