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Weekly mindfulness exercise- “Mindful breath”

Setting reminders to pay attention to your breath.

Practice:
Make a commitment to yourself that at certain times of the day you are going to bring your attention back to your breath, as much as possible. Breathing, of course, comes naturally and we are doing it constantly, but how often are we paying attention?

How to:
This depends on you, but some ideas; count (breath in for 3 counts, and out for 5), using a mantra/saying " I breath in calm, I breath out calm."

Remember:
Set reminders for yourself and an intention for when you going to practice; alarm on your phone, post-it notes on your bathroom mirror, in your car, office, around your home. For example, "when I drive from home to work I am going to practice paying attention to my breath", or "each time my phone rings I am going to practice", or "when I make breakfast....". The most important thing is that you set reminders for yourself for something that you are already doing daily.

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Heather is a co-founder of the Oakland DBT and Mindfulness Center where she works with individuals, families, co-facilitates DBT Skills classes and participates in the weekly DBT consultation team. Heather completed the Advanced DBT Intensive offered by Dr. Marsha Linehan and Dr. Sayrs in 2014 and the DBT Intensive offered through Behavior Tech in 2012. She is a licensed MFT and obtained her Master’s degree at California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco. She obtained her BA in Psychology from University of Colorado in Boulder. Her professional training in DBT started when working at a child and family services center contracted by San Mateo County and when introduced to the DBT model soon realized the effectiveness of it. Besides private practice Heather has also worked in non-profit mental health settings, hospitals, for the Department of Health and Education for the State of Hawaii, public and charter schools in Oakland and the Native American Health Organization in East Oakland. In addition to DBT, Heather has been trained in Gestalt, Family Systems, and Psychodynamic therapies. She is also a graduate of Piedmont Yoga Studio’s Teachers Training program. She is particularly drawn to the DBT model because of her own mindfulness and yoga practice and the positive effects this has had on her own life, and in those she works with. She lives in Oakland with her husband and twin daughters.

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