peace
Exercise Your Mindfulness Muscle Through Meditation
There are many articles in popular news reports, blogs and magazines, as well as in scientific journals, indicating that practicing mindfulness and meditation is good for you. Meditation has been linked to:
- stress reduction
- improvement in attention and focus
- reductions in anxiety, depression, ADHD
- reductions in violence in prisons
- changes in brain structure and processes
- improvements in physical symptoms
- pain relief
- and much more..
The concept of mindfulness emerged from Buddhist practices that focus on detachment from self-focus and desire. The process of mindfulness meditation enables you to develop distance from your thoughts and emotional reactions so you can observe your thinking process. This disentangles you from emotional immersion in and attachment to the “chatter” of your mind. Instead of experiencing your thoughts as facts that have the power to cause you distress, you experience them as “just thoughts”. You notice a thought and then move on. You don’t grab onto the thought and ride it to its potentially gruesome end. This technique allows you the potential to serenely sidestep the sturm and drang that your mind is capable of producing.
Mindfulness meditation is most often conducted through attention to the breath. We sit quietly and notice our breathing as it goes in and out. You can pay attention to it as it goes into and out of the nose, or as it raises and lowers your abdomen, or as it moves in and out of the chest (and there are other variations as well). That’s all it is really. Although this seems very simple, and in fact it is, many of us experience it as being very difficult. Often when I ask a patient (or a friend) if they meditate, they tell me, “Oh, I’ve tried that, I can’t do it”. They invariably tell me that when they try to meditate, they can’t stop having thoughts and “can’t clear” their minds. They are too full of thoughts!! So people become frustrated because they can’t stop thinking. This is a common frustration, but it is based on a common misconception– that we are supposed to be clearing our minds. For me, the object of mindfulness meditation is not to clear my mind of thoughts (although that may occur at times), but to notice my thoughts and then to come back to my breathing. The active ingredient here is not a clear mind, but it is the return to the breath. So it is really an exercise: notice that you’re thinking, then return to the breath…..notice that you are thinking and return to the breath…..notice that you are thinking (or feeling), then return to the breath…..The point is to build, as you do at the gym, a mindfulness muscle that becomes stronger and more able, through the exercise of noticing that you are thinking and then gently returning to the breath. Thinking is actually crucial to the practice of mindfulness! The muscle that we are strengthening is the redirection muscle, or perhaps it should be called the detachment muscle. We are strengthening our ability to redirect or detach ourselves from the distractions of our frantic minds. We are strengthening our ability to create a reflective space (i.e. noticing our thoughts) rather than reactively responding to our thoughts. This ultimately helps us to develop an ability to be more thoughtful and reflective, and to be less impulsive, emotional and reactive with the experiences that arise in our minds and in our lives.
The spirit with which you practice mindfulness is also crucial. One of the reasons people give up on meditation is not only because they are mystified by the number of interfering thoughts they have, but also because they are frustrated with how “incompetent” they perceive themselves to be in combating or avoiding those thoughts. They are critical and judgmental with themselves and so meditation becomes a truly unpleasant experience. It is important therefore, to just keep coming back to the breath. There is no reason to judge yourself for thinking or letting your mind wander, because that’s what the mind does. Your goal isn’t to keep the mind from wandering. Your goal is to notice (at some point) that your mind is wandering, and just bring it back to the breath. And when you do judge and criticize yourself, then notice that, and again come back to the breath. Meditation is a practice, an exercise, a process that is ongoing. As they say, in the 12 Step programs: “practice, not perfection”, and that concept is apt here. We are practicing mindfulness and exercising our mindfulness muscle through meditation.
I have some books, articles, resources and blog post recommendations that have helped to develop my thinking, and that you may find helpful:
A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook: Bob Stahl, Elisha Goldstein
UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center
Mindfulness Meditation Improves Connections in the Brain
Mindfulness Meditation Slows HIV Progression
Meditation Helps Lower Violence At Alabama Prison
ADHD and Family: Chaos to Calm through Mindfulness/Psychology Today
The Best Non-Scientific Benefits Of Meditation
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Summer February 3, 2012 at 1:49 pm
Way to use the internet to help people solve pbrolems!
