mindfulness

Date: October 14th

Location: Your couch! See your e-mail for the Zoom link!

Directions: See your e-mail for tips for signing into Zoom!

Credits: Today’s reading is adapted from lessons written by the incomparable Mary Burns for SDCE.

Mindfulness is an age-old idea that is getting more modern attention. As we rush through our increasingly fast paced lives, filled with information coming at us in all directions, practicing mindfulness has been tied to a decrease in stress, mood improvement, better sleep, and more. Mindfulness is the ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we are doing, without being particularly reactive or overwhelmed by our surroundings.

Mindfulness began as a Buddhist tradition, thousands of years ago. Many who still practice meditation do so with a focus on mindfulness. But in 1979 the idea garnered more mainstream attention, based on the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn, who developed Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programs at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. His revolutionary approach to pain encouraged participants to take a mindful approach to pain, instead of trying to mask or escape it. The MBSR program was so successful that it began being integrated into psychology practices, as well as behavioral and cognitive therapies.

Though mindfulness is a natural process, we often hurry from one task to the next, so we must pause to cultivate the practice, when we walk, sit, lay down, or even move our bodies through something like yoga or a workout.

A few facts about mindfulness:

• it takes no special skills! It requires you just to be aware and in the moment. It is down without judgement, uses curiosity, warmth, and kindness.

• it is more than a practice. It brings awareness and care into everything we do, while cutting down on needless stress.

• it is evidence based. Science and real world experience demonstrate its positive benefits for health, happiness, work, and relationships.

• it can help solve problems and spark innovation. By opening our minds and clearing out the clutter of stress, we can get past mental obstacles to find solutions.

There was a clear link between mindfulness and pain reduction in those first schools (though the Buhddists probably figured it out long before the 1970s). Now scientists are noting the benefits of mindfulness and conditions like irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, anxiety, psoriasis, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Though many of these findings have been in small studies and not replicated well, a handful of well-designed studies have successfully established a link between mindfulness and chronic pain, depression, and anxiety. Though the effects are not significantly better than other methods that combine medication and therapy, there is some improvement worth noting.

Researcher Goelle Desbordes has been studying depression and meditation using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to take before and after pictures of the brains of depressed patients after they learn to meditate. In 2012, she demonstrated that changes in brain activity in subjects who learned to meditate held steady, even when not meditating. Though Desbordes is not totally sure why meditation changes the brains of depressed people, she is focused on one hypothesis: that meditation training boosts body awareness in the moment, something called interoception, and as patients focus attention on the present, they can break the pattern of self rumination that often accompanies depression.

Sara Lazar is a neuroscientist at Harvard and also uses MRI technology to see what is happening in the brain when a person is doing a certain task, such as yoga and meditation. She used to be skeptical about the claims her yoga instructor had made about the emotional benefits of meditation. However, as she progressed in her yoga training, she felt calmer and happier, and decided to re-focus her research on the changes in the brain through meditation practice.

In her first study, she looked at people with an extensive background in meditation (primarily focused attention on internal experiences, with no mantras or chanting) and found that meditation may slow down or prevent age-related thinning of the frontal cortex (used among other things for the formation of memories).

In the second study, she used people who had never meditated and took them through the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction training program. After eight weeks, she found that the brain volume increased in four regions including the hippocampus (learning, storage of memories, spatial orientation, regulation of emotions) and the temporoparietal junction (where temporal and parietal lobes meet, responsible for empathy and compassion).

Lazar also found decreased brain volume in the amygdala, the area of the brain which triggers fight or flight. The smaller the amygdala, the less stressed people feel.

A research review suggests eight regions of the brain altered by mindfulness. (Haley, 2016). There were:

• Self-awareness of thoughts and emotions (frontopolar cortex) • Body awareness (sensory cortices and insula)

• Memory (hippocampus)

• Self and emotion regulation (anterior and mid-cingulate, orbitofrontal cortex)

• Communication between parts of the brain (superior longitudinal fasciculus, corpus callosum)

Take this quiz from Berkley to see how mindful you are (just for fun):

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/quizzes/take_quiz/mindfulness

Great? Not so great? If you’re looking to practice more mindfulness, especially after our class, check out these apps devoted to helping you! Of course, there are many more, but these might be a good place to start!

