ABSTRACT
In Weeks 2-4 of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) there is a particular focus on investigating feelings evoked by events that the authors perceive first as pleasant and then as unpleasant. This chapter outlines this element of the programme and the learning that emerges through it. The exploration of pleasant and unpleasant experience encourages learning in the following areas: seeing that the experience of 'unpleasant' leads to aversion; separating the elements of experience; and seeing biases in the way we pay attention. The difference between knowing that our experience is made up of body sensations, thoughts, and feelings and actually directly experiencing this interplay in action is huge. The pleasant and unpleasant experiences exploration is a tool within the 8-week programme to illuminate further the ways in which the authors habitually relate to experience. It shines the light on automatic patterns of aversion and clinging and so sets the stage for further exploration of these themes in Week 5.
