There are now well over 2000 studies that attest to the efficacy of mindfulness. The studies cover the fields of physical, mental and emotional health as well as the workplace, schools, sports, leadership, resilience and a host of related areas. Is there a common denominator that we can point to as the pivotal event that takes place to make mindfulness work? To find the common denominator we need to look at the field of stress which is where mindfulness found its cultural popularity over the last few years. Stress is really a catch all description of what happens when things get out of sync. Being out of sync causes a domino effect that affects us on many levels and in many different ways. That domino effect can stay with us for a short period or a long period. The biggest problem occurs when the stress is sustained for long periods of times, in many cases over many years. When that happens there is a real threat to the functioning of the entire system.
The key to identifying the common denominator can be found in how we are hard wired to protect ourselves when we go into the stress/fight or flight reaction. The main coping mechanism is our ability to disconnect during intense stress. This can happen over a brief period of time or over an extended period of time. Fight or flight is our response to a perceived (real or imagined) threat to survival. If our survival is threatened then there is a good chance of pain, suffering and possibly death. What better way to cope than to disconnect from what is happening so that we don’t have to experience the nastiness of it. Actually there is a better way to cope but that will be a subject for another blog. In the meantime we are hardwired to disconnect and until we can unlearn that, we are stuck with it. So what is it we disconnect from? We disconnect from everything and in our case everything means our bodies, thoughts, emotions, breath and five senses. We lose touch with our ability to communicate with ourselves and when that happens we lose the ability to make informed, important decisions about our overall welfare and our ability to function efficiently. Left with no one at the controls, the mind/body etc. tends to fall into a state of disorder. What role does mindfulness play in reversing this disorder?
At the core of mindfulness practice is the process of paying close attention to the body, breath, thoughts, emotions and five senses. Those are the same things that we disconnected from when we went into the stress reaction. Besides regaining access to all the information available to us through these information centers there is an element of energy and focus that returns and adds to the illumination of the present moment experience. We aren’t expert at measuring this energy and focus yet but we are making great strides in that direction. To pay attention to these things in this way is the underlying reason why mindfulness works. The process can be summarized by the following sequence: Attention, connection, communication, regulation, order and ease. Research serves an important role in defining the details of this process but sometimes it results in being hard to see the forest for the trees. Well, here’s the forest……