Mindfulness apps:

Headspace: Free for basics, available on iOS and Android. Here is a walk through of what to expect when you are setting it up for the first time.

• You will have to set up an account with your name, email and password

• You will suggest your background with meditation and will be assigned a practice time.

• You will choose your main reason for using this app. The reason that you choose will dictate the type of meditation you will use.

• You then have to commit to when you will meditate. It will then set a reminder on your device. MINDFULNESS

• It will ask to turn on notifications so it can remind you. If you choose not to use notifications, don’t forget to use this app at the time that you set up!

• Your first session: It was very simple and pleasing. The speaker is calm, and gently guides you through the session. The 5 minutes went quickly. I can do this!

• Good news about Headspace: It is a very comforting app. Bad news is that it wants to hook you. You get the basic 10 sessions, along with the introduction and a breathing session. The free version never expires. But, if you want more content, you will have to pay for a subscription. Prices are $12.99 a month, or $7.99 a month if paid for by the year.

Calm: Free for basics, available on iOS and Android

Like Headspace, you begin by establishing your goals. You can choose more than one. The choices include improve focus, increase happiness, build self esteem, reduce anxiety, learn to meditation, develop gratitude, reduce stress or sleep better. You will also have to sign up with an email and password. You can choose not to sign up for the seven-day trial, after which time you will have to pay for the subscription. Their prices are $12.99 a month or $4.99 a month if paid for by the year. The online site (calm.com) has lots of free meditation with sounds and pictures.

Buddhify: $4.99 for the app on iOS and Android

Yes, this one does charge. However, the free ones can be a bit limited. Once you pay for the app, you aren’t responsible for paying any more. Their approach is to focus on mobile or on-the-go meditation which can be done anywhere. If you choose to take it further, you can join as a member for $30/year.

Contemplative Art. (2015, April 24). Retrieved from contemplativemind.org: http://www.contemplativemind.org/practices/tree/comtemplativeart

Haley, A. (2016, August 5). How Does Mindfulness Work. Retrieved from umn.edu: https://www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/explore-healing practices/mindfulness/how-does-mindfulness-work

Henriques, G. (2015, February 6). What is Mindfulness and How Does It Work? Retrieved from psychologytoday.com:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/theory

knowledge/201502/what-is-mindfulness-and-how-does-it-work

Meditation: In Depth. (2015, March). Retrieved from nccih.nih.gov: https://nccih.nih.gov/health/meditation/overview.htm#hed4

Pal, P. e. (2018, August 27). 5 Simple Mindfulness Practices for Daily Life. Retrieved from mindful.org: https://www.mindful.org/take-a-mindful moment-5-simple-practices-for-daily-life/

Powell, A. (2018, April 9). Researchers study how it seems to change the brain in depressed patients. Retrieved from news.harvard.edu: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/04/harvard researchers-study-how-mindfulness-may-change-the-brain-in depressed-patients/

Ratner, P. (2017, October 10). Scientists Discover How Meditation Changes the Brain. Retrieved from bigthink.com: https://bigthink.com/paul ratner/scientists-discover-how-meditation-changes-the-brain

Seleni Institute. (2016, June 9). Easy Ways to Practice Mindfulness. Retrieved from psychologytoday.com:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/women-s-mental-health matters/201606/easy-ways-practice-mindfulness

What is Mindfulness. (2014, October 8). Retrieved from mindful.org: https://www.mindful.org/what-is-mindfulness/

Zapletal, K. (2017, June 26). Neuroscience of Mindfulness: What Happens to Your Brain When You Meditate. Retrieved from observer.com: https://observer.com/2017/06/neuroscience-mindfulness-brain-when you-meditate-development/