Why is the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Program So Effective?

In order to figure out why Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction programs are so effective we need to look at what it is and how that relates to the core of stress related issues. We have come to learn that stress plays a role in so many negative ways and finding an approach that diffuses the core cause of these issues is very important.

The biggest problem with stress is when it becomes chronic and we become stuck in the fight or flight response. At that point we begin to deal with all the physical, mental and emotional changes that are designed to help us in the short run but become problematic in the long run if the system doesn’t normalize and return to balance. In many ways we can think of mindfulness based stress reduction as the antidote to being stuck in fight or flight. In that way it addresses the core of the problem.

The primary coping mechanism in fight or flight is our ability to disconnect from what is happening in the present moment. Considering the original purpose of fight or flight is to assure our survival in a situation of danger, possible death or injury, the ability to disconnect from those unwanted experiences can be a welcomed strategy. Of course with chronic stress this disconnection stays with us over a long period of time. We disconnect from our bodies, emotions and mind which causes many problems. The definition of mindfulness is paying attention moment by moment in a non judgmental way. As an antidote it brings you back in the present moment…into your body, mind and emotions. In so doing it breaks the stress cycle and provides the impetus to return the system to normal. MBSR Scottsdale Institute for Health and Medicine serves the entire MBSR Phoenix area needs.

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How and Why to Commit to the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Program

The good news about MBSR training is that it is simple to understand. The knowledge that practicing present moment awareness reverses the stress cycle by counteracting the disconnect coping mechanism caused by the fight or flight experience makes sense and is easy to grasp quickly. The other news is that practicing mindfulness meditation and mindfulness in everyday life takes a fair level of commitment and determination.

Our culture is a high adrenaline, multi tasking experience. From an early age we are bombarded with stimuli that tear down our ability to focus and be in the present moment. The resulting strain on our healthcare system attests to the inherent problems of living life in the fast lane. Yet to go against the “norm” in our culture is to create other problems where we feel like we don’t belong and a sense of alienation creeps into our lives. To slow down and focus on the present moment is like swimming against the current and creates its own stress.

So, we have to ask ourselves if it is worth the discipline of practicing MBSR training since it is likely to be a permanent requirement of our new lifestyle as long as we live in a culture like ours. Even if we don’t there are many reasons to practice mindfulness once a baseline norm is reached and peak performance mode appears as a permanent possibility. An important realization is that mindfulness gets easier the more you practice. After awhile it simply becomes the way you are and practice becomes easy and fun. Considering the rewards it seems obvious to me that the commitment is worth making. MBSR Scottsdale serves the needs of the MBSR Phoenix community and is available to all who are willing to make the commitment.

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Mindfulness and Sound

MINDFUL MAGAZINE

Practice Mindfulness With Everyday Sounds

Susan Gillis Chapman helps us appreciate the music of everyday life.

by Susan Gillis Chapman

The most common instruction for mindfulness meditation is to pay attention to your breath. But the breath is not the only thing you can notice when you sit down to meditate. Whether you use a small gong or an app on your phone, ringing a bell is a good way to start and end a meditation session. The sound is not just a timer. It reminds us that mindfulness is about creating space for silence and for listening. By letting go of our usual distractions, we make room to appreciate the sounds around us.

Here are three types of sounds to appreciate as you sit in “silence.”

1. Background sounds

One of the first things you will notice once the sound of the opening bell fades away is background sounds: traffic noise, the whirring of a ceiling fan, murmuring voices in the hallway. As you notice each one, let go of the habit of naming and judging it and dive into the pure sensation of hearing. In this way, everything you hear is treated as equal—beyond being pleasant or unpleasant.

2. Melodic sounds

Sounds that form a melody tend to arouse emotions, which is what we love about music. When we sit quietly, we will inevitably notice melodic sounds. A chorus of birds greets the dawn. A siren wails in the distance. A pitter-patter of rain softly taps the windowpane. Listening to the rise and fall of these sounds can arouse feelings that don’t need to be named or clung to. Melodies can make us feel sadness, joy, or both. Try to find the dividing line between the sound and your emotional response. It’s challenging, but listen loosely. If something melodious moves you, stay with it and notice how it affects your body.

