mindful intentPamela Love l l
Mindfulness
Our Plan for Today
Purpose:• To introduce mindfulness
• What is it?• Why is seems to be important now? • What are the benefits? • Interspersed with mindful meditations• Suggestions of things you can do starting today
Ground rules:• Come with your curiosity• Turn your technology off for the duration• Experiment, try all or some of the meditations• Do what feels right for you
What is mindfulness?
Paying attention
On purpose
In the present moment
Non-judgmentally
(curiosity, openness, kindness)
Jon Kabat-Zinn
Listening Practice
What mindfulness isn’t
Why is paying attention important?
‘A wandering mind is an unhappy mind’
‘The ability to think about what is not happening is a cognitive achievement that comes at an emotional cost.’
Killingsworth MA, Gilbert DT. A Wandering Mind is an Unhappy Mind. Science 12 November 2010: Vol. 330. no. 6006, p 932
.
What is Stress?
When demand exceeds the means
You sense (real or perceived) a demand is placed on you and you don’t feel as though you have the resources to meet the demand. (physical, emotional or mental resources)
Stress
National Mental Health Survey of Doctors
and Medical Students 2013
Burn out
Experience psychological distress
Suicidal thoughts
Drinking too much alcohol
Stigma attached to mental health issues
Depression and Anxiety
The hidden cost of poor mental health in Australian workplaces is estimated to be $10.9 billion a year.
For every dollar spent in this area, the average business could see a ROI of $2.30.
Heads Up – PWC report 2015 - beyondblue
Distraction
What is your experience with distraction for even an hour in your day?
We develop a habit of distraction andit is hard to let it go
Has this ever happened to you?
Has this ever happened to you?
Are we in a state of constant distraction?
Trying to deal with too much input results in:
Black and white thinking: perspective and shades of grey disappear
Difficulty in staying organised, setting priorities and
managing time
Feeling a constant level of panic and guilt
Less self-control
Hallowell EM. Overloaded circuits: why smart people underperform. Harv Bus Rev. 2005 Jan;83(1):54-62, 116
Not a personal failure!
The new normal
• Unrelenting demands
• 24/7 connectivity
• Inability to concentrate
• Greater emotional complexity
• No structured down time
• Glorification of being busy
The Dilemma
Two problems
that aren’t going away….
1. Intense multi-focus demands
2. Sheer volume of work
Living life from the neck up
Body Scan Practice
Why tune into body sensations?
• To detect early warning signals for unhelpful thoughts, emotional states or actions
• It is the key to self-awareness
• Gets us out of our heads
• Puts us in touch with our body
wisdom (gut feelings)
Other ways of bringing awareness to the body
Mindful movement
yoga, qigong, walking
Why train attention?
Stress Reactivity
Stress reactivity
Getting upset is natural when our:
Physical safety
Achievement of goals
Attachment and connectedness to others
is threatened.
We make fast, habitual responses to these threats AND they always come at a cost
Stress reactivity
What happens under threat? (stress)
Heart rate? Blood pressure? Sweating? Tension? Blood flow? Digestion? Immune system? Reproduction? Sleep?
What’s happening in our brains?
The amygdala (threat detector) is in reactive mode which releases cortisol in our brains. Our executive function shuts down, our working memory shuts down and we lose concentration and attention. As this happens, we lose perspective and negative emotional states take over.
‘Real’ or ‘imagined’ threat
= Same physiological responseThe body/mind can’t distinguish
•Imagined scenarios of failure•Perceived stress (I’m not up to this)•Comparison of actual situation with a desired ideal•Recall of disturbing or distressing event•Self-criticism•Rumination about a negative event
The power of the mind
I’ve experienced
some terrible things in my life
and some of them actually happened.
Mark Twain
Trying to talk our way out of it
It isn’t enough
“Don’t be silly.”
“You shouldn’t feel like that…you know you are good at your job.”
“You’ve got no reason to be worried about this presentation, meeting, phone call.”
“ I shouldn’t be upset at….”
etc, etc, etc
Threats: outside and inside
Threats from the ‘outside’ Lion, assailant, aggressor, bus
It is smart to move into “doing mode” to move away or remove threat
Threats from the ‘inside’ Fatigue, irritation, fear, anger, shame, overwhelm
Makes it worse when we move into “doing mode” to move away or remove threat – habits form that keep us away from dealing with our experience in a skillful way.
Counter-intuitively – we need to allow, approach, befriend the ‘inside’ threats to regulate the body/mind
Brain training
Breathing Practice
Benefits of training attention
• Emotional regulation in the brain
• Decreased reactivity, increased response flexibility
• Boosts working memory
• Increased focus
• Reduced rumination
• Decreased anxiety and depression
• Increased empathy and compassion
• Enhances relationships
Physical benefits of training attention
• Ability to work with physical and emotional pain
• Reduced levels of cortisol
• Increased immune function
• Lowering of blood pressure
• Increased cortical thickening
• Less telomere decay (protective caps on chromosomes)
When we’re stressed:
There is always a sense of deficiency
Worry is mostly future focused
Generally, there is adversive judgment going on – we are often thinking how things shouldn’t be this way
Mindfulness helps by:
Becoming aware of what is actually happening rather than what we imagine
Taking a better look at our emotions and thoughts and begin to question them
Bringing awareness to the situation, we often make wiser choices rather than our habitual responses
Breathing Room: It’s all about choice
‘Between stimulus and response
there is a space. In that space is
our power to choose our response. In our
response lies our growth and our freedom.’
Viktor Frankl
Things you can do:
Bring attention to the body (physical characteristics) Calms the flight-fight system in the body Activates rest and digest system in the body Calms mental chatter Awareness that things are always changing
Name the emotion (…..is arising) ‘Name it and tame it’ Gives perspective Gives sense of relationship to the experience
Recognize thoughts and stories Gives perspective Notice patterns or habits of thinking
Many times a day…..
Stop
Take a breath
Observe your body sensations, emotional
state and thoughts
Proceed into the next moment with greater
clarity and calm
Using mindfulness, consider…
Switching from “doing” mode to “being” mode by:
• Using the mindfulness bell app starting with a duration of 5 minutes twice a day – full stops
• STOP breath – commas in your day 15-60 sec
• Consider an app to get you started
• Develop simple daily mindfulness habits
• Use the free 10 minute guided meditation
• Use the 7 minute 3-centre check in
mindfulintent.com.au
Introducing Mindfulness
Always voluntary
Tie to other institutional priorities
Make it about resilience – find ways to release the stigma
Go into the project mindfully
Welcome resistance
Building Resilience at Harvard – mindful.org
http://www.mindful.org/building-resilience-at-harvard/
Giving things attention…
Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the
attention it deserves.
Albert Einstein
Closing
Today
• We’ve tried a couple of mindfulness practices
• Discovered the benefits of developing a mindfulness practice
• Have some ideas of what you can do to live your life with greater attention and intention
• Questions?
Thank you