Salinya June 5, 2011 at 12:27 pm
Thank you for this post! Very recently have I began reading about mindfulness and meditation and I have already acknowledged that should I enroll in a meditation course, I will surely be unable to focus. As I learn more from books and blogs (like this one) I tend to think that I have been living life mindlessly, doing things merely because it has been my routine for my whole life. I seriously am considering going into a class, changing my perspective in life and being aware of myself and the life I am living. I have always had questioned whether I will be able to attain the state of “inner peace” by being mindful, but I guess I wouldn’t really know until I try. I do hope I will be able to be fully aware, “mindful” of myself. I just need to know the first step.
robin June 5, 2011 at 9:59 pm
Hi Salinya– thanks for your thoughtful comment on my post. Your goal of leading a more mindful life is great. It always seems overwhelming when we think 10 steps ahead of where we are right now. I guess the first step is just to breathe and notice. Thanks so much. robin
Amy Kanter April 12, 2011 at 10:24 pm
Great piece. Thank you for sharing the information.
robin April 12, 2011 at 10:26 pm
You’re welcome… thanks for commenting Amy!!
Seda February 6, 2012 at 11:33 am
I’m sorry to hear that you’re hianvg problems!I have alot of problems myself, such as OCD, dysthymia, aspergers, GAD, paranoia, etc. etc. and I struggle with this every single day. There’s no easy way to go about this. I’ve lived with this stuff for so long now that I’ve gotten my brain to work for me and I can now control myself subconsciously. But it did take alot of work to get there. And sometimes, I have a relapse. For example, when tying my shoes, I’ve gotten to the point where I only do it once. But on occasion, my brain will slip and I’ll do it 5 times…10 times…whatever…until it feels right…To make a long story short…you have to work on it. Talking about it does help. And if you’re completely stuck, try talking to others who have the same issues, perhaps in a group session, or, if you’re not comfortable with that, maybe see if there’s a local place you can go to where you can meet people like yourself in a relaxed atmosphere. We have a place like that in my town where you can go and talk to people, play games, cook food, watch movies, and then go home at the end of the day.If you need someone else to talk to that can relate to your problems, I’m available if need be!Good luck!
Margy Sperry April 11, 2011 at 6:35 pm
Really helpful description of mindfulness meditation and the benefit of it.
Thanks, Robin!
robin April 11, 2011 at 7:51 pm
Thanks so much Margy for all your support!
Camilo February 4, 2012 at 11:59 pm
Fair point. It is the first part of your reply that I’d like to nrarow down on. My point exactly, and the reason for the angst, is that we have dissociated the signifier “science” from it’s context. The ambivalent term Science as such has come to determines the actual scientific method and progress, not the other way around. People naturally assume that the word science contains the proper methods, the double-blind trials, a peer-reviewed article etc. Which is fine. It’s a useful heuristic for an individual to have. Now, when everybody and their cat can call themselves scientists, a problem emerges. Then it is up to the gatekeepers, ie. the news media, to do the research and see whether this or that discovery holds water. The more prestigious the paper the more emphasis it has.That is why it is so inherently frustrating to see these types of articles and the waving of some fancy methods, without a proper understanding. When this sort of tripe is already published under the rubrik of science, it should also be falsified by science; the scientists should explain and underline what is wrong here, instead of just shouting obscenities from the side. It is the only way to retain the usefulness of science. It has to go on meta-level and show how the very scientific method works on itself.The narrative on the part of the consumer is of a minor role in this. This is part of a larger struggle of battling misconceptions and misuse of pseudoscientific hogwash. If the scientific community does not take notice there’ll be more of this.I know the main point is “you love your iPhone”, (even if it a bit bulky) but the context within which it is presented is the one that pressurizes blood.