3. Abrupt sounds

Sudden, shocking sounds that interrupt us can also bring us back to awareness. Someone sneezes—achoo!—and we’re back to the now. The sudden arising of a sound can wake you up to the present moment when you’ve been lulled into habitual thought patterns. When sitting quietly, we’re not trying to fall into a trance. Relaxed awareness is the thing, like a deer on the alert for something new.

When the closing bell rings at the end of your session, let the sound relax you. Rest in it for a moment. As the reverberation fades away, let it help you transition into everyday activity. Every moment there are sounds inviting us to listen. Being open to them is just another way to appreciate the world around us and appreciate one another. All the conversations in our life begin here.

This article also appeared in the August 2013 issue of Mindful magazine.
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MBSR

Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn developed the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. Since its inception, MBSR has evolved into a common form of complementary medicine addressing a variety of health problems. The National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine has provided a number of grants to research the efficacy of the MBSR program in promoting healing (see “Studies” below for information on this research). Completed studies have found that pain-related drug utilization was decreased, and activity levels and feelings of self esteem increased, for a majority of participants. More information on these studies can be found on the University of Massachusetts Medical School website: Center for Mindfulness

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction brings together mindfulness meditation and yoga. Although MBSR is a training with potential benefits for all types of participants, historically, students have suffered from a wide range of chronic disorders and diseases. MBSR is an 8-week intensive training in mindfulness meditation, based on ancient healing practices, which meets on a weekly basis. Mindfulness practice is ideal for cultivating greater awareness of the unity of mind and body, as well as of the ways the unconscious thoughts, feelings, and behaviors can undermine emotional, physical, and spiritual health. The mind is known to be a factor in stress and stress-related disorders, and meditation has been shown to positively effect a range of autonomic physiological processes, such as lowering blood pressure and reducing overall arousal and emotional reactivity. In addition to mindfulness practices, MBSR uses yoga to help reverse the prevalence of disuse atrophy from our culture’s largely sedentary lifestyle, especially for those with pain and chronic illnesses. The program brings meditation and yoga together so that the virtues of both can be experienced simultaneously .

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Loving-Kindness Meditation

Some contemplative practices have been designed to emphasize a practitioner’s specific strengths and qualities. For example, in some Tibetan traditions, shinay, or tranquility meditation, is used to train the mind to be calm and focused, and is followed by lhatong, or analytical meditation, a focused inquiry into the nature of the self and the mind.

Metta bhavana, or loving-kindness meditation, is a method of developing compassion. It comes from the Buddhist tradition, but it can be adapted and practiced by anyone, regardless of religious affiliation; loving-kindness meditation is essentially about cultivating love

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Mindfulness

If you would like to try a contemplative practice, but you’re not sure how to begin, we suggest you check out the Tree of Contemplative Practices. The Tree shows many examples of contemplative practices, and you may feel drawn to one or more. Follow your instincts and explore one or two practices that you find intellectually interesting and spiritually comfortable. Each practice listed on the Tree links to a page full of links and resources for learning more.

Cultivating a Regular Practice

Try to commit to regular, perhaps daily, practice sessions. If you cannot stick to a regular schedule, persevere as best you can. As with most activities that have not yet become familiar and routine, it’s common to postpone engagement with contemplative practice because circumstances are not to your liking. It’s easy to make excuses about lacking materials, supplies, or adequate time and space (“if only I had a nice meditation cushion; if only I had a dedicated yoga room, and an hour free after work–then I could really do this…”). If you notice yourself doing this, try to use the situation as an opportunity to face your discomfort. Begin your practice. Really, you probably already have everything you need!

You can make things easier for yourself by committing to brief but regular sessions. For example, if you decide to take up a silent meditation practice, it is perfectly fine to begin with just a few minutes per session. After you’ve become accustomed to your short sitting periods, honestly and gently assess how that amount of time is serving you, and increase your practice time if it feels right to do so.

