by Deborah Spiegel MT-BC

My mind is always busy planning new things to do and thinking.  When I walk I am thinking and planning.  When I drive somewhere I am thinking and planning.  Sadly, and I hate to admit it, sometimes when I am in conversation I get distracted from the here and now with thoughts and plans.  My mind is stuck on doing rather than being.

In observing this, I decided to set my intention to notice my senses and surroundings, in an effort to get closer to balance.  So this week when I went for a walk I noticed my senses.  When I noticed I was busy thinking as I walked I directed my attention to the trees or the other senses.  At night I looked up at the stars.  And I am starting to catch myself more often, able to blend doing mind with being mind more and more.  What about you?

Where this idea comes from is this:  A dialectic is two things that seem like they can’t be true at the same time but they are.  In this case, we are either doing or being.  Seems like they are opposing.  The trick is to find the middle path; the synthesis of the two where both exist together.

Here is a music activity for having an experience of balancing doing mind with being mind.

Instruct group members to write a song about (fathers- Father’s Day was yesterday so this is today’s topic, but it could be anything.)  They can write a song, a poem, or a paragraph.  After the group members engage in this activity for awhile, interrupt them and ask them to stop and describe their experience.  Are they in doing mind or being mind?

Next ask them to continue writing and to notice their senses and emotions as they write with awareness; experiencing the uniqueness of each moment fully.   Discuss after.

For more about DBT informed Music Therapy visit dbtmusic.com