It is common to feel twinges of guilt or self-indulgence when you’re beginning a practice. For many of us, time is precious, and we face many demands from family, friends, and our jobs. In those moments when you question your priorities, remember that contemplative practices are not distractions or diversions from our daily activities, but are opportunities to get in touch with what is deeply meaningful to us. Have we lost the ability to be at peace in our moments of rest? Cluttered schedules not only constrict the time we have, but also manipulate our understanding of value and worth. It is crucial to remember the simple value and beauty of life as it is, not as it is used. The simple awareness cultivated by contemplative practices can bring us back in touch with this beauty, enriching our interactions with others.

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Mindfulness

Mindfulness is not thinking, interpreting, or evaluating; it is an awareness of perception. It is a nonjudgmental quality of mind which does not anticipate the future or reflect back on the past.

Any activity can be done with mindfulness. Talking on the telephone, cleaning your home, driving, working, and exercising can all be incorporated into your mindfulness practice.

Throughout the day, inwardly pause and become very aware of where you are, what you are doing, and how you are feeling. Try to do this in a way that doesn’t cast value judgments on your experience. For example, if you notice that you are nervous, don’t think “Oh, I’m nervous, that’s so stupid of me…” Simply note, “I am feeling nervous,” without evaluating whether it is good or bad. Just notice that the nervousness is present.

When mindfulness is the primary tool of meditation, the awareness that we apply to our breath (or to whatever our focus of meditation is) can be expanded to include all physical and mental processes so that we may become more mindful of our thoughts and actions.

It is commonly thought that meditators hope to stop all thoughts and rest their minds in thoughtless peace. A common complaint of beginning meditators is that they cannot meditate well, because they cannot stop thoughts from arising in their minds. Actually, having thoughts is perfectly normal. In fact, it’s what’s supposed to happen. Dealing with thoughts is how mindfulness meditation works. When you notice that you are distracted by thoughts, use your mindfulness to gently bring your attention back to the object of your meditation. This is how you slowly become able to control your mind and increase your powers of concentration.

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Mindfulness

Resources

Resource for Mindfulness Researchers and Practitioners

The site includes empirical publications, mindfulness research centers, measurement tools, and more: www.mindfulexperience.org

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Mindfulness Bibliography

The following bibliography was developed as a resource for mental health professionals, medical and psychological scientists, and others who wish to locate theoretical and empirical sources on the topic of mindfulness. The citations are based on PsycINFO, Medline, PubMed, and Cochrane database searches of peer-reviewed journal articles and books with publication dates between 1975 and March, 2009. The bibliography is organized into categories, each of which is listed in the table of contents on page 3. Categories begin with introductory remarks followed, in most cases, by a list of subcategories. Citations are grouped by year within subcategories. Because citations are cross-referenced, they may appear in two or more categories or subcategories.

Mindfulness Bibliography (download PDF)Prepared by John C. Williams, M.S. (State University of New York, Binghamton) and Lidia Zylowska, M.D. (University of California, Los Angeles)

Table of Contents
Key Readings 4
Mindfulness Construct 9
Medical Conditions 18
Mental Disorders 31
Mindfulness-Based Treatments 54
Neuroscience and Physiological Effects 89
Populations and Settings 98

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Mindfulness Research Summary

The following summary was created by Dr. Lisa Flook and Greg Flaxman. Researchers’ interest in mindfulness practice has steadily increased as studies continue to reveal its beneficial effects. Current research looks at how the brain responds to mindfulness practice, how relationships benefit, and how physical and mental health improves, as well as other topics. The following presents a sample of the results from investigations seeking to uncover more of what mindfulness can offer to enhance human well-being. This was developed a lay resource covering: brain and the immune system; relationships; clinical applications; mindfulness in education; and other mind/body practices.

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Mindfulness and Transformation: Begin the Journey

Tired of being grumpy at work and at home,
and don’t like who you’re becoming?

Frustrated about dealing with health issues
and medications that can’t seem to fix them?

Is being stressed out taking a toll
on your relationships?

You are not alone and it’s no accident you are here.

Welcome to the rest of your life!

Get Started

CALL 480-947-3655 or E-mail today.

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